With The Lego Movie as the current gold standard for turning products and games into movies, Warner Bros. was quick to nab the rights to massive property Minecraft. According to Mojang, the Swedish developers behind the game, the new director for the film version will be It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia co-creator Rob McElhenney.
The game as you may know, allows you to create and shape an entire world, and has sold more than 35 million copies across PCs, the Xbox 360 and mobile platforms. Much like with Lego, the only stories are those created by users, who can choose whether to explore, create or fight with each other. There are also nocturnal monsters stalking the place, which you can choose to avoid or deal with.
When Warners bought the rights back in February last year, Night At The Museum man Shawn Levy was quickly hired, and developed a take on a story before parting ways with the studio and Mojang over a disagreement about the basic idea. McElhenney seems a more surprising choice, having no film directing credits to his name, and no experience with big animated stories, but it appears he has one huge advantage – he’s a genuine fan of the game. Add to that his ambitious plans to work on big projects for studios, having sold Legendary Pictures on family action pic Figment last year, scoring a deal to write and direct based on his pitch. This is, after all, the man who – alongside friends Glenn Howerton and Charlie Day – got It’s Always Sunny on the air thanks to making a pilot to show networks.
There’s no schedule for the Minecraft film yet, as everything is clearly still only in the development phase. But Warner Bros. will want to move quickly on this one, lest the game’s hot status suddenly cools down.