As part of the “make movies about things you see around the room” trend, Warner Brothers is making a Lego movie and today, Deadline is reporting on some new voice talent being add to the cast of the upcoming animated film.
Will Ferrell, Liam Neeson, Nick Offerman and Alison Brie will join previously announced Will Arnett, Elizabeth Banks, Chris Pratt and Morgan Freeman in the project, which is being titled Lego: The Piece of Resistance. Not only is the cast an indicator of the comedic intentions of the movie—because honestly, who would take a Lego movie remotely seriously—but the directing and writing team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are behind it. You may remember them from another successful recent comedy called 21 Jump Street.
What we know so far is that Pratt will voice the movie’s main character, Emmett, an ordinary builder who gets mistaken as the key to stopping an evil tyrant from gluing everything in the Lego world together. The new additions will feature Ferrell as the villain named President Business, Neeson as a henchman named Bad Cop, Brie as a member of Emmett’s resistance team, and Offerman as a pirate seeking his own revenge on President Business. Banks’ role is reportedly being kept secret, but Will Arnett has been confirmed as Batman and Morgan Freeman is Vitruvius.
Between President Business and Batman, this appears like it will be a promisingly and appropriately absurd film. It’s as if the studios are insisting that movies about toys and games like Transformers and Hungry Hungry Hippos get made (I still don’t believe that one is serious, despite reports to the contrary. It can’t be!), and filmmakers make them with plenty of winks to show that they agree with the rest of us that what they’re doing is stupid. In the meantime, they happily take our money.
Is the involvement of talent like Will Ferrell and Liam Neeson enough to get you to see Lego: The Piece of Resistance? Let us know in the comments section.
