Patty Jenkins, Jake Kasdan, and Joe Cornish are set to direct three separate live-action Lego movies with Universal Pictures.
Lego has proven it can deliver when it comes to animated fare, but what about live-action? Deadline reports that The Lego Group is developing three live-action movies with Universal Pictures and has tapped some major directors to help. Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman), Jake Kasdan (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle), and Joe Cornish (Attack the Block) will each direct a Lego movie.
As for the plot of these three movies, they’re under wraps, but I’ll admit that I’m intrigued by what Lego has planned for these live-action projects. Jenkins will direct her project, which she also co-wrote with former DC Entertainment President Geoff Johns and will produce through her Wicious Pictures banner. As for Kasdan, he will direct from a script by Andrew Mogel and Jarrad Paul based on an original idea and a previous draft by Matt Mider and Kevin Burrows. He will also produce with Melvin Mar through their Detective Agency production company. Cornish will also direct and is currently rewriting the script from a draft by Heather Anne Campbell, which was based on a treatment by Simon Rich.
The Lego movies have been quite successful, starting with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s The Lego Movie in 2014. That film was followed by The Lego Batman Movie, The Lego Ninjago Movie, and The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, in addition to a handful of short films and a Unikitty! TV series.
The most recent Lego project is a little unusual: Piece by Piece tells the story of American musician Pharrell Williams’s life and career through Lego animation. Our own Chris Bumbray did enjoy the film for what it was, but found that the novelty soon wore off. “While I found Piece by Piece mostly entertaining, I did find myself wondering who exactly the film was for. Hip-hop fans will maybe be annoyed by the fact that it’s so family-friendly that many of the best songs from Pharrell’s discography, such as N.E.R.D’s ‘Lapdance,’ are way too controversial to be included in a movie animated by LEGO. Also, don’t expect to see P. Diddy show up as a talking Lego head in this – for obvious reasons,” Bumbray wrote in his review. “In the end, Piece by Piece is most suitable for younger audiences, but even if a more unvarnished music doc would have been welcome, the movie still does a good job evoking the fact that Pharrell’s had an outsized influence on modern pop music. Yet, given the animation style, it can’t help but feel a little too much like a novelty.“
