Miramax has come together with Lego to make its first CGI animated feature, based around Lego's Bionicle action figures, reports Variety.
Miramax co-chair Harvey Weinstein plans to fast-track the project and is eyeing a 2004 theatrical release.
Deal for the Bionicle theatrical feature is part of a broader partnership between Miramax and Lego that also grants the mini-major worldwide distrib rights to a CGI-animated, direct-to-video Bionicle movie slated for a September 2003 release. That pic is called "Bionicle: Mask of Light"; it's being produced at L.A.-based toon company Creative Capers Entertainment.
As Miramax's frosh animation project, the Bionicle theatrical pic will serve as a critical test of the company's agility with a medium that, at times, has proved immensely profitable for other studios but has also often proved slow, costly and cumbersome.
But production of the pic will benefit from Lego's previous spade work on the Bionicle brand. The product began as a story concept and appeared on the Web and as a comicbook before coming to life as a toy.
"We have been developing the property with a motion picture adaptation in mind from day one," Lego Media global veep of TV and film Conny Kalcher told Daily Variety. "We've done a lot of groundwork already. All the characters are established. We've tied down the look."
Aimed at boys 8-12, Bionicle toys are rooted in a single, multicultural storyline created by Lego, involving six heroes, known as the Toa, who join forces to collect legendary artifacts the Masks of Power and defeat Makuta, an evil ruler who has taken over the island of Mata Nui.