A fan of Minecraft took it upon himself to start a Kickstarter project with a goal of 600k with the idea of making a real-life Minecraft film. The only problem? He didn't get permission, and developer Mojang didn't appreciate it one bit. They forced the project to shut down, but not before the project gained 1,008 backers who were pitching in $63k.
Of course, none of those people will lose any money- you only pay for a Kickstarter project if it's successful- but it's amusing to see so many people jump into something that had no official backing of any sort. On the flip-side, it's obvious that people are so excited about the possibilty of a Minecraft film that they'll throw their money at it in a second.
"Birth of Man - A Minecraft Feature Film" was the brainchild of Brandon Laatsch, a YouTuber who's directed many live-action Minecraft shorts. Of course, What was their reasoning?
"We are massive fans of the Minecraft game! We have logged many hours playing the game and have made a bunch of fan films set in the world of Minecraft that have already been very well received online.
Moreover, we have been repeatedly disappointed by Hollywood's interpretations and creations of movies based on popular video-game franchises. We would love to see a video-game movie done right, and we feel that, as people with their feet in both the gaming and film-making worlds, we are the right people to do it. We specialize in creating films containing blockbuster quality on a hundredth of the budget that Hollywood requires by utilizing modern technology and a 'think-outside-the-box' attitude approach to film-making."
Despite their intention to reinvent the filmmaking progress there's a difference between a short comedy video and raising over half a million dollars to make a feature film. Perhaps Mojang will come to an agreement with him for a cut of the earnings and the project will recommence but really, it's a no-brainer that he should have approached them with the idea first.
