Lego Dimensions (film)

Lego Dimensions is an upcoming American computer-animated comedy film based on the video game of the same name and produced by Warner Animation Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is intended to be the 6th installment in the franchise, 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 reprise their roles from the previous apparences. 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 late-2021.

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

Premise
Different heroes begin to watch the multiverse fall apart and must unite to stop the event, while fighting a terrible enemy.

Cast
Elijah Wood and Emma Stone reprise their respective roles from The Billion Brick Race (2019) as Brody Reyes and Jane Dangerburge. Chaning Tatum and Cobie Smulders also reprise their roles as Superman and Wonder Woman, as members of the Justice League.
 * Chris Pratt as Emmet Brickowsk, The Lucy's husband, was a former construction worker who was appointed as a Master Builder after becoming the Special and safe the world. Emmet remains a seasoned fighter against evil and has been described as someone who has "spent a lot of time comfortable" after so many adventures.
 * Elizabeth Banks as Lucy/Wyldstyle, The Emmet's wife, is a Master Builder and next chosen. She is a former fighter who aspired to be the Special, who accidentally met Emmet. According to director Mike Mitchell, Wildstyle has been losing her love of being a warrior and one of her struggles will be to talk about her "non-gloomy" past and let go of her facet as a femme fatale.
 * Will Arnett as Bruce Wayne / Batman, a DC Comics superhero who is a Master Builder. Is reclusive billionaire who obsessively protects Gotham City as a masked vigilante to cope with his past. Arnett said the film further questions the nature of the character's heroism, as though Batman managed to overcome one of his biggest flaws in his solo film.
 * Zack Galifianakis as Joker, a clown-themed villain in Gotham City and Batman's archenemy, who defines himself by his conflict with him.

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 July 16th, 2021. 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. 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". 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). 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
By October 2018, animation studio Animal Logic was in talks to provide animation during production, after collaborating on all previous films in the franchise. The studio began in April 2019 and production was soon expected to begin in November 2019. However, due to scheduling conflicts with the director it had begun on January 10, 2020 in Canada under the working title Light Madness. In February 2020, the film's release was pushed back to November 26, 2021, with an estimated production time of 15 months. The COVID-19 pandemic began to affect film productions for the next five weeks, with production likely halted until May, when it began to take place remotely. Before that, the production schedule was still on track to wrap up within the next 13 months, until Warner Bros. changed much of its film slate due to the pandemic in April 2020, moving Lego Dimensions ' release date tentatively to May 13, 2022. Mitchell confessed that he "felt kind of glad about this delay" as it gave him and the production team a chance to polish the film a lot more at the time.

The director said that a lot of "dimensional imagery" was used during filming to tell the film's story, as he was able to use his peripheral camera techniques and smooth animation methods in perspective, to create depth and dynamism for the audience. They expressed interest in showing the interactions in the film due to their knowledge of their own characters. According to Someros, the ending of the film had some minor changes from what was originally in the script. Delving into a dynamic, abstract tone, Mitchell said they would be going for a "space show vibe". The production of the film was completed in July 2021, after a year and a half. In September 2021, the film's release was moved to July 15, 2022, after Warner Bros. swap places with Fantastic Beast: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022). And it was further delayed in January 2022, until September 2, 2022.

Post-production
On February 10, 2021, Will Arnett and Dave Franco were announced to have been cast in the leading voice roles of Batmam and Lloyd Garmadon, respectively. Elijah Wood and Emma Stone who played Brody Reyes and Jane Dangerburger in The Billion Brick Race, stated that they were willing to return to their roles in the film and by April 2021, The Wrap reported that he would appear in the film. Around June 2021, Rosario Dawson, Alison Brie y Michael Cera revealed that they would reprise their roles in the film, and Chaning Tatum and Cobie Smulders confirmed their return as Superman and Wonder Woman shortly thereafter. In January 2022 it was revealed that the film's script had been partially worked on by Seth Grahame-Smith, who had served as a writer on Lego Batman and The Lego Movie 2. Post-production on the film lasted eight months. Clare Knight is serving as the film's editor, after working on the franchise with The Lego Movie 2.

Music
In January 2022, Mark Mothersbaugh was hired to compose the score for the film, after previously doing so for The Lego Movie (2014), The Lego Movie 2 (2017) and Lego Ninjago (2018).

Release
Lego Dimensions is scheduled to be released on September 2nd, 2022. The film suffered a large number of delays, due to scheduling conflicts and the COVID-19 pandemic, being previously scheduled for release in 2020, July 16, 2021, November 12, 2021, April 8, 2022 and July 15th, 2022 before it was removed from that date.

Box office
As of August 2022, Lego Dimensions is projected to earn at least $85-90 million domestically on its opening week.