One of the most popular video game franchises of the past few years is on track to potentially become a movie.  Deadline reports that Warner Bros. has acquired the rights to Minecraft, an open world-style game from Swedish indie developer Mojang AB.  The game was initially released to the public in 2009 as a developmental version, followed by the official full release in November 2011.  It’s a creative game in which players are able to build practically anything they want out of textured cubes in a 3D environment, with multiple modes allowing the player to either fight for survival or let their imagination run wild by simply creating.  Hit the jump for more on the project.

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Image via Telltale

It’s no surprise that this news comes right after Warner Bros. just launched The LEGO Movie to immense success.  The animated film’s worldwide gross now stands at $279.5 million after just three weeks in release and it’s showing no signs of slowing down.  Indeed, Deadline reports that Warner Bros. has tapped LEGO Movie co-producer Roy Lee to produce Minecraft alongside Jill Messick (Mean Girls).  There’s no word on what the Minecraft movie will actually look like as the ink is still dry on the rights acquisition, but it will apparently be a live-action film and is already generating “huge” interest from writers and filmmakers.

I’m not personally familiar with Minecraft so I can’t speculate as to what the best route would be for a feature film, but the “build to your heart’s content” theme feels in line with The LEGO Movie so I’m curious to see if they’ll go the family friendly route or if the pic will be more teenager-oriented.  I’ll defer to you, Minecraft fans, to sound off in the comments below.

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