Although Date Night and Real Steel helmer Shawn Levy started developing the big screen feature this past October, Warner Bros. Pictures’ planned Minecraft movie is without a helmer. Levy, along with screenwriters Kieran and Michele Mulroney, have departed the project. Variety reports that creative differences between Levy and the game’s publisher, Mojang, led to an amicable parting of the ways.
Minecraft, which, earlier this year, passed 100 million registered users, is officially described as follows:
Minecraft is a game about breaking and placing blocks. At first, people built structures to protect against nocturnal monsters, but as the game grew players worked together to create wonderful, imaginative things.
It can also be about adventuring with friends or watching the sun rise over a blocky ocean. Its pretty. Brave players battle terrible things in The Nether, which is more scary than pretty. You can also visit a land of mushrooms if it sounds more like your cup of tea.
Levy himself has had a busy 2014. He directed both the ensemble comedy drama This is Where I Leave You and is about to release the third film in his Ben Stiller-led family adventure trilogy, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, on December 19. Currently, Levy is eyeing a trio of diverse features, including the “1,001 Arabian Nights”-inspired comedy adventure Forty Thieves, the dramatic fantasy The City That Sailed (with Will Smith attached to headline) and a recently-announced untitled comedy take on J. M. Barrie’s Tinker Bell, with Melissa McCarthy attached to play the lead.
Warner Bros. Pictures, meanwhile, is on the lookout for a new Minecraft helmer and expects to have one announced early next year. Roy Lee and Jill Messick remain attached to produce.
