WB Building a Lego Movie

Published by Jeff Leins on: August 12th, 2009

It seems every studio is turning nostalgia and toys into popular movie franchises now. Transformers and G.I. Joe are recent examples, but there’s also a feature film coming for the View-Master, Monopoly, Battleship, Stretch Armstrong, Candyland, the Ouija Board, and more. It should be no surprise another toy-to-movie is on the way, but it doesn’t get any less depressing.

Warner Bros is building a movie based on Lego building blocks. Writers Dan and Kevin Hageman (no previous credits) are working on a script for a family comedy that will mix live action and animation. Variety says the plot is being kept secret, but it will be “an action adventure set in a Lego world.”

Lego has never had a feature film though producers have tried in the past. The closest the Danish brand has come to Hollywood has been a series of direct-to-DVD titles and video games that use popular movie characters. WB worked with Lego on games based on Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Batman.

It probably helped seal the deal watching Hasbro’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen become the biggest movie of the year (9th all-time in the U.S.) and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra open to big bucks last weekend.

The only other crossover that comes to mind is when my brother and I recreated the bank heist scene from Heat using Legos. I’m fully aware that movie came out in 1995, which would have made me a little too old to be playing with Legos, or a little too young to have seen the film.

Legos have also spawned a hobby of creating elaborate sculptures to promote events.  Plus stop motion animation using the blocks, like this YouTube recreation of Super Mario level 1.