world-of-warcraft-movie
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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.
WoW movie still needs a writer, Blizzard's CGI team won't be involved
When you've just released an expansion pack that sold more copies than most major stand-alone releases, all in less than 24 hours, you know you're sitting on a goldmine of a franchise. Blizzard, of course, is aware of this, what with World of Warcraft getting a licensed miniature game and a coming feature film adaptation.And speaking of the feature film adaptation, we have some elusive news about that. MTV's Multiplayer blog had a chat with Blizzard's Frank Pearce about the project. The scoop is that the studio, Legendary Pictures, is still looking for a screenwriter and director. Obviously, that means the movie is very early in development.MTV also asked Pearce if Blizzard's own world-renowned CGI animators would be involved in producing the special effects for the movie. Pearce said that the suggestion has "come up in discussions but it's not something we've really considered because it takes so long to generate just the brief amount of footage that we create for the game."
Since the WoW movie probably won't happen anyway, here's why it shouldn't
Above is the sole bit of evidence that the World of Warcraft movie has seen any completed work at all -- one item of concept art. We know very little about the film, and the only news we've gotten recently is that Uwe Boll will not be directing it (admittedly that's very good news). Joystiq blogger Kevin Kelly is perfectly fine with that, as he wrote a blog entry over at Spout about why this movie really oughtn't ever get made at all.Three reasons were provided: Dungeons & Dragons was a disaster, it couldn't earn back its huge budget even if every WoW player in the world went to see it, not even most WoW players know what the story of the game really is. There was a fourth reason, too, but it isn't so much a reason as why it shouldn't be made as why it won't be -- the concept art is all we have after two years.It's true that the movie couldn't make it on WoW players alone; it'd have to be appealing to people unfamiliar with the franchise, too. But we really doubt that's going to happen, and it doesn't matter anyway because, as we said, it probably will never get made![Via WoW Insider]
Breakfast Topic: How to make WoW work on the silver screen
I'm really enjoying the Heroes coming in this summer's movie lineup. I absolutely loved Iron Man, I'm stoked about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and I can't wait Christian Bale's encore Batman performance in The Dark Knight. There's been noise since Blizzcon 2007 that there will be a World of Warcraft movie. The synopsis on IMDB reads: Thrall will be in the movie. It will be told primarily from the Alliance point of view The time of the movie is set about 1 year before World of Warcraft begins. The film is mainly about cultures in conflict. It won't be an adventure movie like LoTR, more of a war film. But it has little other information about what may be included. One thing we know for sure is that Uwe Boll (of BloodRayne infamy) will not be receiving the movie rights. I expect any WoW movie to be as abhorrently bad as the as the campy but quaint Dungeons and Dragons film of 2000. To be successful, a Hollywood movie would need to appeal to a larger audience than WoW fans.
Thomas Tull on the World of Warcraft Movie
At his keynote address for the Hollywood & Games conference, Thomas Tull, Legendary Pictures chairman, talked briefly about Legendary's work with Blizzard on the upcoming World of Warcraft movie. Of course he doesn't give us anything concrete, but some of the things he's saying gives me a good feeling about the film's prospects. For example:I have very strong feelings -- from the movie side -- that making movies based on games just because they sold well is a really bad idea. There've been some like that that weren't up to snuff just out of the gate. It doesn't matter to us if it's based on a graphic novel like 300, or a TV show – if there's a great universe and story, that's what's interesting to us.A well-done movie based on the lore of World of Warcraft could be a cool thing -- and it certainly sounds like that's what the people at Legendary want to do. [Fan art by Ya Lee, and thanks Simon for the tip!]
Spielberg to Direct Warcraft Movie?
Apparently, Variety is reporting that Steven Spielberg will be directing the upcoming live action World of Warcraft movie. It seems a little unreal to hear a big name like Spielberg's mentioned in connection with a video game-based project, but if anyone could make this crazy combination work, it would be Blizzard. With the success of other fantasy projects (i.e. Lord of the Rings) and World of Warcraft's immense existing fan base, perhaps it really is the type of project that could attract this level of talent.Update: This has been found to be pure fiction.
Breakfast Topic: Game to Movie
So the recent movie rumors have been confirmed as legitimate - but how well will Azeroth really translate in a live action movie? The World of Warcraft we all know and love has such an exaggerated and cartoony style, and while I can see that easily translating into a CGI film, I have trouble envisioning it transferring into a film with live actors. Of course WoW has the advantage of a detailed world environment and history to work from, so all may not yet be lost. But what do you think - is will Azeroth be able to go Hollywood, or will it be another video game film flop?
