The ‘Aquaman’ star is reportedly wrapping up negotiations to headline a new film based on the best-selling video game of all time.
Jason Momoa is in the final stages of talks with Warner Bros. to star in the studio’s live-action adaptation of the hit video game, Minecraft.
Sources at Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter confirmed Momoa’s attachment to the project yesterday. Momoa has also been working with Warner Bros. on Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which is currently slated for a March 2023 release.
The Minecraft film will be produced by Mary Parent - producer of Dune, in which Momoa also starred - and Roy Lee. Jill Messick, adds THR, will “receiv[e] a posthumous producing credit for developing the film before her death in 2018.” Lydia Winters and Vu Bui - of Sweden’s Mojang Studios, which delivered the original game - will also produce. Jon Berg, Cale Boyter, and Jon Spaihts will serve as executive producers.
Jared Hess, best known for directing Napoleon Dynamite, will helm the project. At this time, not much is known about the film’s plot, other than that it will be chiefly inspired by the 2011 game -- which immerses players in a low-res, pixelated “sandbox” simulation, where they can use blocks to build entire worlds. In only a few years after its release, Minecraft amassed 100 million users, which led lead Microsoft to purchase Mojang for $2.5 billion in 2014.
Throwing their hat into the ring with another game adaptation is a fairly safe bet for Warner Bros. Between Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog features and its upcoming spinoff series, Sony’s Uncharted, Netflix’s The Cuphead Show!, and recently announced, in-the-works film versions of Bioshock, Fallout, and God of War, movies and shows based on games continue to generate significant buzz and revenue for the companies backing them. Add to that the fact that Minecraft is, to date, the best-selling video game of all time, and the move to greenlight the project, headlined by the ever-popular Momoa, appears to be as prudent as these types of moves can be.
Max Weinstein is a writer and editor based in Los Angeles. He is the Editor-at-Large of 'Dread Central' and former Editorial Director of 'MovieMaker.' His work has been featured in 'Cineaste,' 'Fangoria,' 'Playboy,' 'Vice,' and 'The Week.'
