Kenny Ortega is the talent behind iconic films ranging from “Hocus Pocus” to “High School Musical” not to mention dozens of music videos, concerts and two Olympics opening ceremonies. So it’s unsurprising he was the top choice when Lego were thinking about making their first musical feature based on the Lego Friends line.
Ortega, who says Lego has been “part of my life for over 30 years,” was brought on to executive produce “Lego Friends: Heartlake the Musical,” shaping the story and choreography as well as picking the director (his longtime collaborator Paul Becker), location (London, U.K.) and actors. He calls the all-British cast “triple threats” who could sing, dance and act, saying they reminded him of working with a 15-year-old Christian Bale on “Newsies.”
The 50-minute film, which is set to premiere Oct. 16 on Lego’s YouTube channel, as well as Peacock and Netflix, follows a young girl, Daisy (Jada Langley) as she is magically transported into the world of Heartlake City where she makes some fast friends and helps them save a special landmark.
Ahead of the film’s launch, Ortega sat down with Variety to talk about how he ended up working on the project, whether he has ideas for a sequel and his plans for the L.A. Olympics.
How did you come on board “Lego Friends: Heartlake the Musical”?
Hannah Draper and Michael McKenna [from production company Final Pixel] reached out to me and said, “Do you like Lego?” I was like, “Lego’s been part of my life for over 30 years.” I’ve got a nephew — every birthday, every holiday, every special occasion [it’s] Lego, Lego, Lego. I was like, “We love Legos!” So it was easy for me to say, “I’d love to take a meeting, I’d love to hear more about it,” and that’s how it began.
How did they pitch it to you?
Final Pixel is an award-winning global creative virtual production innovation studio and so the way they pitched it to me was [they would] basically create a 3D virtual world that we would build sets in front of and on this giant curved LED screen. And that right away was it for me. Because I mean, I’ve been making films since virtual reality didn’t exist. Visual effects were painted on glass, or you know, wire removal, and so this was an opportunity for me as a producer and storyteller to work in a capacity that I hadn’t before, and that really excited me.
Did you work closely with screenwriters Kirk R. Thatcher and Jeremy Adams on shaping the story?
Oh yeah. I was brought in primarily in the beginning as an executive producer to develop the story and help the writers come to understand how music, song and dance production can move character and story forward in the storytelling of our movie.
How much did the story change from first draft to final cut?
My work skews older than what this project set out to accomplish. Where the Lego Friends universe is like, six years-old and up, mine is a little older than that with Disney, with “High School Musical” and “Descendants,” “Cheetah Girls,” and “Julie and the Phantoms” at Netflix, and so I thought that’s what they wanted. So in the beginning I would say what changed was that I had to sort of age down, and to put on a new thinking cap and to go, “Okay, I’m now creating something for maybe five years-old.” So that was fun, that was different, that was unique.
How long was the shoot?
We came back and did a few reshoots, so the total, I would say maybe — under 30 days? Like 25, 26, days.
We had a lot of fun, deciding on how to build Heartlake, what to incorporate in it, what characters would take on the main roles in a first little musical. I mean, this was all a test. We came at it with a modest amount of money and time because they had never done it, and this was an experiment, sort of. Let’s see what we can accomplish here, and then maybe this gives us an opportunity to go bigger and beyond this, and I hope that that will be the story.
Do you already have some ideas for a sequel?
Heck yeah! It was a lot of fun.
You’ve previously produced two Olympic ceremonies, for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Are you involved in the L.A. Olympics in 2028?
I’m not. I’m so excited about it though, I hope to be invited to opening and closing ceremonies. I want to get tickets to see the events. I was an athlete growing up. My father was an Olympic athlete, track and field athlete. I have not been invited. I don’t even know who is creatively going to be running that aspect of the Olympics, the ceremonies. But it was the time of my life working with Don Mischer and Mitt Romney in Salt Lake and the folks in Atlanta for the Summer Games and I would love to at least be there to witness what comes to Los Angeles.
This interview has been edited and condensed.