Movie news site Deadline has the skinny on a Minecraft movie. That's right, indie megahit Minecraft will be hitting the silver screen in the future, by way of Warner Brothers Pictures. The studio has announced that it has acquired the rights to Markus Persson (AKA “Notch” online) and his studio Mojang's IP for a live-action film.
Producer Roy Lee and his studio Vertigo Entertainment and Jill Messick will be producing the film. Lee's most recent project that he produced was the highly successful “The Lego Movie”. Funny how he's now moving on to Minecraft, a video game featuring a world made of its own types of blocks, as his next picture.
Minecraft is perhaps one of the game industry's biggest success stories. Developed by indie developer Markus Persson and released in alpha form in 2009, Minecraft has sold over 14 million copies on PC to date. In 2012, Minecraft came to consoles for the first time with an Xbox 360 version co-developed by 4J Studios. Minecraft is now available on most gaming consoles, with the “Pocket Edition” available on mobile phones. Across all platforms, Minecraft has sold approximately 35 million copies.
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To think, this game was created by one man that now leads a development studio because of how successful his indie game has become. Merchandising, ports to other platforms, and now a movie deal no doubt make Markus Persson an extremely lucky and wealthy man.
If the Minecraft movie has as much heart as “The Lego Movie”, then I can see myself really enjoying it. The visual style of Minecraft is one that I appreciate, and a cute fantasy adventure set in its would work very well.
Here's hoping Christian Bale is cast as Steve!
