Well, this is exciting. Roy Lee, one of the producers of The Lego Movie, is set to produce a big screen take on Minecraft for Warner Bros. alongside Mean Girls executive producer Jill Messick, Deadline reports. It’s still early days for the project, with no release plan or production timeline confirmed yet, but the adaptation is already generating “huge interest from writers and filmmakers” for WB’s “live-action version.”
The mention of live-action may give you pause, but let’s be realistic. Any movie based on Mojang’s blocky world-building game is going to require heavy amounts of set dressing and animation. There is no such thing as a Creeper in the live-action world (at least not the way the game defines it).
If all were right and just in the universe, Lee would be able to convince The Lego Movie writer/directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller to take the reins on this one. The filmmaking pair are known for their smart, self-aware humor, and it’s worked well for them, in Lego, in the two Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs movies, and in their 21 Jump Street reboot-slash-parody. Lord and Miller also have a Jump Street sequel set to release in June 2014. If anyone can hit the right balance between capturing the spirit of Minecraft while telling an interesting story, it’s these two.
Warner Bros. no doubt sees Lego-like potential in Mojang’s game. The studio is already planning a sequel to its successful film treatment of the beloved children’s toy. Popular family-friendly franchises are something of a Holy Grail in Hollywood, since all-ages content brings the biggest audience to theaters.
