Rough news, Minecraft fans. The big-screen adaptation of the hugely popular video game has hit another roadblock, with Rob McElhenney dropping out as director, most likely pushing back the expected May 2019 release date.
“No, that is not happening,” the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia star told The Wrap, which doesn't really leave much room for debate, does it?
Warner Bros. is apparently reassembling the entire project with McElhenney's departure, bringing on the Nee Brothers (The Last Romantic) to pen an entirely new script. Wonder Woman writer Jason Fuchs had previously taken a crack at the franchise along with McElhenney.
If you're unfamiliar with Minecraft, it's basically a virtual world-builder, in which players use blocky, Lego-like cubes to create whatever communities and structures their imagination allows. If you're thinking that doesn't exactly lend itself to a feature-length story, you are almost certainly correct. But the game is massively popular, boasting about 100 million users worldwide. As we know from such unfortunate situations as the Alf Reboot Debacle™, there isn't much Hollywood won't try and adapt if it has that sweet, delicious IP.
If nothing else, producer Roy Lee (The Lego Movie) has said some promising things in the past regarding the game's developer, Mojang, being involved in the project:
“The company, Mojang, is very involved in the development. So they know everything is going to be in the movie that can give us insight into future updates so we can put things into the movie around the same time they relaunch newer versions of the game and at the same time, potentially taking ideas from the movie and putting them into the game. So I don’t know exactly what things are going into the game, but they know exactly what’s going into the movie."
On the other hand, that was back in 2016, back when the adaptation had a bit better of a foundation to stand on. As far as we know, Steve Carell is still attached to star, but with a complete rewrite of the script, even that is big ol' shruggy shoulders.
