The Guardian interviewed Mojang Chief Operating Officer Vu Bui recently and peppered him with questions about the Minecraft movie and Minecraft licensing.
Bui, who would be in a position to know, says it’s not clear when the live-action Minecraft movie is coming out because it’s in the early development stages.
“I still have no idea. A long time. I’m going to guess three years, but it could be four, probably not two. 3-4 years seems to be a reasonable bet,” he said.
The movie is being produced by Roy Lee (producer of The LEGO Movie) and Jill Messick at Warner Brothers. Bui said taking the movie to Warner Brothers has been a good choice.
Vu Bui. Photo via Twitter.
“They respect the brand, respect the IP, and want to make something that is going to be awesome, not just capitalize on the success of the game,” Bui said.
Bui wouldn’t comment on what the story would be, but he said Mojang’s philosophy is that there are no set stories in Minecraft, just the stories players tell.
“We don’t want any story that we make, whether it’s a movie or a book, to create some sort of ‘this is the official Minecraft, this is how you play the game’ thing. That would discourage all the players who don’t play in that way,” Bui said. “When coming up with a story, we want to make sure it is just a story within Minecraft, as opposed to the story within Minecraft.”
Bui also said that, in general, Mojang is very careful and particular about any licensed products it approves.
“Licensing is a small portion of our business, and we want to keep it that way. We’re a games studio, and I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon,” Bui said.
As for Minecraft community creations like birthday cakes and toys, Bui said the company would have something “coming out soon” to “clarify what people can do with our brand.” Bui said the company encourages fan works, but it draws the line at people taking Mojang’s existing graphics and slapping them on a product.
A desire to encourage fan creativity is one of the reasons why Mojang has been reluctant to release many licensed products, he said. Cake toppers, for example, would probably have hurt the creativity of Minecraft cakes.
“Once you put out the official one, people would buy it because it’d be easier than making it themselves. We’re more interested in what people make for themselves: it’s way more exciting for us to have people sitting together and having ideas for Minecraft parties, rather than us just selling some cheesy Minecraft products,” Bui said.
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