Jason Momoa will star in a live-action film adaptation of popular video game Minecraft, which is in development at Warner Bros.
Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) will direct the project. Mary Parent and Roy Lee will produce, while Jill Messick will receive a posthumous credit for working on the film prior to her death in 2018.
Minecraft is the best-selling game of all time, with over 238 million copies sold since its release in 2011. Players create their own 3D worlds with colourful blocks by mining materials and crafting items. By 2021, there were nearly 140 million monthly users, and the game has been brought to multiple video game systems, given spinoffs, and won many awards.
With that immense popularity, it’s no surprise to hear that a Minecraft film has been in the works for years. Shawn Levy, Rob McElhenney, and Peter Sollett were all in talks to direct at various stages. At one point, Steve Carell was lined up to star. But it’s now the Momoa-Hess combination that will be leading the charge.
How Minecraft – a plotless game – will actually be adapted for the screen is anyone’s guess, but studio’s are interested in the IP above anything else. They’ll figure out the quality of the project later.
With video game film adaptations proving more successful than ever before – this year has seen Uncharted and Sonic The Hedgehog 2 make good money – Minecraft is far from the only adaptation of a popular video game in the works.
Netflix are developing a film adaptation of the BioShock series, while Amazon are reportedly eyeing a TV version of God Of War.
A Just Cause adaptation is being worked on by Stuber director Michael Dowse, while Sega are planning to turn their Yakuza series into a movie franchise.
Other plotless (non-video) games are also getting adapted for film, like Lil Yachty developing an action-heist film based on Uno (really), while Kevin Hart is set to star in a movie based on Monopoly.
We’ll have to wait and see whether Hollywood’s bet that audiences will lap up anything that has minimum IP value will pay off. But Minecraft is a big enough product that a film adaptation should prove financially viable at the box office.
Momoa will next be seen in adventure comedy Slumberland later this year, while a big 2023 is in the works for him. That will see Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom arrive, while he will also feature in Fast & Furious 10. He also stars in Apple sci-fi drama See, which was recently renewed for a third season.
#Peace.Love.Minecraft
