LEGO announces Piece by Piece, a documentary-movie telling the story of Pharrell Williams’ genius

January 27, 2024 | 4

LEGO have just announced Piece by Piece, an unparalleled motion picture experience that captures the magic and brilliance of Pharrell Williams’ creative genius through LEGO.

This new documentary-style movie will be released in theatres on 11 October 2024, and will be directed by Academy Award winner Morgan Neville and produced by Neville and Caitrin Rogers (Tremolo Productions) alongside producers Pharrell Williams, Mimi Valdés, and Shani Saxon (i am OTHER).

Pharrell Williams is a multi-hyphenate creative genius, with talents spanning music (via his band N.E.R.D. or solo career), fashion (he founded Billionaire Boys Club and also has an on-going collaboration with Adidas through his Human Race sub-brand), skincare as well as currently being the creative director of Louis Vuitton menswear, a hugely influential and important role in the high fashion world.

In fact, the movie poster is a nod to Pharrell in his signature digital camo look, which featured heavily in Louis Vuitton’s Spring/Summer 2024 collection.

Now that Piece by Piece has been revealed… I’m now thinking that the digital camo motif was actually inspired by LEGO!?

As you can probably tell by now, I’m a big fan of Pharrell, ever since his N.E.R.D. days and I’m also a big fan of his Adidas Human Race NMDs and have a pretty large collection of them..

I’m really excited by this movie and can’t wait for it. I’m especially comforted that the movie is being directed by the incredibly talented Morgan Neville who is an accomplished and talented storyteller.

To assure you of his pedigree, Morgan Neville directed Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain and Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, two incredible recent documentaries. He also won a Best Documentary Oscar for 20 Feet From Stardom in 2014, so you can expect something brilliant from the meeting of these two creative minds.

Morgan Neville said “Five years ago, Pharrell Williams approached me with the idea of helping him tell his story through LEGO animation. It was one of those rare moments where I knew in a second that this was a journey I wanted to go on. I’m grateful to our partners at Focus Features and at the LEGO Group for their belief in our crazy mission. We assembled an incredible team of creative collaborators to help make a new type of film. I can’t wait for people to see it.”

“When I had this crazy vision to tell this story through LEGO bricks, I couldn’t have imagined a better partner than Morgan. He is a legend,” said Pharrell Williams. “Grateful that Focus wanted to collaborate with us and I’m honored to share this with the world and bring people into my universe. Building with LEGO bricks encourages us to follow our imagination…who would’ve thought that playing with these toys as a kid would evolve into a movie about my life. It’s proof that anyone else can do it too.”

Piece by Piece will open exclusively in theatres on 11 October 2024, and I can’t wait for the first trailer to drop.

A really interesting time to announce it as well, as The LEGO Movie celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2024…

I also find it hilarious that in his announcement post on Instagram, Pharrell well and truly does not give a stud, by calling it “legos”. I’m sure some Brand person at LEGO winced hard when they saw this.