Sitting atop the global box office is A Minecraft Movie, a film that’s taken 11 years and 28 writers to get to the screen.
After struggling in development for the best part of a decade, cinemas were packed out this past weekend as A Minecraft Movie opened to the kind of numbers we’ve not seen for a while. Over $300m of business was done around the globe in the three days, and with school holidays kicking off, Warner Bros’ bank balance should look a fair amount healthier by the time the film has completed its run.
It’s little secret that A Minecraft Movie went through plenty of creatives on its way to the screen, though, with Jared Hess the director who finally got it completed. But also, a lot of writers were involved. The final WGA-sanctioned credits for the film list six different names. Story on the film is credited to Allison Schroeder, Chris Bowman and Hubbel Palmer. The actual script for the 101 minute movie is credited to Bowman, Palmer, Neil Widener, Gavin James and Chris Galletta.
Pop along to the WGA website though, and the list of names grows. It notes a whole bunch of writers given additional credit, for ‘additional literary material (non on-screen)’.
Deep breath, then. There’s:
Megan Amram, Kevin Biegel, John Francis Daley, Dana Fox, Hannah Friedman, Jason Fuchs, Jonathan Goldstein, Jared Hess, Phil Augusta Jackson, Lauryn Kahn, Rob McElhenney, Kieran Mulroney, Michele Mulroney, Aaron Nee, Adam Nee, Zak Penn, Simon Rich, Peter Sollet, Laura Steinel, Jon Spaihts, Oren Uziel, Ben Wexler.
There’s two ways of looking at all of this. On the one hand, it suggests a whole bunch of people in cliched Hollywood style being hired to write, then rewrite, then polish, then rewrite a screenplay. On the other, this might just be a more accurate representation of how many people are often involved in such productions.
By way of comparison, though, only five writers get credit at the WGA for the 2022 Uncharted movie, and if we go back to 2018’s Tomb Raider, it’s down to three. In fact, it’s hard to find another movie project with quite so many names listed, at least with enough involvement to get credit.
A Minecraft Movie is all but certain to have a sequel in the near future anyway, and some of those 28 writers may well be angling for the gig. It might be quite a battle.
