Here comes the Angry Birds film, but why can’t a game just be a game?

Big-screen adaptations of computer games, with A-list cameos, produce big cash. Some of it could be used to produce groundbreaking art

Back in 2009 a Finnish company called Rovio launched its 52nd video game. Its premise was simple: players would use their smartphone touchscreen - still a relative novelty two years after the first iPhone came out - to control a catapult. Swine flu was in the news, so the enemies would be pigs. The missiles? A flock of angry birds.

That game reportedly cost less than 100,000 to make. The numbers involved in The Angry Birds Movie, which arrives in cinemas 13 May, are rather larger. There's an estimated $80m production budget and $100m set aside for marketing. Sony has even splashed out on the ultimate status symbol: an A-list cameo. Sean Penn, we were informed in April, will play a bird called Terence who communicates only through low, rumbling growls.

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