Perhaps the most popular video game of all time is Minecraft, a franchise that has slapped its branding on nearly every product imaginable. With that in mind, it's almost shocking that it has not graced the big screen yet, at least for now. In April of 2019, the official Minecraft website posted an extensive news breakdown of the proposed film adaptation, at the time slated to be released in March of 2022. This breakdown featured a plot summary, some cast announcements, and a director, but it's been a very bumpy road both before and after that ambitious called shot.
Minecraft was created by a small Swedish game developer called Mojang Studios in 2011 and immediately became hugely popular. The beauty of the game is in its simplicity, it's a creativity tool mixed with a survival game in a way that seemed to appeal universally. In 2014, Mojang was acquired by Microsoft, leading to an ecosystem of spin-offs, merchandise, and constant expansion. With Microsoft's acquisition of the Minecraft brand, came the first inklings of a film adaptation.
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Mojang developer Markus Persson revealed in 2014 that Warner Bros. Pictures was in talks to create a Minecraft film. At the time, the proposed release date was May 2019, a deadline the film would never make. Shawn Levy was signed on to direct, best known for family comedies like Cheaper By The Dozen and the Night At The Museum trilogy. The writer on board was Jason Fuchs, who wrote the 4th Ice Age film and 2015's Pan. Based on the announced crew, the film seemed set to be a solid family-friendly comedy. Though the film seemed to be on a decent path, every element of it would fall apart before the deadline.
Shawn Levy dropped out from the director's chair, replaced swiftly by Rob McElhenney. The It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia star would have had his feature film directorial debut with the Minecraft movie. His intention was to replicate the open-world feel of the games with a sprawling adventure film. Right around the same time, Fuchs was replaced by writing duo Aaron and Adam Nee. The Nee brothers were a bizarre choice, as they are primarily known for artistic mumblecore film The Last Romantic, which would've made Minecraft their first major studio feature. This team was even granted a preliminary budget and Steve Carell was contracted to star, but alas, studio changes killed this film before it could release.
The death knell of the second attempt at the Minecraft movie seemed to undo any hopes of the beloved franchise making it to the big screen, but from nowhere, hope reemerged. The aforementioned news post on Minecraft.net revealed a series of pertinent details. The new writer and director was Peter Sollett and the new release date was set for March 4, 2022. It was made clear by the brief plot details that the spirit of McElhenney's and Levey's takes were abandoned.
The film takes place in the open world of the video game, referred to as the Overworld, fully realized in live-action. The narrative would center around a band of adventurers, led by a bold teenage girl in a world that has been devastated by the Ender Dragon. This is not incomparable to the plot of the spin-off game Minecraft: Story Mode. This game was a partnership between Mojang and Telltale to create a narrative-focused choose your own adventure game in the blocky universe. The film is said to be live-action, which is concerning, given the human models in the franchise have a distinctive look. Though no actors were announced to portray the heroes, the art style against traditionally proportioned humans would look disconcerting.
This narrative seems slightly unoriginal, but the choice of director brings an interesting dimension to the concept. Peter Sollett has been working as a director since the early 2000s, playing film festivals and winning independent film awards. His first film was Raising Victor Vargas a semi-autobiographical comedy-drama film that dramatized the neighborhood in which Sollett grew up. The film was a huge festival hit that earned Sollett a great deal of renown.
Sollett's mainstream breakthrough came in 2008, with Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. The film was mentioned in the Minecraft.net post and is the go-to for Sollett's filmography. It stars Michael Cera and Kat Dennings as a pair of teenagers commuting into New York for a night on the town. Sollett's work is personal, sincere, and austere, making him a bizarre pick for a big-budget video game adaptation like the Minecraft movie. With that in mind, his take on the project would likely be an emotional journey lead by empathetic youths. Tragically, production issues were not through with the concept.
Warner Bros. Pictures still owns the rights to the film, and in a recent press release, the film has been removed from the release schedule and is still to be announced. Despite the bold calls and multiple attempts, the film has fallen prey to the Covid-19 pandemic like all films in production recently. This stumbling block seems to have pushed the film under for the final time, but it has emerged from impossible odds before and its popularity remains unstoppable.
The Minecraft movie fans have been denied has shifted from a broad comedy to a more personal adventure story as crews and stars join and leave the project. Despite its current silence, the game is all about using tools at hand to build something incredible, so maybe the creators can do the same.
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