We knew that, like CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2, the LEGO MOVIE sequel would be made without directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller at the helm. While we originally thought animation supervisor Chris McKay would be taking the reigns for the follow-up, he jumped over to the LEGO BATMAN movie when that got fast-tracked for a 2017 release, leaving the director’s chair open for the second Emmet-centric LEGO adventure.
COMMUNITY/MINDY PROJECT director and frequent Dan Harmon collaborator Rob Schrab will be directing WB’s sequel. It’ll be Schrab’s feature film debut, but he’s been writing and directing TV and shorts since the early-90s (he also created Scud: The Disposable Assassin, for those of us who can appreciate how cool that is). He’s got writing credits on MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000, HEAT VISION AND JACK, THE SARAH SILVERMAN PROGRAM, and MONSTER HOUSE. So yeah, he’s probably a funny dude.
Lord and Miller fans rest easy: the pair will be writing the script for the LEGO MOVIE sequel, so hopefully it’ll retain that meta-heavy, reality-bending tone of the decidedly Oscar-worthy (and equally Oscar-ignored) first film. The pair had this to say about Schrab’s hire:
“We are so excited to collaborate with Rob. He is a comedy genius, a visual savant, and we have been stalking him for years. No one works harder than Rob, and his aesthetic, combined with his sense of humor, bring a strong, unique, thoughtful, and passionately nerdy voice to this project. People who know him are slapping their foreheads today and saying, ‘Of course!’”
Well, I don’t know him and I’m not saying, “Of course!”, but I do know that I feel safe trusting Schrab with this franchise based on his credits and that glowing rec from Lord/Miller. He’s got a high bar to clear, particularly considering it’s his first movie, but if he’s as willing to literally tear down the walls of the film’s reality the way his predecessors were, then Emmet, WyldStyle, Unikitty, and the rest should be in good hands.
We got NINJAGO set for next September and LEGO BATMAN due in May 2017, so I’m guessing we can expect this LEGO MOVIE sequel at the end of 2017 at the earliest.
