I give up

I feel more and more like Lily Tomlin every day: No matter how cynical I get, I can’t keep up.

Just like week I invented an imaginary supervillain for whom Play-Doh: The Motion Picture, Boggle: The Movie, and Trivial Pursuit: The Next Generation seemed beyond the pale, something only the depths of his depravity could come up with. It was satire. It was my auditioning for a spot on the Onion’s writing staff.

But even The Onion is indistinguishable from reality these days.

So I give up. I fucking give up. Do you hear that, universe? I’m done. Because now we have this:

Warner Bros. is making a Lego movie.

No shit.
From Variety:

Scribes Dan and Kevin Hageman are penning the script for the family comedy that will mix live action and animation. Warners is keeping the plot tightly under wraps, but it’s described as an action adventure set in a Lego world.

Oh, they’re keeping the plot tightly under wraps? The fucking plot?

It’s bricks. Lego is plastic bricks. They’re seriously cool and all — I personally own, no kidding, a giant tub of 1,200 of them — but there is no fucking plot. There’s no plot.

There. Is. No. Plot.

They’re plastic bricks.

I mean: What the hell?

Dan Lin, who is shepherding Warner Bros.’ “Sherlock Holmes” and exec produced the studio’s upcoming family film “Shorts,”

Having seen Shorts and having heard of this stupid concept for a Legos movie, I am now deeply worried about the Sherlock Holmes flick.

will produce the movie through his Lin Pictures, which is also behind a “Tom and Jerry” film that will put the feuding animated characters in a live-action setting. The shingle’s Stephen Gilchrist serves as co-producer.

Oh please god, no: A live-action Tom and Jerry movie? *sob*

Directors and producers in town have attempted to make a Lego movie for years, approaching the Danish toymaker with various ideas, but Lego turned down most of them because it’s highly protective of its brand.

But the company sparked to Lin and the Hageman brothers’ embrace of core values Lego wanted to include in a film, especially “a fun factor, creativity and that imagination has no boundaries,” Lin told Daily Variety.

Now, come on: The minute you settle a concept into a film, and put it up on the screen, you have boundaried the imagination. You’ve said: This is what it is.

This is not about imagination and creative play. It’s about selling more Legos. It seems to me that this would be like making a movie about Cheerios to sell more Cheerios in a world where every-fucking-body who is going to eat Cheerios is already doing so, but what do I know? I’m not a fabulously wealthy Hollywood studio executive. They must be very smart indeed to be so well paid.

On the other hand, casting is a no-brainer:

(Lego Colonial Marine via BrickArms — check ’em out, they’re awesome.)

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Saladinho
Saladinho
Fri, Aug 14, 2009 3:29pm

Heheh…Well, maybe it’ll be like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q27BfBkRHbs

No. It won’t. Will it?

Der Bruno Stroszek
Der Bruno Stroszek
Fri, Aug 14, 2009 3:40pm

Haha, Saladinho, that’s exactly what I was going to post. If they get Michel Gondry to direct this, it could be a masterpiece.

Saladinho
Saladinho
Fri, Aug 14, 2009 4:02pm

Ha! Indeed Herr Stroszek. Talk about a feast for the eyes…

bronxbee
Fri, Aug 14, 2009 4:09pm

meanwhile, i just read a whole article about how Lego is denying use of its product in the upcoming Spinal Tap production:

“The cruel masters at Lego have denied Spinal Tap permission to include on an upcoming DVD a fan-made video of Lego figures performing “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight,” simply because the song features lyrics like “You’re too young and I’m too well hung” and “You’re sweet, but you’re just four feet and you still got your baby teeth.” Even the famed copyright jerks in the Rolling Stones allowed their likenesses to be used elsewhere in the DVD. Says Harry Shearer, “Lego are the only people who strictly said no … It was Lego Kafka.” [NYT]

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/08/tonight_lego_is_gonna_prohibit.html

RobertH
Fri, Aug 14, 2009 5:43pm

In defence of Lego, the lego video games are cool.

But you are right this will suck.

Count Shrimpula
Fri, Aug 14, 2009 6:30pm

Yeah, RobertH has a point. The Lego video games are fun. And, ya know, the Clue movie was awesome.

That said, I also am not holding out any hope for this whatsoever.

Also, beginning the countdown to the first pedant to come in and tell us all that it’s LEGO® brand building blocks, not “Lego” or, god forbid, “Legos”.

PaulW
PaulW
Fri, Aug 14, 2009 7:27pm

Hollywood will stop serving us b-llsh-t if we can convince enough people to stop eating their b-llsh-t.

I tried. I seriously tried to keep my friends from wanting to see this latest Transformers travesty, but noooo. I made my intention to them to avoid GI Joe at all costs very clear, and they still went on their own. But this, all this, has got to end. Just get your friends, get their family and friends, keep getting the word out, to just… please, for the love of GOD, stop spending money on Hollywood crap.

mel
mel
Fri, Aug 14, 2009 7:30pm

I heard there was also going to be a monopoly movie…

Chuck
Chuck
Sat, Aug 15, 2009 2:33am

You all miss the main motivation for making this movie. The plastic tooling for the Burger King Toys is already done and paid for.

Paul
Sat, Aug 15, 2009 7:55am

Wall-E world, here we come.

amanohyo
amanohyo
Sat, Aug 15, 2009 1:58pm

Sorry Paul, park’s closed. Moose out front shoulda told ya.

Michael
Michael
Sat, Aug 15, 2009 6:13pm

“Coming for summer 2010: Movie Theater: The Movie!”

Tony
Tony
Sun, Aug 16, 2009 6:41pm

MJ,
You really don’t like Channing Tatum do you?

misterb
Mon, Aug 17, 2009 3:09am

We get the movies we deserve.
To paraphrase Scoop Nisker –

If you don’t like the films, go out and make some of your own

LaSargenta
LaSargenta
patron
Mon, Aug 17, 2009 3:10pm

@ Tony: I don’t either. Not even if he was delivered to me tied up, gagged, and naked on a silver platter. So, she’s not alone.

@ MaryAnn: I’m only going to take my son to see this movie if they include the lego-animated versions of Eddie Izzard’s “But, do you have a flag?” and “Death Star Canteen” peices.

Jurgan
Jurgan
Tue, Aug 18, 2009 3:19pm

I take it you’ve never heard of Bionicle? The series is based on Legos, and while I’ve never seen it, I’ve heard it’s got a surprising depth. Basically, any concept is possible of transcending its crass origins if the people involved really care about storytelling. My favorite example is Singing in the Rain, which was made solely because the studio owned the rights to a bunch of songs and wanted to put them in a movie together, yet it’s now considered among the best movie musicals of all time.

On the other hand, it’s more likely that something like this will not be good. I’m personally getting tired of how, every time something like this comes up, someone responds with “yeah, but Clue was good.” Okay, such a thing is possible, but it is unlikely.