2014’s The Lego Movie and its sequel and two spinoffs, The Lego Batman Movie and The Lego Ninjago Movie, have made over $1 billion at the box office. Two more Lego movies, The Billion Brick Race and Lego Superfriends, were in the works but ultimately canceled after The Lego Movie 2 underperformed. Universal bought the rights to a new Lego film in 2020, but it’s been stuck in development hell ever since. Several writers and directors have been attached over the years, but all have fallen through. The studio is going to lose the rights if they don’t get a new film in production within six months, so they’re making a Hail Mary. According to an exclusive report from Deadline, the new Lego project has finally found its director: Toy Story 4’s Josh Cooley. Cooley’s version is reportedly a live-action hybrid with Keanu Reeves in talks to star.

After successfully launching the Duke Ka-Boom character in the Toy Story franchise, Keanu Reeves and Josh Cooley are looking to reteam on another popular toy franchise. Sources tell Deadline that Keanu Reeves is in negotiations to star in a live-action hybrid Lego pic with Cooley directing.

Universal had no comment. Jill Wilfert and Ryan Christians will produce through The Lego Group. Plot details are under wraps though sources say it will be a mix of live-action and animation.

[From Deadline]

The Internet has already nicknamed this movie “John Brick,” which made me laugh. I wish I’d thought of that! It sounds like there have been a lot of problems with this project, which is surprising given how strong the Lego brand still is. Audiences are also oversaturated by so many sequels and spin-offs in general. Keanu is beloved, but I don’t know if he’s going to be able to get people interested in seeing a Lego movie. Warner Bros still owns the rights to the original characters, so this movie would most likely be a brand new set of characters and storylines.

I’m curious how a hybrid live-action Lego movie would work. My best guess is it’s going to be a storytelling format like The Princess Bride, where the animated story is told in chunks with a real-world plot unfolding in between. I’ve seen online speculation that it could be more like Detective Pikachu, with animation woven into a real-world storyline. It could alternately be some type of Wizard of Oz-type hero’s journey in which the human lead gets stuck in an animated Lego world and has to find their way back home. I’m skeptical about this film, but will withhold judgment until we know more about it.

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