back to article It's a BLOCKBUSTER: Minecraft heads to the silver screen

The creators of smash gaming hit Minecraft have confirmed rumours that the blocktastic game will be turned into a film by Hollywood studio Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers have bought the rights to Minecraft and Roy Lee, director of the recent Lego Movie, is rumoured to be at the helm. The game has sold more than 35million …

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  1. hammarbtyp

    Well that will be worth anticipating

    doom, street fighter, mario brothers - what could go wrong?

    1. NumptyScrub

      Re: Well that will be worth anticipating

      Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil... some films based on games turn out ok (not superlative, mind, but at least ok) ;)

      As long as it's not Uwe Boll directing it should at least be watchable, and the fact that it's a sandbox game means that if they hire a capable scriptwriter it could be pretty good.

      Just don't let Boll anywhere near it *shudder*

      1. stucs201

        Re: Well that will be worth anticipating

        The lack of a pre-existing plot might be good for the movie (assuming they add a plot). However I'm less sure that having an associated plot would be good for the game, some people may then feel they have to play it a certain way (obviously they don't - but some people are easily influenced).

        1. toxicdragon

          Re: Well that will be worth anticipating

          Punch trees, fall in lava, kill stuff. How is that not a traditional holy wood plot?

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Well that will be worth anticipating

            "Punch trees, fall in lava, kill stuff. How is that not a traditional holy wood plot?"

            You're missing the true plot: Minecraft founders, back in the mists of time awakened a great evil by opening the Pandora's box of Java. Evil plague of Java related malware threatens to overwhelm both cyber realm and real world. Hero defeats Java, world gets new Java free version of Minecraft on the back of the movie, world + dog celebrate the opportunity to finally eradicate the dark curse of Java.

            What's not to like? And the sequels are already in planning: Evil plague (Flash) threatens to overwhelm world etc. When Flash has been defeated by HTML5, they can do another movie featuring Adobe Acrobat Reader. Hollywood could really save the world if each time they release new software free from the insecure garbageware.

            By the time we get to Minecraft 4 then the plague will be Windows itself.

            1. NumptyScrub

              Re: Well that will be worth anticipating

              quote: "You're missing the true plot: Minecraft founders, back in the mists of time awakened a great evil by opening the Pandora's box of Java.

              <snip>

              By the time we get to Minecraft 4 then the plague will be Windows itself."

              Err, the fact it is written in Java lends it to being run as-is on Linux. So you might want to revise that sequence to put Windows first, perhaps, before you kill the only thing letting it run on an alternative OS? :P

      2. Tex Arcana

        Re: Well that will be worth anticipating

        Lego Movie.

        [/thread]

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Can't be worse than the Battleship movie

    and that was an even more nonsensical license

    1. stucs201

      Re: Can't be worse than the Battleship movie

      The most non-sensical would have to be the spoof Tetris film trailer on Youtube (sorry can't do a link - lunchtime post from work computer) with giant flying blocks and tetris pilots flying them.

    2. TeeCee Gold badge

      Re: Can't be worse than the Battleship movie

      The problem with saying that nothing could be worse than "Battleship" is that it overlooks the possibility that someone might be insane enough to allow M Night Shyamalan (with all his cod-psych knobs turned up to 11) to direct Will Smith, cast against type, in a masterpiece of bullshit, plot holes and contradictions of the egotistical superstar's own devising.

      Proof that there really are things you just couldn't make up.......not that you'd want to......

  3. Phil W

    Building blocks

    Was that pun really necessary?

    1. KjetilS

      Re: Building blocks

      Yes :)

  4. Bartholomew

    money in same old .... out

    I suspect that the one that was shutdown would have been better. Chop three zeroes off the budget and you need some really smart creative people to make things work. Add three zeroes and you will have the same old crap that Hollowood always produces because they can not afford to take risks.

    At least now it is obvious why Notch shot the kickstarter project dead in utero.

    1. Pete Spicer
      Facepalm

      Re: money in same old .... out

      And not, say, because they were trying to use his company's intellectual property without asking permission or signing a licence agreement.

      1. Bartholomew

        Re: money in same old .... out

        >>> And not, say, because they were trying to use his company's intellectual property without asking permission or signing a licence agreement.

        Trademark, not intellectual property, no such thing as intellectual property in a court of law..

        It can not be copyright, because that would be a script by notch. Although maybe copyright depending on the country the film was based in, there is software copyright in the US and a look and feel court case could be brought. Could have been a very interesting litigation.

        It can not be a patent, as far as I know there is no patent for minecraft, if there was it may be related to ultrasound/CT/MRI scanners (voxel) and notch would need to be paying it.

        Anyhow the KS film is dead - makes no odds now.

        1. NumptyScrub

          Re: money in same old .... out

          quote: "no such thing as intellectual property in a court of law.."

          Wait what?

          quote: "It can not be copyright, because that would be a script by notch."

          Say what again? Copyright is wide ranging enough in scope to cover computer programs, including the representations therein; the exact example given is that Mickey Mouse the character is not copyrighted per se, but that the copyright on Steamboat Willie (the film) afford protections to the Mickey Mouse character. Minecraft the game is copyrighted, thus the characters and contents therein are also afforded some protections.

          The guys intending to make a Minecraft movie (specifically as a "Minecraft" movie, note, not "Square Block Miner: Adventures in Cubeland") are indeed quite obviously intending to make a derivative product of a copyrighted work without holding the rights to do so. What they did do was show the major studios (i.e. Warner) that there is enough interest in a Minecraft movie to help them decide to seal a deal with Notch for the rights; simultaneously doing themselves out of any profit whilst allowing Warner to make yet more monies for old rope.

          Moral of this story: if you have an idea to make monies using other people's IP, make damn sure you have negotiated the rights to do so before going public. If you don't, you'll get shot down and someone else will just take your idea and run with it themselves.

  5. jai

    The Lego movie is awesome...

    ...but i'm not sure there's the scope to do much with this game.

    they'll need to shoehorn in some kind of plotline for the movie that's totally going to fail to mesh with the game.

    Or they'll just re-use the plot from the Lego movie, but won't have Batman...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The Lego movie is awesome...

      Seconded on the Lego Movie.

      Everything is indeed awesome.

      (Anon because at work and I know there are other Reg. readers around)

  6. Captain Scarlet
    Meh

    Bye Bye Minecraft Videos

    All the Fan Videos look like they'll be for the chop on Utube (Other Vid sites available).

    Oh well back to watching Cat Videos

    1. MrXavia

      Re: Bye Bye Minecraft Videos

      Why? its part of the reason Minecraft is so popular, they are not as dumb as nintendo to cut off their nose to spite their face...

  7. TRT Silver badge

    Better than that German version...

    Mein Kraft.

  8. Joseph Haig

    Other films based on games

    This seems apposite:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHY8NKj3RKs

  9. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

    @ Bye Bye Minecraft Videos ...

    How have you reached that conclusion?

    1. Thomas 4

      Re: @ Bye Bye Minecraft Videos ...

      I'm guessing the theory is, once an official movie comes out, the studio that makes it would *possibly* be able to sue other minecraft films and shorts for infringement.

      Don't know if that's actually true but it did float through my head as well. I hope it's wrong as there's some really good minecraft youtube videos. Slamacow springs to mind.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why?

    For both the game and the movie...

    I never got the appeal of the game, it seems like a game for people that have yet to discover LittleBigPlanet. The movie even less of a reason to exist...

    1. Richard 81

      Re: Why?

      It's Lego and an exploration/survival game.

      I've hardly played it at all so you can hardly call me a fanboy, but the things people have done in Minecraft are amazing. Can you make a fully functional copy of Conway's game of life in LittleBigPlanet? You can in Minecraft.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Why?

        Of course you can. A 2 second Google would have not made you look a total pleb.

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13GOFa1C4e4

        1. Richard 81

          Re: Why?

          Fair enough. Shame the game is a PlayStation exclusive. Minecraft is just about supported on the Xbox 360, but it's largely a PC thing.

          Has anyone made a fully programmable computer yet?

          1. MJI Silver badge

            Re: PS3 exclusive

            With the consoles so cheap and so many brilliant games, pick one up and try it.

            You will enjoy it.

    2. MJI Silver badge

      Re: Why?

      My sons like both, they play LBP and Minecraft, no reason they can't

      I will say that Sackboy is cuter than Steve.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Finally!

    Shadow of Israphel?

    Yogscast have been dusting off the old server builds recently...

  12. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    I have no idea how you make a movie out of Minecraft

    But then again, I was pretty surprised when the Pirates of the Caribbean movies started out so well.

    1. MikeyD85

      Re: I have no idea how you make a movie out of Minecraft

      I'd imagine you start with nowt but a pickaxe...

  13. Steven Davison

    Re: @ Bye Bye Minecraft Videos ...

    I'm guessing the theory is, once an official movie comes out, the studio that makes it would *possibly* be able to sue other minecraft films and shorts for infringement.

    Don't know if that's actually true but it did float through my head as well. I hope it's wrong as there's some really good minecraft youtube videos. Slamacow springs to mind.

    While possible, I'd like to beleive Notch has the nous to retain the rights on it, or to stipulate that fan made movies are allowed.

    Additionally, they might have problems as as of ver 1.7.4, Minecraft has built in twitch streaming... .

  14. Stevie

    Bah!

    I declare this movie great!

    Now can we *please* have the inexplicably overlooked Freecell movie everyone has been waiting for?

  15. Obitim
    Black Helicopters

    Tin Foil Moment

    What's to say that the original Kickstarter wasn't to get a bit of early publicity for the actual movie?

    I'll put my tinfoil hat back on now...

  16. DNTP

    I want a Minecraft Movie with at least one female character in it so I can see how the art style of Minecraft illustrates breasts.

    OK, Rule 34 tell me that the answer is, in fact, square breasts.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      They already have such characters. They have no breasts. The game is aimed at people, and the character is a square people project onto.

      Look at the cows/chickens/pigs for more information on how such things are "illustrated" in the game. :P

  17. Daggerchild Silver badge
    Childcatcher

    Needs more zombies/survival horror.

    Add in a DayZ element, with blocky humans trying to scam, farm, and generally be a dick to other blocky humans.

    Hrm. A lego horror film.. is that even possible?

    1. southpacificpom
      Facepalm

      Re: Needs more zombies/survival horror.

      Don't add Dayz to anything as it will never be released and will become vapourware.

  18. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge
    Angel

    Come on

    Hollywood.... if you can make a film out of minecraft , at least give us Team Fortress 2 : The movie

    What could be better? its got a bunch of demented morons dressed in silly outfits beating the crap outa one another.....

    Where my 10% cut of the profits?

  19. SoaG

    Prediction

    There will be a scene with the 1812 Overture and more than a few Creepers.

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