Jake Kasdan, Patty Jenkins & Joe Cornish Set To Helm Lego Movies For Universal

EXCLUSIVE: The Lego Group under its deal with Universal Pictures is making three untitled live-action movies with directors Jake Kasdan, Patty Jenkins and Attack the Block filmmaker Joe Cornish.

All three movies’ plots are under wraps. Jill Wilfert and Ryan Christians from The Lego Group are producing all three projects. Universal’s EVP of Production Development Matt Reilly and Director of Production Development Jacqueline Garell will oversee these projects for the Studio.

Kasdan’s is directing off a script by Andrew Mogel and Jarrad Paul (The D Train, The Grinder) based on an original idea and previous draft by Matt Mider and Kevin Burrows (The Pickup, Animal Friends).  Kasdan will produce with Melvin Mar through their production company Detective Agency. The director of the $1.76 billion grossing recent Sony Jumanji movies and Amazon MGM Studios’ upcoming Red One is repped by WME and Sloss Eckhouse Dasti Haynes LawCo. Mogel and Paul are represented by Mosaic, UTA and Johnson, Shapiro, Slewett & Kole. Mider and Burrows are repped by WME and Silver Lake Entertainment.

Jenkins’ Lego project is from a script she wrote with former DC Entertainment President Geoff Johns (Wonder Woman 1984, TV series The Flash). Jenkins is producing via her Wicious Pictures. Jenkins, the director of Warner Bros’ near billion grossing Wonder Woman franchise is repped by CAA and Danny Passman at Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman, Inc. Johns is a WME client.

On Cornish’s toy brick movie, he is rewriting from a previous draft by Heather Anne Campbell (Rick & Morty, One Punch Man) which was off a treatment by Simon Rich (Man Seeking Woman, Miracle Workers). Cornish is represented by CAA, Independent Talent in the UK, and George Davis of The Davis Law Group. Campbell is represented by CAA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, and Yorn Levine. Rich is represented by UTA and Levine Greenburg Literary.

Since kicking off with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s Lego Movie in 2014, the toy brand’s movies have gone on to include The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, Lego Batman and the Lego Ninjago Movie which have racked up north of $1.1 billion at the global box office. Uni and Lego have had a great decade long collaboration with Lego Jurassic World and Lego Jurassic Park products which expanded to video games and animated TV specials, Jurassic World: The Secret Exhibit and the 13-episode mini-series LEGO Jurassic World: Legend of Isla Nublar. Additionally, The LEGO Group and Universal Products and Experiences recently partnered together to bring a LEGO “Brickified” trailer for the upcoming holiday event movie, Wicked, in addition to a full lineup of LEGO Wicked products.

Universal’s specialty studio Focus Features recently teamed with the LEGO Group on the Pharrell William’s biopic Piece By Piece that was told fully through LEGO animation. That movie is 84% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with critics with an A Cinema Score. The Morgan Neville-directed title was just nominated for Best Documentary Feature and Best Music Documentary for the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards.

The Lego Group is repped by WME.