Mojang Announces Director for Minecraft Film
Mojang announced it has found a director for its big, Hollywood movie based on Minecraft.
Warner Bros. and Mojang have confirmed Rob McElhenney as the director of Minecraft's theatrical debut. For those unfamiliar with McElhenney's work, he is the creator of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He also writes, produces and stars in many of its episodes. Fans in attendance at Mojang's official MINECON in London likely spotted McElhenney in attendance a few weeks ago, and now we know why. In terms of experience from the director's chair, McElhenney directed three episodes of It's Always Sunny as well as the upcoming TV movie, Pariah.
Minecraft has become a worldwide phenomenon since its beta launched in 2009, having officially debuted in 2011. Since then, it has spawned an audience of over 100 million players. This past December, we reported that a Goonies-esque Minecraft movie, pitched by Night at the Museum director Shawn Levy, was rejected by Mojang. Levy wanted to create a grand adventure, which ironically turned out to be in the same narrative ballpark as Telltale Games' Minecraft: Story Mode. Levy decided to leave the project in favor of doing other films after Mojang rejected his idea and wasn't even sure of what they wanted for their own Minecraft movie.
In terms of other video game-based movies, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is going to be working with his San Andreas crew to make Rampage, a second Need for Speed film is in development and the anticipated Warcraft movie is scheduled to launch on June 10, 2016. Unfortunately, there is no type of launch window attached to this Minecraft film yet.
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