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April 18 (UPI) — Aquaman and Dune star Jason Momoa is set to star in Warner Bros. Studios’ upcoming live-action Minecraft movie.
The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and Deadline reported Monday that Momoa is in final negotiations to star in the live-action film based on the massively popular video game.
Minecraft is a first-person survival game developed and published by Sweden’s Mojang Studios. The first installment in the franchise debuted in November 2011, with the latest, Minecraft Dungeons, being released in May 2020.
Minecraft allows players to mine materials and use blocks to create structures and virtual worlds. The game quickly became a sensation and has since been ported to multiple platforms. It is the best-selling video game of all time, with more than 238 million copies sold.
Napoleon Dynamite filmmaker Jared Hess will direct the Minecraft film from a script by Chris Bowman and Hubbell Palmer. Mary Parent and Roy Lee will produce, while Jill Messick will receive a posthumous producing credit for developing the movie before her death in 2018.
Executive producers include Jon Berg, Cale Boyter and Jon Spaihts. Mojang Studios’ Lydia Winters and Vu Bui also will help produce the film.
Warner Bros. has been developing a project based on the video game for years, with Shawn Levy, Rob McElhenney and Peter Sollett previously attached to direct. At one point, Steve Carell was expected to star in Minecraft‘s movie adaptation.
Momoa and Warner Bros. have Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom — the sequel to the 2018 film Aquaman — due out in March 2023.
The 42-year-old Momoa also stars in the Apple TV+ series See. In addition, he is known for roles in HBO’s Game of Thrones and HBO Max’s Peacemaker.
