The lengthy production process for “A Minecraft Movie” began in 2014. Filmmaker Shawn Levy (“Deadpool & Wolverine,” “The Adam Project”) was attached as director but then left the project at the end of that year. In July 2015, Rob McElhenney came on as a director with a reported $150 million budget. Jason Fuchs was hired as a screenwriter, while Steve Carell was hired to voice an unknown character. However, the project reportedly died on the vine.
In January 2019, Peter Sollett was hired as writer and director, and the film was to be released in March 2022. Allison Schroeder was hired as a scriptwriter. However, the project was scrapped due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Production moved forward again in April 2022 without Sollett and Schroeder and with newly attached Jared Hess (“Napolean Dynamite,” “Nacho Libre”) as director. Then, in April 2023, it was announced that the newly dubbed live-action adaptation would arrive in April 2025. Shooting was meant to start in July 2023 but was pushed back due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. Finally, production began in January 2024.
It’s been a long road, involving some controversy, but fans will finally get the cinematic treatment they’ve been pining for since Minecraft was first introduced to the public back in 2011.
The film stars Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, Sebastian Eugene Hansen, Matt Berry, Kate McKinnon, Jemaine Clement, and Jennifer Coolidge. Jared Hess ( “Napolean Dynamite,” “Nacho Libre) serves as director.
‘The Minecraft Movie’ follows four unlikely adventurers pulled through a portal into another dimension known as the Overworld. Their mission is to protect this bizarre wonderland from the evil Ender Dragon while trying to find a way home.
Synopsis:
Four misfits—Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Momoa), Henry (Hansen), Natalie (Myers) and Dawn (Brooks)—find themselves struggling with ordinary problems when they are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into the Overworld: a bizarre, cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination. To get back home, they’ll have to master this world (and protect it from evil things like Piglins and Zombies, too) while embarking on a magical quest with an unexpected, expert crafter, Steve (Black). Together, their adventure will challenge all five to be bold and to reconnect with the qualities that make each of them uniquely creative…the very skills they need to thrive back in the real world.
Warner Bros. Pictures will release “A Minecraft Movie” in theaters April 4, 2025
