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Robert McElhenney, best known for his role as Mac on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, has revealed the reason why his Minecraft movie fell through with Mojang and Warner Bros. Pictures (via games radar).
The idea for a Minecraft movie was punted about in late 2014, with developer Mojang and Warner Bros. Pictures collaborating in the “early days of development.” Night at the Museum and Stranger Things director Shawn Levy was attached but left, and then the project was given to Rob McElhenney.
Evidently, the director and producer is no longer on board for the Minecraft movie, and he elaborated why on the most recent episode of the HappySadConfused podcast. His vision for the movie would explore players’ “agency over their experience in this digital landscape,” and the studio resonated with this pitch. But, in 2018, Toby Emmerich took over as chairman of Warner Bros. Pictures, and he didn’t like the idea as much. As such, director Peter Sollet stepped into McElhenney’s shoes and started from scratch, even though McElhenney had been working on the adaptation for nearly three years.
“I don’t harbour any resentment,” he said. “I get it. I get the way that it works.” McElhenney iterated that the creative freedom of Minecraft is “really profound,” and how it leads to amazing things. “What an amazing tool, much like Legos except now you’re talking about infinite possibilities because it’s digital, to give to kids—and not just kids, but any person who feels powerless,” he explained. The director’s most recent undertaking is Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet, a comedy web series set in a video game studio, which explores “the intricacies of the human condition through hilarious and innovative ways.”
The Minecraft movie will premiere on March 4, 2022.
