A brief announcement was made last week about the upcoming Minecraft movie, which spurred a bit of discussion on what it is, when it comes out, and what was known about it. Information about the movie has been fairly limited up to this point, so rather than dwell on speculation, we will cover exactly what is definitively known so far.
- The movie was revealed on February 27, 2014 by Notch when he posted on Twitter that someone was trying to leak Mojang's partnership with Warner Bros. about a Minecraft film. He stated that he wanted to be the leak. Script work began on March 2, 2014.
- On October 8, 2014, Vu Bui stated that the movie was in "its early days of development", saying that it was a "large-budget production". He also stated that it might not be released until 2018.
- On July 21, 2015, Vu Bui announced that Rob McElhenney would serve as the director of the film, ultimately replacing former director, Shawn Levy. Levy was originally going to direct the film, but parted ways with the project because the studio "didn't dig the idea."
- Last week, Mojang announced the title and release date for "Minecraft: The Movie" by showing the front cover of the script, and publicly announcing a release date (May 24th, 2019).
- The film will be released in 3D and IMAX formats.
While it isn't uncommon to reveal a film's intended release date so far in advance (especially if it has a lot of hype behind it), very few significant details have come to light about the film itself. It is speculated (though not confirmed) that the movie will be live-action, rather than purely animated. This had been mentioned a number of times when the movie was first revealed in 2014, though there was nothing to follow suggesting who might be cast for roles, or what those roles could be.
Speculation on the possible plot of the film comes with few useful leads. Minecraft itself has no tangible plot, with the game's ending being a cryptic message more intended for the player than Steve, and little build-up to that. It is likely that the movie studio will create a plot whole-cloth, much like Telltale Games has done with Story Mode.
There is, as yet, zero mention of Herobrine.
As with many hidden projects, rumors abound about the movie. Information is trickling out slowly but surely, and we will update you as it happens.