raimi
Latest
What's your dream cast for the Warcraft movie?
A few weeks ago, Hollywood headlines were filled with talk that director Sam Raimi is trying to secure Hilary Swank for his next film, Oz: The Great and Powerful. Now, I know that's not especially interesting to the Warcraft community, but it got me thinking about the Warcraft film again, since Raimi will eventually be directing it. Who will Raimi try to cast in the Warcraft movie? Then around the same time, the WoW Insider team got word on the further developments of Michele Morrow's campaign to land the role of Sylvanas Windrunner. This sparked the idea that someone on staff should put together a dream cast for the future Warcraft movie. As the token film school dropout, I jumped on the assignment and promptly put together the most expensive movie cast list ever. Be sure to let us know what your picks for the Warcraft film would be! %Gallery-122920%
Breakfast Topic: What are your Warcraft movie predictions?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. With the Warcraft movie on the horizon (though probably the distant horizon, at best), a lot of us are wondering what it might be like. Sam Raimi, the director of the recent Spiderman movies, is still supposedly attached the direct the film. Outside of the director, though, there aren't really any people set in stone to work on the project. That leaves open a lot of speculation of who might land starring roles. Of course, that will also all depend on what story they end up using. As far as I know, they will not be basing the plot off any specific plot line we have now. We won't be seeing a movie about the Lich King or Deathwing's attack on Azeroth, though many of the important lore figures are likely to be around. Instead, this movie will focus on an as-of-yet unknown hero. I predict the main character will be human, both from the popularity of the race in game and the ease of casting a human, relatively. (There just aren't that many orcs in Hollywood.) I'd also go as far as to say this human will be functionally close to a warrior or a paladin, since American movies love to see brute force fighters and wrathful avengers. Someone like Chris Hemsworth is someone I could see being a lead actor. There are just so many potential plot lines, character choices, and talent specializations that could be chosen for this movie. What do you think the movie will be like? Are you expecting a typical adventure plot or something that is highly tuned to Warcraft themes? A star-studded cast or a bunch of talented unknowns?
Director predicts Warcraft film will break video game movie trend
Last week, Badass News posted an article detailing an interview with director Duncan Jones in which the Warcraft movie was one of the main topics of discussion. Jones is the son of David Bowie and director of the impressive science fiction flick Moon, as well as Source Code, another sci-fi title being released later this year. Though the interview reveals nothing about the production of the Warcraft movie, Jones thinks that the film is going to break the ongoing trend of terrible film adaptations of video games. In the article, Jones says he believes it's possible to make a good adaptation -- it just has to be approached properly. "A good game adaptation is where you find the story or the emotional aspect that's at the heart of a computer game and you replicate that on film. It doesn't mean you need to have first person perspective or try and capture the mechanics of a game," he says. Jones thinks the Warcraft film will be the film to break the mold because director Sam Raimi seems to be approaching the film correctly. "From the little I've read of interviews with him, the way he's approaching it makes so much sense. It's what I was talking about – it's not worrying about how the game plays, it's about creating the world of the game and investing the audience in that world." Jones explains that he's a serious gamer himself and is skeptical about other directors who claim the same. He doesn't think most directors have the time to be both hardcore gamers and filmmakers. Jones, on the other hand, says he stays up all night to accommodate his gaming habit and cites titles like Starcraft 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops. He also says he's looking forward to Diablo 3. Jones admits that he's "hugely jealous" of Raimi's getting the chance to direct the Warcraft film; the writer of the article goes so far as to suggest that Jones have a chance at directing it, since Raimi set it aside to work on The Great and Mighty Oz. That's not really quite how Hollywood works, though, so unless Raimi steps down from the project himself, I wouldn't count on his losing the project just yet.
Sam Raimi discusses Warcraft movie
Sam Raimi revealed quite a bit of information about his work on the Warcraft movie in a recent video interview with Collider.com at the Saturn Awards. Many promising things were said during the interview, but some points of interest include: Raimi and scriptwriter Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan, The Patriot) are working on a treatment for the film. So far they've written a 40-page document. Raimi is playing WoW to get a feel for the game world. He has a level 72 character. Legendary Pictures (Batman Begins, Inception) is excited about the project and Legendary Pictures founder and producer, Thomas Tull is a big fan of the game. The movie will be set entirely in the Warcraft universe. No video game component will exist in the film. (Thank Elune.) Raimi also addressed where he is at with the Oz prequel, a project he signed onto last week. Raimi is now currently signed on to direct both films, and though he does not provide any confirmation on which film he will direct first, in the interview he seems much more invested in the Warcraft film at the moment. He says in the interview, "well, right now, I'm not really committed to Oz. We're going to have to wait and see how that all goes, but I did read it. I love the script. I think it's a great project. It's something I'd like to become involved with." For the highlights from the interview, hit the jump.
Warcraft movie update: Metzen says "still getting it together"
It's been months since we've heard a peep on the Hollywood news lines about the Warcraft film or director Sam Raimi. When Spider-man 4 was canceled in January, there was speculation that Raimi might be headed to the Warcraft film next. A month later, we reported a rumor that Raimi's next project might not be Warcraft, but a film adaptation of The Shadow. Seeing as Sony let the rights to the film lapse in March, it doesn't sound like The Shadow is in any state of serious development; but it does raise the question of what exactly is Raimi up to right now? While we still have no exact answer to that, Chris Metzen gave us a small update on the film in an interview over at vg247 published yesterday. When asked if a considerable amount of time was being spent on the movie, Metzen replied, "I wouldn't say "considerable" at all just yet. We've been through a number of story meetings, and we're still kind of getting it together with Raimi and his team and jamming on themes that we want to chase." Sadly, the interview didn't reveal many specifics, but Metzen responded favorably when asked if he was concerned about dissappointing Warcraft fans: "Nobody wants to screw it up: we all want to hit it hard and have it be something that is as resonant and canonical as it can be. But given what Warcraft is, with all these moving parts, we're going to have to take some liberties here and there. I'm under no illusions about that fact ... " It's hard to draw any new or concrete conclusions from the interview, but it's good to see that the movie is still being talked about. WoW.com will keep you updated as we learn more.
Raimi tackling another movie before Warcraft
You remember the Warcraft movie, right? A couple weeks ago, we learned that Spiderman 4 had melted down, and director Sam Raimi, and the entire cast, are being swapped out while the Marvel Empire reboots the franchise. The link here is that Mr. Raimi is also the one who's directing the Warcraft film for Legendary Pictures. The Spiderman fiasco drew rumors that Warcraft was coming that much sooner, since Raimi was now free to work on it. However, news appeared yesterday that his next project is The Shadow, so it looks like we're going to have to be patient a little longer. But hey, we're Blizzard fans, right? We can be patient. And honestly, I'm still not convinced that a live-action Warcraft movie is a good idea. I mean, I like a lot of Raimi's work, and Legendary Pictures has made some great films, but... I dunno. We'll see.
Bruce Campbell and Metzen on the movie at Comic-Con
I have geeked out many times while writing for this site, but I think this is the geekiest geekout I've ever geeked out about: Bruce Campbell talking about World of Warcraft. He's hanging out at Comic-Con promoting Burn Notice (a series that I'm still watching, if only because of him), and IGN cornered him on the topic of his friend Sam Raimi's new movie, based on our very own Azeroth. Campbell says he has no idea what Raimi has in mind for the movie, and that he only just heard about the job when we did. But then he says something that will lift all of our geeky hearts: when it comes time for casting, Bruce says, "I'll get a call." And Raimi will say to him, "You play some schmuck. Some idiot guy. Some garbage man."We can't think of too many garbagemen in Azeroth -- Topper Mcnabb, maybe? But the fact that Campbell knows about the movie and is ready to take a role is good enough for us. And he isn't the only person speculating on the part he might play: Chris Metzen brought up Campbell at Comic-Con and suggested he might play a CG-based character, like a goblin. That doesn't sound so awesome to us, though -- you've gotta let that world-famous mug shine through. It does seem a little unlikely that Campbell would play a really huge part, but a lot of people have brought up Varian Wrynn, and we can't really think of any part more fitting (plus, maybe that means the movie will focus on Horde instead of Alliance). Hail to the King, baby!Keep an eye over on our sister site Massively for more Comic-Con coverage all this weekend, and if we hear any more about the movie, we'll be sure to let you know.[via BlizzPlanet]
Sam Raimi to direct WoW movie
Ain't It Cool News has uncovered one helluva juicy tidbit; one that has more or less came out of nowhere. Sam Raimi is set to direct the World of Warcraft movie. This news is coming out right before the San Diego ComicCon, which begins this week. According to Ain't It Cool News, the story should be hitting the trades later this week or next (Trades are daily papers in Hollywood about the latest goings on, more business than gossip news). Raimi is best known for directing all the recent Spiderman works and cult horror films. This likely means that a movie announcement is not far off – perhaps BlizzCon? You can also check out what to expect from a World of Warcraft movie. Edit: Schramm here. Adam wrote a great post, but he forgot the best three words of this news: Bruce Campbell cameo. There better be one. Update: Blizzard has since confirmed this news with a press release, made very late in the evening Tuesday PDT. A couple hours after this story was posted...huh.
