By Filmmaker Jared Hess and his wife and co-writer Jerusha Hess won’t be able to attend the 20th anniversary screenings of their breakout low-budget comedy “Napoleon Dynamite” later this month at the Sundance Film Festival.
Hess is in Auckland, New Zealand presenty with filming kicking off this week on the movie adaptation of the “Minecraft” video game juggernaut starring Jason Momoa and Jack Black.
Speaking with The Salt Lake Tribune, he says he was developing a movie with Legendary Pictures that didn’t happen which is when he was offered the project.
Of the challenge of adapting it, he says:
“Trying to adapt something that doesn’t have a story – it’s an open sandbox game. … I like the challenge. There’s got to be a fun, ridiculous movie here. And there is.”
He says there’s pressure to get it right, and to avoid what happened with the infamous first “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie early trailer which showed a character design so widely rejected it led to the film undergoing a massive overhaul:
“I think anybody that does any IP, they just want to avoid an ugly ‘Sonic’ situation. I just can’t disappoint the 10-year-olds, or they’re going to murder us.”
He also confirms Grant Major, who worked on Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, is the production designer on this. The “Minecraft” film is slated to open in 2025.
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