The Minecraft Movie Almost Had A Completely Different Director

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Hollywood, a movie about the globally popular video game “Minecraft” was being made. Inspired perhaps by the success of “The LEGO Movie,” which took the rather simple block toys of childhood and created a cinematic miracle that made more than $468 million at the worldwide box office, Mojang Studios started looking at turning its own popular building-block game into a blockbuster movie. But who to helm it? “The LEGO Movie” had Chris Miller and Phil Lord of “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” and “21 Jump Street” fame, and “Minecraft” needed someone with similar comedy chops.

Enter “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” series creator and star Rob McElhenney, who stepped in after “Night at the Museum” director Shawn Levy joined and left the project in a very short time. (He went on to direct a little movie called “Deadpool & Wolverine,” so we think he’ll be fine.) McElhenney seemed like a pretty strange fit for a family film based on the very adult comedy of “It’s Always Sunny,” but then again, “Mad Max” director George Miller made “Happy Feet,” so stranger things have happened!

Unfortunately, things fell apart and McElhenney left the project in 2018, although he opened up about what went wrong on the “HappySadConfused” podcast in 2020 (via GameSpot). He explained that he’s a big fan and actually plays the game with his sons, and he was excited about the project because “Minecraft” isn’t a narrative-based game and he had so much more room to explore. He said that the idea was even more exciting than LEGOs because of the “infinite possibilities” of the digital realm, and that it could really help anyone who feels powerless. “I think everybody feels marginalized to an extent. Your boss is telling you what to do all day long, or your spouse is,” he explained. “You just feel like you don’t have this sense of agency over your own life. The game gave you that, and I thought that’s a really profound experience.”

According to McElhenney, he visited Pixar and brought Warner Bros. a pitch about “people taking agency over their experience in this digital landscape,” which sounds like the sort of meta-commentary the man behind “Always Sunny” might bring to the table. He added that WB even agreed to invest $150 million in making the movie, at which point screenwriters started coming on board, like “Wonder Woman” scribe Jason Fuchs. Things seemed to be pretty sunny in “Minecraft” movie land, but that was about to change.

Unfortunately for McElhenney and anyone interested in his vision, Warner Bros. had a change in leadership in 2016 when Greg Silverman left the studio and was replaced by Toby Emmerich. Emmerich wanted to take the studio in a more controlled direction with less pushback from directors, and McElhenney’s open-ended idea was apparently just not what he was looking for. 

McElhenney still ended up working on a video game project with his own Apple TV+ series, “Mythic Quest,” which is about a video game studio working on the latest update of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Be that as it may, it’s still a far cry from the family-friendly silliness of “A Minecraft Movie.” All the same, McElhenney said that there are no hard feelings about the movie because he understands the nature of the industry. What’s interesting, however, is that he still may end up credited as a member of the film’s writing team despite not having been a part of the project for almost a decade. 

“A Minecraft Movie” has gone through more development changes than “Minecraft” has game updates, and since McElhenney left the project, plenty of other writers and directors signed on. “Frozen 2” screenwriter Allison Schroeder was attached at one point, and Steve Carrell was even slated to star, likely as Steve, who is now being portrayed by the “Kung Fu Panda 4” himself, Jack Black. So many people have been involved in the screenwriting process that press releases haven’t included any information about credited screenwriters, which will likely be determined in WGA arbitration later on.

The Internet Movie Database isn’t the final word on movie credits, but currently lists six different screenwriters on “A Minecraft Movie,” and McElhenney is among them. Schroeder is also credited, along with “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” director Peter Sollett, “Dune: Part Two” screenwriter Jon Spaights, “Masterminds” writer Hubbel Palmer, and Chris Bowman (who worked on the “Napoleon Dynamite” television series). 

“A Minecraft Movie” finally ended up being directed by “Napoleon Dynamite” helmer Jared Hess and will be in theaters on April 4, 2025. Maybe by then WB will actually have the screenwriter credit situation figured out.