The Walt Disney Company has obtained the rights of LEGO Batman from writer John Whittington, Hollywood Reporter reports. As the report suggests, Disney beat out Warner Bros. for the film.
Whittington, who was also involved in the LEGO Ninjago movie, has not revealed any official details about the project. As Hollywood Reporter puts: “the high concept story is set in the world of movies and that the project will be live action and intended for theatrical release.” No timeline for the film has been announced yet.
As per an article from ComicBook.com: Lego Batman ended up as a smash hit, both critically and commercially. Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a very-solid 90-percent Fresh rating, the Chris McKay film grossed $312 million at the box office against its reported production budget of $80 million.
Industry insiders hinted that the success might have prompted Disney to get hold of the property. Collider suggested “if it’s a brand-new concept or if it has the possibility to utilise pre-existing Disney IP along with the ones they now own, including Pixar, Lucasfilm and the entire Fox library.”
It will be interesting to wait and watch what further details are revealed about this project as production begins. Quite possibly, Disney might dig into the Star Wars universe or another franchise for this upcoming movie.
In 2017, McKay said: “Everyone says this, but for lack of a better phrase, there’s a LEGO cinematic universe that we’re building that has a sci-fi premise, as far as the world that the movies are taking place in for the majority of the running time, and the other world that’s out there. I think over the course of the movies, we’re building out the relationship between those. There’s no mandate necessarily to do that, but we are very actively working to find all of the rules and develop that relationship between the real world and the LEGO world.”
