Jack Black, the actor and comedy musician who has made more than one film based on a video game, will be joining another movie adaptation of a popular video game series. Deadline reports that Black will be part of the cast of the long-in-development Minecraft movie.
Deadline says the movie will be starting production soon in New Zealand. Black will join Jason Momoa who has the lead role in the film and is also a producer. The movie is being directed by Jared Hess, who previously directed Black in the film Nacho Libre. Other cast members of the Minecraft film include Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, and Sebastian Eugene Hansen. Details about the movie, including the plot and what roles the actors will play in it, are still top secret.
Black recently voiced the role of Bowser in 2023"s hit CGI movie adaptation, The Super Mario Bros Movie, based on the Nintendo video game series. He"s also handling the voice of Claptrap, the joke-filled robot in the movie adaptation of Gearbox"s Borderlands game series, which is due to hit theaters in August 2024.
Black voiced and was the visual inspiration for the likeness of Eddie Riggs, the main character in Double Fine"s action-adventure game Brutal Legend, which launched in 2009. Ironically, Double Fine is now owned by Microsoft. Black has also posted gaming content on his own YouTube channel JablinskiGames.
The Minecraft film has been in development hell in Hollywood for a number of years, with many different directors attached to the project and many different release dates. At one point, the movie was going to be directed by It"s Always Sunny In Philadelphia"s Rob McElhenney, but he passed on the movie in 2018. At another point, Peter Sollet was announced in 2019 to direct for a release date in March 2022, but the Covid-19 pandemic changed that plan. Now, Jared Hess is looking to release the movie on April 4, 2025.