Despite being released back in 2009 in beta, Minecraft is one of the most widely played games today. The indie title has been nothing short of a phenomenon, racking up millions of sales and dominating gaming news over the past 5 years. And these well-documented success stories (established markets) don’t avoid Hollywood for long – a Minecraft movie is in production.

Minecraft logo

Warner Bros. – who recently enjoyed critical and fiscal success with The Lego Movie – have acquired the rights from Mojang, the Swedish company behind the game, whose name means ‘Gadget’ in English. Minecraft’s creator, Notch, revealed the news on Twitter. "Someone is trying leak the fact that we're working with Warner Brothers on a potential Minecraft Movie," said Markus Persson. "I wanted to be the leak!"

Persson then confirmed the announcement in an email to Polygon, which read: "It's for real. I think every part of that tweet was real, including me wanting to be the one to spill the news about a potential movie. He added: "Also, I [am] very well aware that this might be Minecraftjumping the shark, but how often do you get to be part of making a movie?"

According to Deadline, the movie will be live action, and Roy Lee (who worked on the Lego Movie) will produce alongside Jill Messick. Like The Lego Movie, Minecraft is a huge franchise; it has just passed over 100M users and has been downloaded to 14.3M PCs. It is also available on PS3, Xbox 360, iOS and Android.

MinecraftMinecraft is simple in its mechanics, but complicated creations abound

The news of the movie comes after Mojang shut down the Kickstarter for a Minecraft fan film earlier this month. And while fans might be more assured with their beloved franchise being in the hands of Warner Bros., the live action component may come as an unwelcome surprise; the film almost certainly lends itself to animation.

Either way, this is huge news for both the gaming and movies communities. With millions of people across the globe playing Minecraft, and millions more set to find out what it is with the movie announcement, Notch and Mojang’s amazing achievement will find an even bigger scale on which to thrive.