Elizabeth Banks joins a superhero movie with... Legos?
Elizabeth Banks is rumored to have signed on for a movie that has Batman and Superman, but in an unexpected format. Banks starred this spring in 'The Hunger Games.'
Elizabeth Banks, pictured with husband Max Handelman, starred this spring in the adaptation of Suzanne Collins' bestseller 'The Hunger Games.'
Matt Sayles/Invision/AP
Lego, at first, sounds like a blatant Hollywood cash-grab aimed at nostalgic adults and a younger generation who may want to purchase said toys after (or even before) seeing the movie. Similar to the developing Stretch Armstrong, the playthings behind Lego lack even the semblance of a narrative, much less a pre-established mythology (unlike Transformers).
Skip to next paragraph
Screen Rant had a humble start back in 2003 as a place to rant about some of the dumber stuff related to the movie industry. Since then, the site has grown to cover more and more TV and movie news (and not just the dumb stuff) along with sometimes controversial movie reviews. The goal at Screen Rant is to cover stories and review movies from a middle ground/average person perspective.
Recent posts
-
05.17.13
'The Office' series finale: Was it a satisfying send-off? -
05.16.13
Nicki Minaj: Is she leaving 'American Idol'? -
05.15.13
Ron Weaver dies, leaving legacy as 'Bold and the Beautiful' producer -
05.15.13
'NCIS,' 'How I Met Your Mother' and more: Check out CBS's schedule for the fall 2013 TV season -
05.14.13
'How I Met Your Mother' recap: The season finale includes a big surprise for fans
Subscribe Today to the Monitor
So how then did Lego attract the interest of Dan and Kevin Hageman? After all, that pair devised the story for next month’s Hotel Transylvania, a 3D animated project that allowed the writers’ collective imagination to run wild concocting a tale involving iconic monsters. Well, switch out “iconic monsters” for “Lego toys” and the previous description fits the Lego movie equally well, oddly enough.
Warner Bros. is behind Lego and previous reports indicated that studio heads are taking advantage of ties to DC Comics, so as to allow for Lego-ized versions of superheroes in the film. Hence, it’s been confirmed that Arrested Development star Will Arnett is voicing the Batman Lego in said movie, while the search continues for a viable candidate to lend their vocals to a Lego Superman (Channing Tatum is rumored to still be the top choice).
It’s not yet apparent whether or not the project features additional appearances by recognizable characters in Lego form. However, Deadline says the costars of two of this year’s highest-grossing films – Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games) and Morgan Freeman (The Dark Knight Rises) – have been recruited to bring their vocal talents to Lego, with the latter playing a Lego guy called Vitruvius.
Plot-wise, Lego revolves around the exploits of Emmet (Parks and Recreation‘s Chris Pratt), an ordinary Lego guy who is mistaken for a legendary figure known as the MasterBuilder. He is thereafter forced to join a quest to stop an evil tyrant, who plans to devastate the Lego population by gluing all of Lego-dom together.
Credit for that storyline partially belongs to the primary screenwriters on Lego, Phil Lord and Chris Miller (who are also directing). The duo have earned a reputation for turning non-cinematic properties into hip and clever film adaptations that provide solid entertainment value – even while poking fun at their origins as calculating cash-grabs (see: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and 21 Jump Street).
The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of music, film, and television bloggers. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by The Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own and they are responsible for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here.
Become part of the Monitor community