New Angry Birds television series being hatched

Producers are laying plans for a new "Angry Birds" television series based on the cult video game, its distributors said Saturday.

The game, about a furious flock of multi-coloured birds protecting their eggs from a tribe of green pigs, has already inspired a blockbuster movie franchise, a game show and a theme park in Qatar.

Now its Finnish creators Rovio are planning to expand its hit TV shorts into a full-length series based on characters from the game, which has been downloaded more than four billion times.

The series is likely to screen next year just as the second "Angry Birds" film rolls out in cinemas across the world.

The first "The Angry Birds Movie" grossed more than $350 million (302 million euros).

The news of the series aimed at 6- to 12-year-olds broke as the MIPJunior global children's entertainment market opened in Cannes, France.

The British-based producers of the series, Cake, have not said how long the episodes will be.

Each episode of the existing shorts series "Angry Birds Toons", and its two spin-offs, "Angry Birds Stella" and "Piggy Tales", which star the birds' nemesis, Bad Piggies, lasts only three minutes.

"Long-form content marks the obvious next step in extending the 'Angry Birds' brand on the small screen," Cake's CEO Tom van Waveren told Variety.

Cake signed a distribution deal with Rovio in June after which its managing director Ed Galton said, "We are looking forward to catapulting these iconic characters to television audiences around the world."