Minecraft film to be directed by Shawn Levy
According to reports from Deadline, Warner Bros. have secured Shawn Levy to work on their Minecraft movie and possibly even direct the feature film. The director has previously worked on fulms such as Night at the Museum, Red Steel and The Pink Panther. A film based on the hit game was first discussed in February, with the game’s creator Markuss Persson revealing that Mojang was in talks with Warner Bros. about a possible deal. It looks like an agreement between the two companies was signed not long after that with Roy Lee, the producer behind the recent LEGO Movie, on board to help with production duties. Rumors suggest that the movie would be a live-action take on Minecraft rather than an animation adaptation.
Someone is trying leak the fact that we're working with Warner Brothers on a potential Minecraft Movie. I wanted to be the leak!
— Markus Persson (@notch) February 27, 2014
The recent acquisition of Minecraft and its developer Mojang by Microsoft for $2.5 billion does not seem to have had any effect on Warner Bros. or the movie but it is likely that the technology company will want some sort of input into the project in the future. Minecraft offers a unique opportunity for the film studio as the game has strong appeal worldwide and does not have any sort of narrative or plot, giving the studio creative freedom to come up with their own story.
The Minecraft movie is just one of several recently announced film adaptations based on video games. Ubisoft are working on creating movies for a number of their franchises such as Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs and Ghost Recon. Meanwhile a World of Warcraft film is also in the works, directed by Duncan Jones, that is due to hit cinemas some time in 2016.