Everything is Not Awesome: The Lego Movie Sequel Has Been Moved to 20196/18/16 9:35am We’re going to have to wait a bit longer to see The Lego Movie 2. Warner Brothers has shuffled their upcoming film slate, pushing the movie back a year to 2019. The Lego Movie 2, which was originally set to arrive May 18, 2018, will now arrive in theaters on February 8th, 2019. According to Variety, the company has moved several other films as well: Dean Devlin’s debut film Geostorm will be moved to October 2017, while Ben Affleck’s movie Live by Night is being bumped forward to January 2017.While we might have to wait a bit longer to see the next Lego Movie, the move doesn’t seem to have affected the company’s other films about the property, Lego Batman and Ninjago, both of which are still scheduled to open on February 10th and September 17th 2017, respectively.The film industry is waking up to the fact that it needs to better represent female audiences, says one of Hollywood's most successful writing teams.
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who wrote and directed the Lego Movie, have said they will create more female role models for the sequel. "It's important to us that the movie plays broadly and that we inspire young women as much as we inspire young men," Lord told the BBC.With the Lego Movie and 22 Jump Street, Lord and Miller are responsible for two of the highest-grossing films at the US box office in 2014. The Lego Movie has made more than $468m (£294m) worldwide, and the pair will also write and produce the follow-up, which is due out in 2018. The Lego toy company made headlines in August when it released a set of three female scientist figures - a palaeontologist, an astronomer, and a chemist - but it has also faced criticism for the predominantly pink Lego Friends range, which is aimed at young girls, Asked what female roles were planned for Lego Movie 2, Miller said: "I don't want to give spoilers but there will be more female characters and more female stuff." He wouldn't reveal whether the lead character would be female.
Recent females leads in animated feature films include the princesses Merida in Brave and Anna in Frozen. Both films won Oscars for best animated feature. The first Lego Movie featured a male protagonist Emmet Brickowski (voiced by Chris Pratt), a construction worker whose "love interest" is Wyldestyle (Elizabeth Banks), a freedom fighter with "a strong, independent streak". "You can feel that the whole movie culture is now starting to wake up to the fact that half the audience are women," Lord said. "Frozen is reflective of that - and I think we are all going to find a great flourishing of women film makers and subject matter in the future."Miller added: "There's been a real shortage of [female protagonists] in recent years and I think that the near future will be very different."The pair, who also wrote and directed the 2009 hit Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, said that they had no more than a plot outline for Lego Movie 2."You would think there would be be more pieces in place but all we've written is 'Fade in..,'" said Lord."
I'm certain [that] many broad elements of it will change by the time the movie comes out because that's the way the way that it works," Miller added. "It's like Lego itself - you can take it apart and put it back together in a different shape."After receiving superb ratings for The Lego Movie in 2014, expectations are high for the Lego sequel. In addition to pushing back the release date of The Lego Movie Sequel to Feb. 8, 2019, creator of BoJack Horseman Raphael Bob-Waksberg is also rewriting the script, reports Variety. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who wrote the script for the first Lego Movie, also wrote the script for The Lego Movie Sequel. The sequel will be directed by Rob Schrab and produced by Lord, Miller, Dan Lin and Roy Lee, who were all involved in producing the original Lego Movie. Lord and Miller are currently preparing to direct the Han Solo stand-alone movie instead, so to introduce a new perspective to the series, Warner Bros. is bringing in Bob-Waksberg.
The Lego Movie Sequel is the fourth part of the Lego franchise. Before The Lego Movie Sequel is released, both The Lego Batman Movie and The Lego Ninjago Movie will premiere in 2017.Way, way back in February 2015, Warner Bros. hired Community vet Rob Schrab to direct The LEGO Movie sequel — a pick fully endorsed by filmmaking duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who are a teensy bit busy working on a certain Star Wars movie, and thus unable to helm the follow-up to their animated blockbuster. Almost two years later (and several months since we last heard anything about the sequel), there’s apparently been a creative shakeup, as Schrab has reportedly left the project and been replaced by the director of Trolls. THR reports that Schrab has exited the project due to — wait for it — “creative differences.” But WB has found a new director in Mike Mitchell, who helmed DreamWorks Animation’s animated hit Trolls — another film based on an iconic toy. Mitchell’s directing credits also include Shrek Forever After and Sky High.
Lord and Miller wrote the initial draft of the screenplay for The LEGO Movie sequel and remain involved as producers. Last summer, WB enlisted BoJack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg to rewrite the script, which seemed like a pretty good sign. It would have been interesting to see what Schrab — whose previous work also includes writing for The Sarah Silverman Program and directing episodes of the great Adult Swim series Childrens Hospital — would do with The LEGO Movie world, but Mitchell is a solid replacement. The LEGO Movie sequel is set to hit theaters on February 8, 2019. That’s a long ways off, but lucky for us, The LEGO Batman Movie arrives in theaters next week, on February 10.The Tomatometer rating – based on the published opinions of hundreds of film and television critics – is a trusted measurement of movie and TV programming quality for millions of moviegoers. It represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show.