Town goes toy crazy: Warner assembling feature from Legos (BIZ, VAR)

By Nancy Tartaglione

Lately, it seems everyone's got a toy story. In the past week, media outlets have increasingly been reporting on Hollywood's ongoing and growing fascination with playthings (see The Wall Street Journal and The Wrap.) And, today, news comes to light of the latest childhood gadget to move to the bigscreen: Warner Bros. is building a Lego movie.

Warners and producer Dan Lin have acquired rights to fashion a movie out of the bumpy building blocks with Dan and Kevin Hageman in to write the script.

The film will be a live-action CG affair that the Risky Business blog says will be set in the world of Lego seen through a prism of childlike imagination that ties together themes of creativity and teamwork. Variety says it's been described as an action adventure.

Directors and producers in town have attempted to make a Lego movie for years, approaching the Danish toymaker with various ideas, says Variety, but Lego turned down most of them because it's highly protective of its brand. (Case in point: The New York Times reported yesterday on Lego's disapproval of a teenager's use of Legos in a video depicting a performance by Spinal Tap. Lego officials, citing copyright law, did not approve.)

The company sparked to Lin and the Hageman brothers' embrace of the core values Lego wanted to include in a film, especially "a fun factor, creativity and that imagination has no boundaries," Lin told Variety.

Roy Lee will also produce while Stephen Gilchrist will co-produce.

This latest toy-based project carries on a recent mania for screen adaptations that include everything from this weekend's winner "G.I. Joe" and the "Transformers" movies to a development-stage project based on the View-Master.

Other toys slated to eventually make the hop from the playroom cupboard to the multiplex include Monopoly, Candyland, the Ouija board, Battleship, Major Matt Mason, Max Steel and Hot Wheels.