Sam Raimi To Direct 'Warcraft' Movie

WYFF.com ^

[jakerobins]

"Spider-Man" and "Evil Dead" trilogy director Sam Raimi is set to enter the world of "Warcraft."

Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures announced Tuesday that Raimi will be at the helm of a live-action movie based on the blockbuster PC game franchise. The film will be distributed by Warner Bros.

"At its core, Warcraft is a fantastic, action-packed story," said Raimi. "I am thrilled to work with such a dynamite production team to bring this project to the big screen."

"Warcraft" debuted in 1994 and quickly developed a loyal following around the globe. It has since expanded to include several bestselling, award-winning PC games and a range of popular licensed products including novels, action figures, apparel, comic books and board games.

The "Warcraft" film will be produced by Charles Roven, who produced both "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight."

"Partnering with Sam Raimi exemplifies Legendary's mandate of marrying the highest quality intellectual property to world-class filmmakers" said Legendary CEO Thomas Tull. "Sam's passion for 'Warcraft' is undeniable and we know that he will create an incredible film worthy of Blizzard's phenomenal franchise. We look forward to collaborating with our partners at Warner Bros. and continuing our successful relationship with Chuck in bringing this rich new world to the screen."

[jakerobins]

Groovy....

[Crazieman]

Disappointed. Live action. Blizzard’s CG ability is second to none. Maybe Squaresoft is their best competitor on CG.

I don’t want a live action Blizzard film, I want a full length CG Blizzard film.

[LukeL]

[pburgh01]

Drag Me to Hell was suprisingly good in Sam Raimi campy form. At least he does’nt take his movies too seriously like boring Benjamin Button that the MSM fellated themselves over.

[techcor]

South Park did a great episode with WoW that way.

[sf4dubya]

As long as it includes cool gnome hairstyles, right?

[Billthedrill]

Bruce Campbell has got to be in it. BTT.

[Domandred]

Movies based on video games have historically been dismal box office failures.

The only one I can remember even remotely enjoying were the Resident Evil films...but come on zombies and babes with guns, what could go wrong.

[exist]

That YouTube “LEROY Warcraft” video was hilarious

[Snickering Hound]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkCNJRfSZBU

Who gets to play Leeroy Jenkins?

[fr_freak]

Sam Raimi To Direct 'Warcraft' Movie

The truly ironic part is that the target audience, World of Warcraft players, won't be able to tear themselves away from the game long enough to go see the movie.

[ThePanFromJapan]

Seconded. Bruce Campbell absolutely MUST be in that movie.

[JenB]

All Blizzard has to do is move their weekly maintenance period from Tuesday morning to Friday night and all the WoW players will have nothing better to do.

- in the interest of full disclosure, I have two top level WoW characters, usually play with my baby on my lap, and will see this depending on what sort of story they’re telling...

[ThePanFromJapan]

Bruce Campbell! Of Course!

[ThePanFromJapan]

Which server are you on?

Alliance: Stormscale
Horde: Uther

[Crazieman]

No, that was in-game footage with Blizzard’s help

CG, as in their cutscenes and movies.

[Tzimisce]

...sounds like an Oscar winner....

[Crazieman]

Alliance: Kalecgos

[JenB]

Garithos, Alliance side. My husband and I play together - it’s quality time!

[Flying Circus]

Film adaptations of video games have been flops so far, but I wouldn’t write this one off. I think Raimi’s style would fit perfectly with the game material and make for a fun movie that could succeed where other take themselves too seriously and fail.

[RabidBartender]

The Wrathgate video is awesome.

[Billthedrill]

I think you’ve got the winner right there. Bruce Campbell as Leroy Jenkins. Who could possibly do it better?

[techcor]

My mistake. Thanks for clarifying that. I’ve actually been meaning to join up because it does look like fun.

[Pravious]

“the highest quality intellectual property....”

Poor fool me, I thought that applied to “Hamlet” or “Hedda Gabler” or something. :-)

But I’ll join in the chorus... We Want Bruce!

In fact, Sam, I wish Sam would ditch this project and get on with “Evil Dead IV.”

[discostu]

I think WOW graphics blown up to big screen size would look like 4 foot blocks. The primary characteristic of WOW graphics is their efficient, which makes WOW runnable on just about anything, but they don’t really look that awesome.

[Crazieman]

THE CGI MOVIES, not the in-game graphics.

Their intro movies. Example Diablo 2, WoW, Starcraft 2, Diablo 3. Incredible quality.

[discostu]

They aren’t that great. Again think blow it up to the big screen, do their CG movies really hold a candle even to Toy Story’s graphics? Not really. And that’s almost 15 year old CG technology.

[allmendream]

Sounds like it could be a good movie if they start at the “beginning” with Mediev opening the portal and the armies of the Horde spilling forth to bring fire and sword to those fruity pants alliance pukes.

[Domandred]

That is true. One of the high points of WoTLK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBj1W5Ci49M

[chris37]

I loved Drag Me to Hell. It really was one of the best movies that I have seen in years. I’m really glad I grew up during the 80’s when movies were awesome, because it seems like about one good movie comes out every 3-4 years now. Drag me was one of those.

[TalonDJ]

World of Warcraft players, won't be able to tear themselves away from the game long enough to go see the movie.

Why not? I can 'tear away' long enough to check FR.

[TalonDJ]

That totally works. A lot of the in game humor is along the vein of Evil Dead. In fact at least one NPC says ‘this is my boom stick!’

[TalonDJ]

I think WOW graphics blown up to big screen size would look like 4 foot blocks. The primary characteristic of WOW graphics is their efficient, which makes WOW runnable on just about anything, but they don’t really look that awesome.

No, what makes them great is they SCALE. Even for a game as old as it is if you crank the video quality all the way up you will need a top in card to run it. 4 foot blocks? That would be a resolution of about 7 pixels by 17 pixels. Considering the average video card can put out HD quality resolution I think you are short selling the engine.

[discostu]

That was 4 foot blocks on the movie theater screen. Takes a lot of pixels to fill those beasts up.

[AppyPappy]

We need to nuke this thread from orbit

[fr_freak]

Why not? I can 'tear away' long enough to check FR.

OK, but can you tear away from WoW and FR long enough to go see the movie?

[Vroomfondel]

My husband and I play together - it’s quality time!

That's my wife said. Until I got tired of her stealing all my gold.

[allmendream]

“This is my Booterang (for beating peons), there are many like it, but this one is mine”

[Richard Kimball]

My favorite part of that episode was when Butters showed up and said he was playing “Hello Kitty Island Adventure.”

[Fire_on_High]

Alliance: Kargath and Suramar
Horde: Eitrigg and Nagrand