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T.J. Miller Will Be the Star of the Emoji Movie

When we heard almost exactly a year ago that Sony Pictures was working on a film based on emojis, we were skeptical, to put it lightly. But today, some of our fears have been put to rest: Yesterday was World Emoji Day, and Sony took the opportunity to announce that EmojiMovie: Express Yourself will star Silicon Valley‘s own T.J. Miller.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Miller will voice Gene, “an exuberant, optimistic emoji that was supposed to be a ‘meh’ emoji, just like his parents” who “was born with a glitch that gives him multiple expressions that are out of his control.” Sony Pictures Animation president Kristine Belson also gave some insight about the film’s premise at CinemaCon this past spring, saying, “Inside your phone, there’s a secret world, and we enter through the text app where we discover Emoji Valley, where the industrious Emoji live and work.”

Sony also shared a fake audition video (which you can watch above) of Miller trying on different emojis for size. Although his broad range of facial expressions won’t be entirely necessary for his role in the animated movie, he has proved throughout his career that he is capable of fully expressing the depth and breadth of the human experience.

For example, here’s amazed and disgusted:

Hungry:

Mysterious and mischievous:

Disappointed and deep in thought:

Aroused and confused:

Laughing:

And of course, money, which EmojiMovie: Express Yourself will likely make a ton of because human curiosity is a powerful, powerful thing:

Featured image: Gage Skidmore/Flickr

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