What the hell is going on with the casting for this Minecraft movie?

Every now and again, Hollywood seems to spontaneously decide it’s going to throw an inordinate amount of resources at a project—time, attention, the precious, life-giving energies and recognizable faces of marketable stars like Jack Black, Jason Momoa, and Danielle Brooks—in order to get some damn thing it’s been dragging its feet on finally done. Certainly, that seems to be what’s happening with the Minecraft movie right now: After a literal decade of kicking around as a big shrug on Warner Bros.’ film slate, the long-hypothetical video game adaptation has finally lined up a series of additional casting notices this week that suggest that director Jared “Yes, The Napoleon Dynamite Guy” Hess might actually get this thing done some time relatively soon.

Case in point: The reveal today that Hess has now recruited his old Gentlemen Broncos cast member Jemaine Clement to co-star in the film in an undisclosed role, because all the roles in the Minecraft movie are undisclosed, because what the hell is this movie? That goes just as much for Kate McKinnon, who was also announced today, joining yesterday’s addition of Jennifer Coolidge to a cast that, while it includes a few less-well-known names like Emma Myers and Sebastian Eugene Hansen, is absolutely stacked with comedy ringers.

All of which would make a lot more sense if anyone had any clue what the Minecraft movie might actually entail, but since it’s based off a game series that has literally no story of its own—there are blocks, you punch them, build stuff, etc., that’s it—we remain completely baffled as to what Hess and credited screenwriters Chris Bowman and Hubbel Palmer (all of whom are just the latest in a long line of previously announced writers and directors to hop on this cubic train) are actually building here. (Our cynical minds suggest the only reason this is finally getting a push from anybody high up in the chain of command is because Mario made a billion bucks at the box office last year.) Filming started this month in New Zealand, though, so presumably at some point we’ll end up seeing what this big pile of comedy stars and pretty blocks actually amounts to.

[via Deadline]