| Director: | Morgan Neville |
| Music: | Pharrell Williams (songs and themes) Michael Andrews (score) |
| Runtime: | 93 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Piece by Piece is an upcoming American animated documentary film directed and co-produced by Morgan Neville, in his animated feature debut. It follows the life and career of American musician Pharrell Williams, who stars in the film, through the lens of Lego animation. Produced by The Lego Group, Tremolo Productions and I Am Other, Piece by Piece will mark the fifth theatrical Lego-based film and the first under Universal Pictures's run of their film rights. Alongside Williams and Neville, the film stars the voices of Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z, and Snoop Dogg.
Williams had considered creating a film about his life since 2013, though serious plans for a biopic in animated musical form started in 2019 following a discussion between the musician and Neville. Development officially began later that year; following the end of The Lego Group's partnership with Warner Bros. Pictures, the rights were transferred to Universal. Neville interviewed with Williams' associates remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, and later shot certain live-action scenes with him. The Lego Group created minifigure pieces that better represent the styles of African-American culture, as well as Williams's frequent collaborators, and designed new pieces for music equipment. Williams, who also produces, wrote two original songs for the film.
Piece by Piece is scheduled to premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, on September 7, 2024, and will close the 68th BFI London Film Festival on October 20, 2024, and is scheduled to be released theatrically in the United States on October 11 through Universal's Focus Features label, with Universal handling international distribution.
The film documents Pharrell Williams's life and musical career, incorporating Williams's faith and expressing his artistry by means of Lego.
N.O.R.E. and Daft Punk also make appearances as themselves.
The film's production spanned around five years. Following the success of the songs "Happy" and "Get Lucky" in 2013, Williams's agent would encourage him to pursue creating a biography, encouraging him to "do it [his] own way". Williams was not interested in making a "traditional" biopic, but rather wanted to convey the story in a more imaginative and "genre-defying" way, where audiences would "immerse in a world where the possibilities are endless". Williams would recall, "Everyone was doing them at the time, and I was like, 'Hell no.' I never want to do what everybody else is doing". Williams approached Neville's agent with the idea for the film in early 2019, and after Neville had heard Williams's pitch, he agreed to help develop the project. Williams would reiterate on his sentiment, stating "I never really wanted to do it, but when I was given the opportunity to do a documentary any way I wanted, and Morgan raised his hand, it was like, "OK, this could be interesting"." Williams's producing partner Mimi Valdés helped him decide which parts of his life and career he wanted to document.
Neville initially began having conversations with Williams in person in early 2020. After the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Neville recruited Williams's friends and collaborators to appear in the movie quickly, recounting that "There was not a single person who, when we asked them to participate, even hesitated". The vast majority of his work with them transitioned into talking on his phone in his living room with people remotely, sending them audio personnel if they could not access a studio. Some live-action scenes were shot, including one with Williams at Virginia Beach. Being his animated film debut, Neville felt it was "incredibly exciting" to be able to control every visual aspect of the film, as opposed to the live-action films he had directed in the past. He explained the animated medium helped to better "channel" Williams into the story. After previous license holder Warner Bros. Pictures, which produced The Lego Movie franchise, let their rights to create Lego films lapse, Universal Pictures bought them in April 2020, to last through 2025.
Neville and Williams had a "number of conversations" with The Lego Group about creating hairpieces and skin tones that were more inclusive to African-Americans, pushing them to forensically examine different hairstyles and facial features. For the film, Lego created new pieces for boom boxes and turntables, and recreated recording studios for the first time. They would also design minifigures for Williams's collaborators.
On June 6, 2024, Williams, Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, and Busta Rhymes were revealed to be cast in the film. In an interview published that day with Variety, Neville revealed that Daft Punk also appear in the film.
Williams wrote two original songs for the project, describing the first as "made for a specific scene", and the second, also made for a specific scene, as "like my thesis — [which is] that God is the greatest". Music that he composed with longtime creative partner Chad Hugo, as well as Williams's collaborations with other artists will feature in the film, such as Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" and Wreckx-n-Effect's "Rump Shaker". Neville noted that Williams had also created early tracks and "other bits of score" during production.
The project was officially announced on January 26, 2024. On June 6, 2024, Focus Features and Williams revealed the first trailer for the film. It features Lego Williams and director Neville in a sit-down interview, which then transitions to Williams narrating his career highlights. Writing for USA Today, Brendan Morrow observed that "the project look(s) like a unique mix of an animated film and a documentary". Dexerto observed that the appearance of Kendrick Lamar in the film, who had recently seen increased media coverage due to his feud with Canadian rapper Drake, was a subject of attention, with many commentators dubbing him "KenBRICK Lamar".
Williams has stated that Lego will release toys to tie in with the film.
Piece by Piece is scheduled to premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, on September 7, 2024, and will close the 68th BFI London Film Festival on October 20, 2024, and is scheduled to be released theatrically in the United States by Focus Features on October 11, 2024, and in the United Kingdom on November 8.