Lego Dimensions (film)

Lego Dimensions is an upcoming American computer-animated comedy film produced by Warner Animation Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. Based on the video game of the same name, is intended to be the 6th installment in the franchise, the film is directed by Mike Mitchell and written by Erik Sommers and stars Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Emma Stone, Will Arnett, Elijah Wood, Charlie Day, Liam Neeson, Fred Armisen, Justin Theroux, Olivia Munn and Zack Galifianakis. In the film, an extraneous event triggers the destruction of the multiverse, forcing different heroes to come together and try to stop the threat, unaware that the Joker, is setting in motion an evil plan for domination, to reclaim a powerful destructive power.

In late 2017, the studio announced that it had initial ideas for a crossover film in the franchise, and after creating an initial writers room for the story, it was officially announced in April 2018, with Sommer as writter. Mitchell were publicly revealed as director in June 2018, however due to the tight schedule, early development was delayed. Sommer began the final script in 2019, and production began in January 2020 at Animal Logic studios in Canada. Production was briefly interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic and ran until mid-2022, delayed.

Lego Dimensions is scheduled to be released in the United States on September 2nd, 2022.

Cast

 * Chris Pratt as Emmet Brickowsk.
 * Elizabeth Banks as Lucy / Wyldstyle, a Master Builder, next chosen and Emmet's girlfriend.
 * Emma Stone as Jane Dangerburger, a hyper-intelligent girl and the right hand and love interest of Brody Reyes.
 * Will Arnett as Bruce Wayne / Batman, a DC Comics superhero who is a Master Builder.
 * Elijah Wood as Brody Reyes, a man previously persecuted by the FBI and the law after being wrongfully framed.
 * Dave Franco as Lloyd, the Green Ninja and leader of the Secret Ninja Force.
 * Zack Galifianakis as Joker, a clown-themed villain in Gotham City and Batman's archenemy, who defines himself by his conflict with him.
 * Rosario Dawson as Barbara Gordon / Batgirl, a police commissioner of Gotham.
 * Alison Brie as Unikitty, a A Master Builder who is a unicorn-horned cat.
 * Michael Cera as Dick Grayson / Robin, a 18-year-old teenager who was adopted by Batmanr.
 * Michael Peña as Kai, the hotheaded red Ninja of Fire and Nya's brother.

Development
After the release of Lego Batman (2017), producer Dan Lin said that there was interest in a crossover film set in the franchise. Later, a statement from Warner Bros. mentioned that they had some ideas for the concept, and Lin added that "it could be an original story." The studio confirmed plans for the film officially in November 2017, and development began in January 2018, when a writers' room convened to conceptualize the film's story, with Erik Sommers (who partially co-wrote Lego Batman) leading a team formed. Lin stated that the intent of the writers room was to "break the story up" in order for Sommers to write a first draft. A "detailed treatment" was written that was greenlit by Warner Bros. during the first draft stage, and the initial story was structured in an open-ended way so that the audience had an implicit view of the expanding universe. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were expected to team up after their work on The Lego Movie 2, however they decided against the proposal. The studio had hoped to hire a director to replace them and was aiming for a 2020 release. Mike Mitchell entered negotiations to direct after the studio took an interest in his work on Trolls (2016) and was confirmed for the job in June 2018. The studio had also considered Rob Schrab and Jamie Babbit as directors for the film, but Mitchell was said to have been the frontrunner for some time.

In January 2019, the film was slated for a 2021 release, filling in the date that the studio had previously reserved for an untitled animated film. That same month, it was confirmed that the film would be based on the 2015 video game Lego Dimensions. Mitchell chose this because he was a self-professed fan of the video game, said that the film would feature many more characters from popular culture and stated that future films could properly explore them. He provided some rewrites on the initial work an Lin said in an interview that Mitchell's presentation for the film was amazing, also noting his confidence in his work. Warner announced oficially Lego Dimensions in July 2019, with an release date of February 11, 2022. In May 2019, Mitchell said he would be working on the film "for the next two years", and assured that Chris Pratt was in negotiations to reprise his role as Emmet in The Lego Movie films. It confirmed the involvement of Pratt and Banks return from their roles in The Lego Movie films in December 2019 and revealed that Zack Galifianakis would reprise his role as the Joker from Lego Batman, as the film's main villain.

Pre-production
Writing work on the film began in November 2018. By this time, all of the franchise's other production teams' scripts had been written; Sommer wanted to know in detail the concepts of the characters and their stories. On his experience with the writers room, he stated, "It was my first experience running a writers room proper, and it was fantastic. It was a lot of fun reading samples, meeting different writers, and creating a story in a group setting. It felt similar. to animation, where the movie happens on the walls, and the end result is better than anyone could achieve on their own." Sommers said Lego Dimensions would deal with "fantasy, cosmic stuff, [and] sometimes sad or personal", having a less light story than previous films in the series. Miller felt that he had more creative freedom in Lego Dimensions than in his previous films, and said that the dynamic between the entire cast of characters was the focus of the film. Mitchell spoke about the sample schematic Sommers showed him, stating, "We go in great detail through all the characters, the arcs they have, how they relate to each other, and most importantly, what they mean to each one." As of mid-February 2019, Sommers had already completed the first draft of his film script and was considering changing some of the character information.

In an interview in August 2019, Sommers agreed to be head writer after discussing a basic set of ideas they had for the film, reiterating that it would be "definitely more narratively mature than previous films". Starting in May 2019, Seth Grahame-Smith spent a three-month stint working as additional support and consultant before leaving the project at the end of August 2019. Stating that the film would not adapt the story of the original video game and would only be loosely inspired by it, Sommers said that the script would go through "a lot of crazy iterations of what it could be", though the review found that some of these follow-up stories were not worked. Some of the inspirations for the film were Back to the Future (1985) and Event Horizon (1997). In September, Elizabehts Banks gave her positive feedback on the script, saying that the film would explore the characters from the previous films on a deeper level although she did not know at the time the importance of her character, Wildstyle, in the overall story or actions exact.

The art and design team wanted the film to feature more realistic elements in its animation, exploring multiple design styles for each setting in the film, and developed new animation approaches to some of these styles in sketches. Sommers confirmed in November that the Lego Dimensions script was finished, saying very little had changed from his initial ideas despite hiccups in early development.

Production
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Warner Bros. announced in July 2018 that a untitled Lego film, would be released on July 16, 2021. By October 13, 2018, the title of the film was announced. Animal Logic signed on in April 2019 to provide animation during production, the studio had already participated in the previous films of the franchise. Due to directors' scheduling conflicts, production did not begin in Canada until August 19, 2019 and then was put on hold in March 2020 as a safety measure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A decision on when to resume production was originally expected in several weeks, but was pushed back to May. Production resumed on June 28, 2020 and continued until December 19, 2021, concluding after two years.

Post-production
Casting began in October 2018 with the signature of Chris Pratt. In December, Elizabeth Banks and Will Arnett confirmed their return. Elijah Wood and Emma Stone, who played Brody Reyes and Jane Dangerburger in The Billion Brick Race (2019), stated that they were willing to return to their roles in the film and by April 2019, The Wrap reported that he would appear in the film. Later that month, Laurence Fishburne joined the film's cast to play an unknown central character.

In August 2019, Zack Galifianakis, Rosario Dawson, and Michael Cera confirmed that they would reprise their roles after placing requests with producer Dan Lin and executives at Warner Bros. That same month, Dave Franco, Alison Brie, Dwayne Johnson, Daniella Pineda, Channing Tatum, Jason Momoa, Cobie Smulders, Anika Noni Rose, Kristen Wiig joined the cast of the film with Momoa playing his role as Aquaman from the DC Extended Universe.

Release
Lego Dimensions is scheduled to be released on September 2nd, 2022. The film was previously set for release on July 16th, 2021, before it was dropped from that date.

Sequel
Lord and Miller confirmed in September 2022 that they had initial ideas for a Lego Dimensions sequel, however they did not intend to develop it very soon, something they reaffirmed in March 2023. In June 2024, Lord and Miller were in talks about the possibility of a Lego Dimensions sequel. In August, it was announced that a sequel was in development, with both returning to write and Peter Ramsey set to direct.