Momoa and Black Bring Comedy to A Minecraft Movie
In Jared Hess’s The Minecraft Movie, Jason Momoa and Jack Black lead a fantasy-comedy adventure ten years in the making, bringing the iconic block world to life for fans and newcomers alike.
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Hollywood stars Jason Momoa and Jack Black have used humor and great performances to bring Minecraft, the best-selling video game of all time, to life in “The Minecraft Movie.” The 2011 Swedish video game, known for its blocky imagery, is about creating almost anything imaginable using farmable resources, Reuters has reported.
In “The Minecraft Movie,” directed by “Napoleon Dynamite” director Jared Hess, Black plays Steve, who has spent most of his life trapped in an alternate dimension called Overworld. In the real world, Garrett (Momoa), Dawn (Daniel Brooks), and siblings Natalie (Emma Myers) and Henry (Sebastian Hansen) stumble upon Steve’s belongings and are transported by a portal to the Overworld, where they must learn his secrets in order to survive.
Jason Momoa
Serving the game’s huge fan base and creating an engaging experience for audiences was tough, says Momoa, who also produced the fantasy adventure. “It’s a big responsibility,” he said at the film’s world premiere in London on Sunday. “The producer I did Dune with brought me this movie. He said, ‘You need to do a comedy.’ “I’ve always wanted to do this. So this is my first comedy,” the Aquaman actor said.
Steve provided a “clean canvas” for “School of the Year” and “Kung Fu Panda” actor Black. “He doesn’t have a voice or any personality to speak of; it’s all what you put your imagination into it. It was fun to put myself into it and go crazy, turn it up to 11 and let Jared dial it down however he saw fit in the editing,” he said.
The film was 10 years in the making
The film was more than a decade in the making. Focusing on a single script helped it get past the finish line, said Jens Bergensten, chief creative officer at the game’s developer, Mojang Studios. “I think part of the explanation is in the title — it’s a Minecraft movie. In the Minecraft community, thousands of players have created their own stories. So when we realized we wanted to tell a story in Minecraft, it became a lot easier,” he said. “The Minecraft Movie,” which also stars Jennifer Coolidge, opens worldwide on Wednesday.