Hugely popular block-building game Minecraft could soon be turned into a film.

Minecraft creator Markus Persson revealed this week that the game's maker was talking to Warner Brothers about the project.

Mr Persson said he revealed the news to thwart someone else who was trying to leak information about the deal.

Movie news site Deadline reported the one of the producers of the recent Lego Movie is handling the project.

Warner was planning to turn a "live action" version of the game into a film, said Deadline.

Work on the film is at a very early stage as Warner only recently acquired the rights to use Minecraft's iconic blocks, characters and monsters.

The news comes less than two weeks after Minecraft creator Mojang took action to shut down a Kickstarter project seeking to raise funds for a film based on the game.

Film adaptations of best-selling games have a rocky history in Hollywood and many projects never get beyond the planning stage.

A movie based in the science-fictional Halo universe, for example, has been under development for nine years but filming has yet to start despite several different scripts being written.

Similarly films based on Bioshock, Gears of War and Metal Gear Solid Work have all been talked about but none has yet to start shooting.

One game that is definitely being turned into a film is World of Warcraft, filming of which reportedly started in late January with British director Duncan Jones in charge. The film is set to be released in early 2016.