Minecraft-maker Mojang has stepped in to prevent the making of a film set in the game's block-built world. The creators of Birth of a Man had launched an appeal on Kickstarterfor $600,000 (£366,000) to fund production of the film. But barely a day after the project had been launched, it was cancelled with no explanation by its creator. Mojang founder Markuss Persson later posted a message on Twitter to explain why it was shut down. "We don't allow [half-a-million-dollar Kickstarter projects] based on our [intellectual property] without any deals in place," wrote Mr Persson, also known as Notch, in a tweet. The message is believed to refer to the fact that there was no licensing deal arranged between Mojang and the film-makers to use blocks, items and other elements identical to those seen in the game. The film was scheduled to be released on YouTube later in 2014. A teaser film on the Kickstarter project page showed concept footage mixing live action with landscapes, creatures and weapons seen in the game. In the short film, director Brandon Laatsch said he had been working on the idea for a Minecraft film for more than 12 months. As he and others involved with the project were dedicated gamers, he hoped that the finished film would be better than other films based on well-known games, he said. "Minecraft is the perfect video game to adapt to a film," he said in the teaser video. "The reason is that it doesn't have a character, it doesn't have a story, which to me is a big benefit because we can come up with our own original story." Mr Laatsch has yet to comment on why the project was cancelled or whether it is likely to be revived after negotiating with Mojang about licensing its intellectual property.
