The LEGO® Movie, the first-ever, full-length theatrical LEGO® adventure, directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller is an original 3D computer animated story that follows Emmet, an ordinary, rules-following, perfectly average LEGO minifigure who is mistakenly identified as the most extraordinary person and the key to saving the world. He is drafted into a fellowship of strangers on an epic quest to stop an evil tyrant, a journey for which Emmet is hopelessly and hilariously underprepared. Chris Pratt (Moneyball) stars as the voice of Emmet. Will Ferrell (The Campaign) stars as the voice of his primary adversary, President Business, an erudite, anal-retentive CEO who has a hard time balancing world domination with micro-managing his own life; while Liam Neeson (Taken and Taken 2, Oscar nominee for Schindler’s List) voices the president’s powerful henchman, known as Bad Cop, who will stop at nothing to catch Emmet. Starring as Emmet’s fellow travelers are Oscar® winner Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby), as Vitruvius, an old mystic;
Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games, Emmy nominee for 30 Rock), as tough-as-nails Lucy, who mistakes Emmet for the savior of the world and guides him on his quest; Will Arnett (Emmy nominee, 30 Rock), as the mysterious Batman, a LEGO minifigure with whom Lucy shares a history; Nick Offerman (NBC’s Parks and Recreation) as a craggy, swaggering pirate, obsessed with revenge on President Business; and Alison Brie (NBC’s Community) as a sweet, loveable member of the team, with a powerful secret.In the irreverent spirit of fun that made The LEGO® Movie a worldwide phenomenon, the self-described leading man of that ensemble—LEGO Batman—stars in his own big-screen adventure. But there are big changes brewing in Gotham City, and if he wants to save the city from The Joker’s hostile takeover, Batman may have to drop the lone vigilante thing, try to work with others and maybe, just maybe, learn to lighten up. Will Arnett reprises his starring role from The LEGO Movie as the voice of LEGO Batman, aka Bruce Wayne.
Zach Galifianakis (Muppets Most Wanted, the Hangover films) stars as The Joker; Michael Cera (TV’s Arrested Development) as the orphan Dick Grayson; Rosario Dawson (TV’s Daredevil) as Barbara Gordon; and Ralph Fiennes (the Harry Potter films) as Alfred. The LEGO® Batman Movie will be directed by Chris McKay, and produced by Dan Lin, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Roy Lee, who worked together on The LEGO Movie. The screenplay is by Seth Grahame-Smith and Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers and Jared Stern & John Whittington, story by Seth Grahame-Smith, based on LEGO Construction Toys and based on characters from DC. Batman was created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger; Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Jill Wilfert, Matthew Ashton, Will Allegra and Brad Lewis serve as executive producers. The new film’s production designer is Grant Freckelton, returning from The LEGO Movie. Also returning is The LEGO Movie editor David Burrows, along with editors Matt Villa, and John Venzon.
In addition, Dean Devlin’s disaster flick Geostorm is getting shuffled around the schedule for the second time, moving from 1/13/17 to 10/20/17 – it was originally set to bow on October 21, 2016. Meanwhile, the Owen Wilson/Ed Helms comedy Bastards, about two brothers who set out in adulthood to learn who their real father is, has been moved from 11/04/16 to 01/27/17. That takes Bastards out of a very competitive weekend, as its original release date would have pitted it against Marvel’s Benedict Cumberbatch-starring Doctor Strange that, judging from previous Marvel successes, is likely to trounce all comers in its opening window. Bastards‘ move to January doesn’t denote lack of confidence however, as the new slot sees it up against a new outing from the reliable Resident Evil franchise, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, and Trainspotting 2. Finally, Ben Affleck’s next directorial effort Live By Night, a period crime film he wrote and stars in alongside Chris Messina, Zoe Saldana, Sienna Miller, and Brendan Gleeson, has been moved up the schedule, hitting theaters 01/13/17 instead of 10/20/17.
Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happyWarner Bros. is plotting a new DC superhero film based on the Batman-centric character Nightwing. Chris McKay, who most recently directed The Lego Batman Movie for Warner Bros., is in negotiations to helm the new live-action film, and Bill Dubuque (The Accountant) is writing the script. Nightwing, aka Dick Grayson, is perhaps best known for being the original Robin. Grayson was the youngest member of a family of acrobats known as the Flying Graysons. He was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger and illustrator Jerry Robinson, and first introduced in Detective Comics No. 38 in April 1940. After his parents were murdered, he was taken in as the legal ward of Bruce Wayne/Batman. He then became Robin and teamed up with the Dark Knight on many an adventure to fight crime in the city of Gotham. Grayson famously shed his persona in the 1980s as the character aged up, and became the leader of the Teen Titans.
(In the DC Universe, a succession of young men took on the mantle of Robin while Nightwing became a popular character in his own right, headlining his own comics and appearing in animated movies.) McKay has already directed a film with Dick Grayson in it: The character appeared in Lego Batman, as Robin, and was voiced by Michael Cera. Nightwing will be his live-action feature film debut. The character of Robin has yet to officially appear in the new Warner Bros. movies, although his graffiti-covered suit was shown in Batman v. Superman, and director Zack Snyder has said that at that point in time Robin had been killed by the Joker (there have been multiple Robins over the years in the comics, and Snyder did not say which one was killed by the Joker in his film, although it is likely Jason Todd if the film is aligning with the comics). The Nightwing project joins Warner Bros.' growing DC Extended Universe as the studio focuses on mining some of DC's most beloved characters for new films (as an example, Gotham City Sirens, with David Ayer attached to direct, will focus on the female villains of the universe, including Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn).