Warner Brothers has hired Jason Segel (The Muppets) and Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3) to write and co-direct the latest The Lego Movie spinoff, The Billion Brick Race. This marks the feature directorial debut for both of the writers, though Pearce previously directed the Marvel One-Shot All Hail the King. Phil Lord, Chris Miller, Dan Lin and Roy Lee, the key creative minds behind The Lego Movie, are onboard as producers.

This is the third follow-up announced in the wake of Lego's enormous success - Charlie Bean will direct Ninjago in 2016, which will be followed by Chris McKay's The Lego Batman Movie in 2017 and Rob Schrab's The Lego Movie Sequel in 2018. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Billion Brick Race is still in the early stages of development, so no plot details are known at this point, and no release date is set.

 

Segel and Pearce make a promising duo well suited to the needs of the Lego franchise - offering a blend of action, character and comedy. Segel helped Disney revive The Muppets in 2011, and has experience writing studio comedies, including The Five-Year Engagement and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Pearce brings an entirely different perspective and skill set with his background in action-adventure films including  Iron Man 3, Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation, which opens July 31st, and the upcoming Sherlock Holmes 3. He's also working on the male-cast Ghostbusters reboot for Sony. If Segel and Pearce collaborate well together, their paired sensibilities could deliver a perfectly entertaining blockbuster movie.