Minecraft officially came out in 2011 after spending years in alpha and beta periods. Since then, the block-based sandbox game has become the best-selling video game in history with nearly 250 million units sold. The simple premise of letting players build whatever they want and however they like has influenced projects in and out of the video game industry. Now, it appears that Mojang’s brainchild is headed to the big screen next.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mary Parent and Roy Lee are set to produce the live-action adaptation of Minecraft, with Napoleon Dynamite director, Jared Hess, set to helm the movie.
Warner Bros. has been eyeing the Minecraft IP for years, with names like Shawn Levy and Rob McElhenney previously attached to the ambitious endeavor. It’s unclear if the renewed interest is related to the recent WarnerMedia merger but it wouldn’t surprise us if the new management helped further things along. It makes sense for another video game movie to arrive at this time and age. The past two years have been kind to gaming films, with Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on track to set a new global box office record.
With Jason Momoa’s hands full at the moment, we shouldn’t expect to hear more about the Minecraft movie soon.
Rumor has it that Momoa will come back for the Dune sequel that’s coming out in 2023. Momoa will also reprise his lead role in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. There’s also the See actor’s turn as the villain in Fast and Furious 10 as well as his buddy cop movie with Dave Bautista by MGM.
The silver lining here is that studios are more open to doing films based on video games. In addition to Minecraft, gamers can look forward to another Uncharted sequel as well as Free Guy 2. Mortal Kombat 2 will also come out in the next few years with other adaptations like God of War and Mass Effect reportedly in the works. Suffice to say, gamers will be eating well.
