The Minecraft movie gets a new director

Mojang announced today that Rob McElhenney has signed on as the director of the upcoming Minecraft movie. And in other news, there is apparently an upcoming Minecraft movie.

It's a bit embarrassing to admit, but I honestly had no idea that a Minecraft movie was happening at all. Perhaps that's because so little has been said about it: It was announced in early 2014, but then the wheels came off in December of that same year when then-director Shawn Levy dropped out over creative differences. Levy said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that his idea for the flick "had a bit of a Goonies flair," but added that he wasn't allowed to talk about it in any depth.

The most obvious challenge facing a Minecraft film, as Levy pointed out, is that the game lacks much of a narrative. The challenge of directing a box of digital Legos into a film that will keep butts in seats for 90 minutes now falls to McElhenny, who's best known to the world for creating, and playing Mac on, the FX series It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.