Disney Buys Major Crossover Movie From LEGO Batman Movie Writer

John Whittington has his next project lined up and it sounds like it's going to be a doozy, even by modern-day Hollywood standards. The scribe behind The Lego Batman Movie has managed to sell a "high concept" spec script to Disney after a bidding war between Hollywood studios. While exact details regarding the plot (via THR) are being kept close to the chest, some chatter online likened the live-action flick to a project featuring a substantial amount of intellectual property, something along the likes of Ready Player One.

Disney bested other major studios, including Warner Brothers, to purchase the script — a rare movie for the Burbank-based outfit. Written by Whittington, the project is being produced by John Davis of Dolemite is My Name and Game Night fame and his business partner John Fox. In addition to The Lego Batman movie, Whittington also wrote The Lego Ninjago Movie and is currently penning DC Super Pets for HBO Max.

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. McKay confirmed last year he and his team were hoping to get a sequel for the film made, though little has been said on that front since the initial chatter.

"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." McKay said back in 2017. "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."

The animated hit features an ensemble cast that includes Will Arnett, Zach Galifianakis, Michael Cera, Rosario Dawson, Ralph Fiennes, Jenny Slate, Mariah Carey, Seth Green, Billy Dee Williams, Jemaine Clement, Conan O'Brien, Zoe Kravitz, Doug Benson, Channing Tatum, and dozens of others.

The Lego Batman Movie is now available wherever movies are sold.

What other animated movies would you like to see join the Lego franchise? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!