Jack Black will Star in Minecraft Movie

Movies

The video game adaptations are coming en masse, and it looks like Jack Black will be in about 80% of them. According to Deadline, Black will star in the upcoming Minecraft movie, which is being developed by Warner Bros., Legendary, and Vertigo, and will be directed by Jared Hess. Jason Momoa will play the lead in Minecraft, with Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, and Sebastian Eugene Hansen also starring. Jack Black will play Steve, who I can only assume is a miner. Black recently played Bowser/King Koopa, the villain of 2023’s massive hit The Super Mario Bros. Movie; he will also provide the voice of Claptrap in the Borderlands film, coming later this year.

I never played a Minecraft game because they look boring as sin, but the synopsis for the movie makes it sound a little more interesting than I thought: something about a rising evil and a “group of unlikely adventurers” who have to save the world. I figured it was just about mining; maybe that’s how they save the world. Not that it makes me want to see the movie, but at least I understand how they could get an actual story out of this. What shocks me is that Minecraft is apparently the best-selling video game of all time; that seems insane to me. I could see something like one of the Super Mario Bros. Games, or a Final Fantasy, or even a Legend of Zelda, but Minecraft? You never can tell what will catch on, I suppose. And Jack Black is good for these video game adaptations; he’s a talented voice actor, and while he can obviously do comedy and keep these films light for kids, he’s capable of being malevolent as well. I didn’t recognize him as King Koopa in The Super Mario Bros. Movie until he started singing. (Speaking of which, Deadline also says Tenacious D is on tour; that’d be a fun concert.)