The Lego Movie 4D at Legoland, and other sequel updates

Merlin Entertainments, who operate the Legoland parks and Discovery Centers, have announced they will releasing a new 4D sequel to The Lego Movie, exclusively at their Legoland attractions around the world. The new film promises the return of characters from The Lego Movie, as described in the press release:

Using elements such as wind, water, smoke and special lighting effects, the larger-than-life experience brings the film’s main characters, Emmet and Wyldstyle, back together with their friends for another awesome adventure.

There is also news from the regular The Lego Movie sequels in the works. The Lego Movie Sequel does indeed appear to be the title of the film that will be the direct, follow-up, to The Lego Movie, and The Hollywood Reporter have now revealed it will be directed by Rob Schrab - This seems like a good bet, with Schrab having a strong comedy background, directing episodes of Community, The Mindy Project, and The Sarah Silverman Program, among many other credits. Writers and Directors of the first movie, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, are returning as writers and producers, working on a story by co-created with Jared Stern and Michelle Morgan, and working alongside returning producers Dan Lin and Roy Lee.

More details from this film and others, after the jump:

The Lego Movie Sequel isn't due out until 2018, but there have been a few hints at what to look forward to already. As I've previously reported, there will apparently be more female characters this time around. In an interview with Empire, Miller spoke a little about the general setting:

Well I don’t want to give you spoilers but we were really interested in what happens to that boy who’s in the meta story in the first movie when he’s four years older. When he’s an adolescent how does that change his point of view?

And it’s nice to have the characters start in a different place from the first movie. Emmet, for example, was in an existential crisis of having seen another dimension and was questioning the whole point of his existence.

In a different Empire interview a little while back Miller and Lord also mentioned we can expect more of both Duplo and Technic in the sequel. They also spoke about the Lego Batman movie, coming in 2017, revealing they will be pulling influences from all the non-Lego Batman movies:

Rest assured that every era of Batman filmmaking will be acknowledged. There have been so many interpretations of Batman and there is so much to play with there. There have been forty versions of his origin story alone.

Lord also gave a pithy summary of the film when talking to MTV:

I think the movie is really exciting because it’s about ‘Can Batman be happy?’

Strangely, there's not much being said yet about the Ninjago movie, which will actually be the first of the sequel movies to be released, due out next year. So until there's more news, here's a look back at the amazing work that went into creating the first movie: