Josh Cooley, the director of Toy Story 4, is taking on his biggest non-Pixar project yet. Cooley has been announced as the director of a new LEGO movie at Universal, with Keanu Reeves in talks to star. The project marks Cooley’s first LEGO feature and continues his run of work outside Pixar Animation Studios, where he spent years as a writer, story artist, and director before winning an Academy Award for Toy Story 4.
Variety and Deadline reported the news, noting the film is being developed at Universal as a live-action and CG hybrid, with Jill Wilfert and Ryan Christians producing through The Lego Group. Plot details are under wraps, and it is not yet clear whether Reeves will appear on screen or voice a character. Universal, which acquired the LEGO film rights in 2020, is reportedly moving quickly to get a film into production before those rights lapse.
Cooley’s Pixar Roots
Cooley’s Disney-Pixar pedigree is extensive. He joined Pixar in the early 2000s and contributed story work to films including Up, Inside Out, and The Good Dinosaur before making his feature directorial debut with Toy Story 4 in 2019. The film earned more than $1 billion at the global box office and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, cementing Cooley as one of animation’s most accomplished directors.
He also directed the short film Riley’s First Date?, a companion piece to Inside Out, and more recently helmed the acclaimed animated feature Transformers One, showing that his talent as an animation director extends well beyond Pixar. His move to direct a live-action hybrid is notable, though not unprecedented, as several former Pixar talents have gone on to direct major projects at other studios.
Keanu Reeves and Animation
Reeves is no stranger to animation. He voiced Duke Caboom, the Canadian daredevil toy, in Toy Story 4, and reprised the role in Toy Story 5, which makes his pairing with Cooley on a new animated project feel like a natural continuation of a creative relationship that clearly clicked. He has also voiced Shadow in the recent Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.
The original LEGO Movie franchise, which launched in 2014 with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller directing, became a surprise critical and commercial hit, spawning sequels and spinoffs including The LEGO Batman Movie and The LEGO Ninjago Movie. Those films were produced through Warner Bros., however, so this new Universal project represents a fresh, separate creative direction for LEGO on the big screen. For more animation news, check out our coverage of Disney Animation’s upcoming film Hexed.
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