The success of The Lego Movie has opened the floodgates for film spin-offs of previously unthinkable products and crazes. Following the news that Sony Pictures has greenlit a movie about emoji, it has now emerged that an animated film is in the works featuring Pez dispensers.

Deadline reports that the novelty dispensers – whose flip-up heads have been produced in a wide variety of designs – are set to become the centre of a film that, if it proves successful, could emulate Lego’s all-embracing product-to-screen “universe”.

Envision Media Arts, the production outfit behind the upcoming Eddie Murphy film Henry Joseph Church, have acquired the rights from PEZ, and have hired writer Cameron Fay (Cosmic) to work on the script. Envision CEO said: “We’ve created a world unique to Pez and a story that will touch the hearts of many.”

Pez originated in Austria in 1927, with its first dispensers being plain boxes. However, in 1955 the firm started marketing its candy to children, leading to the creation of its celebrated series of character designs. In recent decades a market in collectable Pez dispensers has emerged, with the highest price recorded – of a “political donkey” from 1961 – selling for $13,000.