‘Minecraft’ Movie To Star Steve Carell Hits Roadblock As Writer-Director Exits, 2019 Release Delayed
In 2014, Warner Bros. secured the rights to the film adaptation of the hugely popular video game Minecraft. For those that don’t know, Minecraft is a sandbox video game where players use Lego-like cubes to create their own world and the game itself. There are no specific goals, so each player has a different experience. As one might imagine, forming a live-action film based on a video game with no real plot or goal can be a difficult challenge, so it’s not that surprising the Minecraft movie has faced some roadblocks.
As Variety reported, Shawn Levy was originally attached to direct the would-be Minecraft movie, and Kieran and Michele Mulroney were going to write the script, but the trio left the venture. It was later announced that It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia co-star Rob McElhenney was brought on by the studio to direct the film and co-write the script alongside Jason Fuchs. Recently, McElhenney followed in his forerunners’ footsteps and decided to exit the project as well. As Collider documented, Rob was recently asked about the Minecraft movie and he gave a very straightforward answer of, “No, that is not happening.”
A new director has not been named for the Minecraft movie, but brothers Aaron and Adam Nee have been brought on to craft a new script, and the release date of 2019 has been reportedly pushed back. Producer Roy Lee shared some positive words in 2016 about Minecraft’s developer, Mojang, being involved in the project, as Collider reported.
“The company, Mojang, is very involved in the development. So they know everything is going to be in the movie that can give us insight into future updates so we can put things into the movie around the same time they relaunch newer versions of the game and at the same time, potentially taking ideas from the movie and putting them into the game. So I don’t know exactly what things are going into the game, but they know exactly what’s going into the movie.”
Let's Play: Restaurant Simulator! Can Tom cook up a storm in @PathwayMC and @MrSquishyYT's new game? Or will he just burn the whole kitchen down (again)?https://t.co/bUyE7hyupn pic.twitter.com/1jABKC1bDA
— Minecraft (@Minecraft) July 14, 2018
Steve Carell is in talks to star in the Minecraft flick, and he spoke to IGN in June of 2017 about the project. Carell told IGN that it was just a “seed of an idea right now,” and that he couldn’t go into specifics. He added that it’s a tough thing to turn a video game into a movie, and unfortunately, that has proven to be the case. Now, with a new script being formed and yet another director exiting the project, some are speculating that Steve Carell may end up passing on the Minecraft movie.
