Jack Black joins Jason Momoa for live-action Minecraft movie

Jack Black is set to join Jason Momoa in the new live-action movie based on best-selling video game Minecraft.

According to reports in Deadline, the 54-year-old actor and Tenacious D musician will play a character named Steve.

The film will be directed by Napoleon Dynamite’s Jared Hess, and the cast also includes Wednesday‘s Emma Myers, Peacemaker‘s Danielle Brooks and child star Sebastian Eugene Hansen.

While plot details are still to be revealed, the movie is an adaptation of the best-selling video game of all time. Minecraft, which was first released in 2009, has sold over 300 million copies and has nearly 140 million monthly active players.

The film will be led by Momoa, after DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran said last month that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom could be his “last stand” as the aquatic superhero.

“We’ll see what happens with him beyond it,” said Safran. “I know that Jason will always have a home at DC, and at Warner Bros. In fact, his next movie is Minecraft.”

Black is no stranger to video game adaptations, having recently starred as Bowser in The Super Mario Bros Movie. Last year, the animated hit overtook Frozen (2013) to become the second highest-grossing animated film of all time.

By the end of May, The Super Mario Bros Movie had taken in US$1,288,321,030 at the global box office, nearly $4m more than Frozen’s total of US$1,284,540,518, without being adjusted for inflation.

The highest-grossing animated film of all time remains 2019’s sequel Frozen II, which took in $1,453,683,476 at the box office.

Last month, Black denied rumours that he will be joining season three of Mike White’s hit series The White Lotus.

The pair previously collaborated on films Orange County (2002) and School of Rock (2003); however, despite fan theories, they will not be reuniting for the next instalment of the popular comedy-drama.

Asked about the murmurings in a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Black said: “I’ll deny because that’s easy to tell the truth. I have to throw ice water on that sweet, sweet theory.”

Details of the forthcoming season of The White Lotus have remained tightly under wraps. Production on the new season was stalled due to the writers’ and actors’ strike, but White told Entertainment Weekly in November that he hoped to start filming “at the beginning of [2024]”.

“I’m seriously finishing scripts,” he said at the time, teasing that “it’s going to be a supersized White Lotus”.

Variety reported earlier this year that the show’s forthcoming season will be set in Thailand, filming at a Four Seasons resort as they have done in the past.