Elizabeth Banks joins a superhero movie with... Legos?
Lego, at first, sounds like a blatant Hollywood cash-grab aimed at nostalgic adults and a younger generation who may want to聽purchase said toys after (or even before) seeing the movie. Similar to the developing , the playthings behind Lego lack聽even the semblance of a narrative, much less a pre-established mythology (unlike ).
So how then did Lego attract the interest of Dan and Kevin Hageman? After all, that pair devised the story for next month鈥檚 , a 3D animated project that allowed the writers鈥� collective imagination to run wild concocting a tale involving iconic monsters. Well, switch out 鈥渋conic monsters鈥� for 鈥淟ego toys鈥� and the previous description fits the Lego movie equally well, oddly enough.
Warner Bros. is behind Lego and previous reports indicated that studio heads are taking advantage of ties to DC Comics, so as to allow for Lego-ized versions of superheroes in the film. Hence, it鈥檚 been confirmed that Arrested Development star in said movie, while the search continues for a viable candidate to lend their vocals to a Lego Superman (Channing Tatum is rumored to still be the top choice).
It鈥檚 not yet apparent whether or not the project features additional appearances by recognizable characters in Lego form. However, says the costars of two of this year鈥檚 highest-grossing films 鈥� Elizabeth Banks () and Morgan Freeman () 鈥� have been recruited to bring their vocal talents to Lego, with the latter playing a Lego guy called Vitruvius.
Plot-wise, Lego revolves around the exploits of Emmet (Parks and Recreation鈥荣 Chris Pratt), an ordinary Lego guy who is mistaken for a legendary figure known as the MasterBuilder. He is thereafter forced to join a quest to stop an evil tyrant, who plans to devastate the Lego population by gluing all of Lego-dom together.
Credit for that storyline partially belongs to the primary screenwriters on Lego, Phil Lord and Chris Miller (who are also directing). The duo have earned a reputation for turning non-cinematic properties into hip and clever film adaptations that provide solid entertainment value 鈥� even while poking fun at their origins as calculating cash-grabs (see: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and ).
