Japanese lifestyle company Sanrio is now moving forward to developing and producing a "Hello Kitty" movie which is scheduled for release sometime in 2019. According to a report from Deadline, the company established a U.S. subsidiary, Sanrio Media and Pictures Entertainment, this past June to help market the Japanese brand and its IPs worldwide.
This subsidiary will help develop, produce, and market the "Hello Kitty" film which the report states has a projected budget ranging from $160 million to $240 million. This not only includes the budget for the film's actual production but reportedly includes purchase and assumption rights and presumably marketing.
Rehito Hatoyama, the managing director of Sanrio, was recently appointed as CEO of the U.S. subsidiary and will oversee the "Hello Kitty" film project. However, no writer or director has been announced for the film as of the time of writing.
"Hello Kitty" is still in its early development stages with no finished script, cast, or crew attached at this point. It is unclear if the film is going to be pure animation similar to films from Pixar and DreamWorks or if it will be a hybrid of animation and live-action similar to "Garfield" and "The Smurfs."
Hello Kitty, an anthropomorphic white Japanese bobtail cat with a signature red bow, was originally created by Yuko Shimizu and is currently designed by Yuko Yamaguchi. The brand is over 40 years old, making its first appearance back in 1975. By 2014, on its 40th year, Hello Kitty was estimated to be worth $7 billion without marketing included.
According to the report, Sanrio is quite intent on getting their other properties and brands to worldwide entertainment businesses. The report states that Fox Animation acquired the rights to Sanrio's Mr. Men and Little Miss characters last January and Sanrio is now looking forward to getting their Little Twin Stars brand into movies, too.
