Universal Sets Up Four Live-Action Lego Movies From Jake Kasdan, Patty Jenkins, Joe Cornish & The Hagemans
Universal Sets Up Four Live-Action Lego Movies From Jake Kasdan, Patty Jenkins, Joe Cornish & The Hagemans
After five years, everything might be awesome again
The Lego Group’s film partnership with Warner Bros. ended after four films punctuated by the underperformance of The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. A year later, in April 2020, they formed a new 5-year partnership with Universal Pictures. Thanks to the global COVID-19 pandemic, it took until the January 2024 announcement of the animated Pharrell Williams biopic Piece by Piece, to see anything come of it. It was released in October by its Focus Features division to critical acclaim. Now we’re finally seeing a full slate develop. Three detailless films have directors in Jake Kasdan, Patty Jenkins, and Joe Cornish, while a Ninjago film has original series writers Kevin and Dan Hageman attached to write.
Strangely, all four films are described as live-action, but plot details are so under wraps that we don’t quite know what that entails. Both The Lego Movie and its sequel used its live-action backdrop quite effectively, but precedent doesn’t quite make what this approach could be any clearer. One may recall that the film that became Christopher Robin was announced back in 2015 as a live-action Winnie the Pooh movie, which it was, but the images conjured up in initial reaction were probably different from the actual execution.
Kasdan, who directed the Jumanji sequels with a third recently being scheduled for December 2026, is directing off a script by Andrew Mogel and Jarrad Paul, whose work includes The D Train and The Grinder based on an original idea and a previous draft by Matt Mider and Kevin Burrows, previously of The Pickup and Animal Friends. He will produce with Melvin Mar through their production company Detective Agency. His work also includes Amazon MGM Studios’ upcoming Red One, out November 15 and starring Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, and J. K. Simmons, and executive producing the Disney+ series Doogie Kameāloha, M.D. and American Born Chinese. Jenkins, known for having directed the DCEU’s two Wonder Woman movies and is still working on Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, is not only directing but doing so from a script she wrote with former DC Entertainment President Geoff Johns, and producing via her Wicious Pictures banner. Cornish is rewriting from a draft by Rick and Morty writer and Whose Line Is It Anyway? performer Heather Anne Campbell, which was off a treatment by Simon Rich, whose work includes Man Seeking Woman and Miracle Workers. Cornish is known as the writer and director of Attack the Block, with writing credits on Ant-Man and The Adventures of Tintin, developing the Netflix series Lockwood & Co., and writing and directing its premiere and finale.
Ninjago was introduced in 2011 with a story following a group of young ninja warriors who protect their world, the titular Ninjago, from various evil forces. Spawning video games, books and graphic novels, the aforementioned animated series Ninjago bore the subtitle Masters of Spinjitsu for most of its run of 15 seasons and 210 episodes across Cartoon Network and Netflix until 2022, quietly becoming one of the former’s longest animated series before making the jump in 2020. The 2017 feature film based on the property is the lowest-grossing of the four Warner Animation Group productions. If you’ve been following long enough, one might recognize the Hagemans, who have story credit on both The Lego Movie and The Lego Ninjago Movie, as the creators, writers, and executive producers of the Paramount+-turned-Netflix Nicktoon Star Trek: Prodigy, and their very vocal support of the #SaveProdigy movement that allowed its second season to be properly streamed for the viewing public. They were also writers for DreamWorks Animation’s Trollhunters, and are currently developing a Dragon’s Lair film adaptation for Netflix with Ryan Reynolds’s Maximum Effort aboard to produce.
Jill Wilfert and Ryan Christians from The Lego Group are producing all four projects. Universal’s Executive Vice President of Production Development Matt Reilly and Director of Production Development Jacqueline Garell will oversee the projects for the studio. Just like how Lego’s Marvel and Star Wars specials, which admittedly I’ve done a nonexistent job of covering when I meant to, never stopped no matter who had the feature film pact, Universal and Lego did stuff together before they had the film pact. It’s most seen with the Jurassic World franchise: toys, video games, the The Secret Exhibit special on NBC, and the 13-episode Legend of Isla Nublar series on Nickelodeon.
