When Jack Black got the call to star in the "Minecraft" movie, the perks were plenty. He got to work alongside Jason Momoa, reunite with "Nacho Libre" director Jared Hess and engulf himself into a beloved gaming universe.
But before agreeing, Black turned to the real decision-makers: his sons, who are avid Minecraft players. They didn't just give their approval, but practically begged him to take the role.
Like his sons, Black has noticed the buzz since the release announcement of "A Minecraft Movie," which hits theaters Friday. The actor was already familiar with the video game, having played it occasionally with his sons while preparing for the live-action adaptation.
"My boys were playing it, and I wanted to speak their language," said Black, who stars as the main protagonist Steve, who becomes an expert Minecrafter after being sucked into the Overworld dimension. His character eventually teams ups with a band of misfits who are mysteriously pulled through a portal into this new realm by a cubic object that thrives on imagination.
The film also stars Momoa, Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Coolidge and Sebastian Hansen.
Before his character found himself in the Overworld, Black immersed himself in the Minecraft gaming world alongside his sons. He spent over 100 hours playing the game while on set.
"I put the work in," he said. "You got to put the days of work in. Watch YouTube videos to get some tips on how to survive that first night in the Overworld. I was pretty versed in it."
After Minecraft's 2009 release, it took only two years to reach a million players. Since then, it has sold over 235 million copies across various gaming platforms, cementing its status as a global phenomenon with its blend of creativity, exploration and survival elements.
The game's open-ended design lets players carve out their own experience, whether it's surviving against mobs, mining for resources, farming or using block-based structures to craft artistic masterpieces. It has also fostered a thriving multiplayer community where players collaborate to build their worlds together, while its educational applications extend to coding, architecture and problem solving.
At its core, Minecraft is a limitless digital sandbox, where imagination transforms simple blocks into everything from cozy homes to sprawling cities.
Minecraft creators' gameplay videos have generated millions of pageviews on YouTube.
Those are some of the elements that drew Myers and Hansen into the game during their childhoods.
"I played a lot during COVID," said Hansen, 14, who plays Henry, a shy but creative and intellectual kid trying to navigate his new high school. Once his character gets thrown in the Overworld, he feels comfortable with the environment.
"I played it a lot during my childhood, watching videos and stuff all the time," he said.
Myers began playing the pocket edition with her friends around age 10. She said the digital and real-world elements seamlessly complement each other.
"I think it's very versatile," said the 22-year-old actor who plays Natalie, a character who put her life plan's on hold to take care of Henry, her younger brother. "I think Minecraft kind of forces you to be creative and ... problem solve in ways that you probably wouldn't think of in the first place."
The road from console to cinema hasn't always been smooth.
Many video game adaptations have struggled at the box office, but recent hits like the "Sonic" series, "Five Nights at Freddy's" and "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" have proven the genre's potential.
These three films have dominated the box office, with "Super Mario Bros." raking in more than $146 million during its 2023 opening weekend, according to Comscore. The three "Sonic" films have debuted between $58-72 million, while "Five Nights at Freddy's" pulled in more than $80 million.
That's a significant leap from other adaptations like "The Angry Birds Movie 2," which Comscore records show had a lukewarm $10 million opening in 2019. Other attempts such as "Mortal Kombat ($23 million in 2021) and "Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City" ($5.3 million that same year) struggled to gain traction.
Black, who has starred in popular films like "School of Rock" and the "Kung Fu Panda" series, said he's never been a part of such a highly-anticipated movie as "Minecraft."
If you ask Hess, it's certainly not. For him, the game is a family affair, woven into his household dynamics as he and his kids frequently explore the Overworld together.
That made it an easy sell for him to direct "A Minecraft Movie."
"The game is one of my favorite games of all time, and it was such an important part of our family life," said Hess, 45, who directed films including "Napoleon Dynamite,Masterminds" and "Nacho Libre."
The game doesn't have a storyline, so Hess wanted to help create one for the movie based on his knowledge after playing it for hours.
"This world of Minecraft is so bonkers in such a perfect setting for an epic adventure movie that was really ridiculously funny," he said. "There's so many places you can go with it. There's no story to the game, so there was a lot of creative license to kind of come up with."
Torfi Frans Ólafsson said he's got thousands of hours clocked in on Minecraft, sometimes playing an entire night until 5 a.m., even if he has an 8 a.m. meeting. He recalled an entire weekend playing with his son, who was 6 at the time.
"I don't think we did anything else," said Ólafsson, a creative director at Minecraft and a producer of the film. "We had a mission. We're trying to kill the dragon. It was just a lot of work and he kept messing up. ... But it was a wonderful bonding moment between father and son."
Ólafsson added: "That's the thing that matters. This game brings people together and creates shared memories and give meanings to things."
