Sam Raimi To Direct Upcoming Warcraft® Movie

[mcdan]

This is great news to me. I hope they go computer animated for this film. What do you guys think?

[wideawakewesley]

Not sure on this. On one hand we have the man that butchered Spiderman. On the other we have a man capable of Army of Darkness and Drag Me To Hell. I think his style will likely suit the World of Warcraft setting, but as someone who doesn't care about the IP in anyway, I don't much mind whether he butchers it either.

Probably a good choice, but time will tell.

[karykarywook]

Well lets see here - Alex is a WoW fanatic and friends with the directors brother. Alex to play Kael Thalas?

hehe.

Its going to be an awesome movie.

I don't think he butchered Spiderman in the least. They are some of the most well-directed movies, imo.

[cwilkey]

Spider-Man 3 was horrible, but it was more about the scenes that were chosen to be shot that sucked, and not necessarily the quality of the directing, but who cares about that when the scene is stupid and pointless?

Anyway, it's hard for me to see the point of this (besides cashing in) unless they borrow the plot from one of the standalone games, like Warcraft 3. Put Bruce Campbell in it somewhere and I'll give it a shot..

[quantumtheory]

I'm not remotely interested in this movie anymore since I quit playing WoW because it became a steaming pile of crap.

[tsmith15]

I'd need a plot to get interested. I'd love like a miniseries based on the story for Warcraft 3 or something like that. Some of the books were good too.

[ojimaru]

The definitive WoW feature was already done by South Park YEARS ago.

[echome]

I'm not remotely interested in this movie anymore since I quit playing WoW because it became a steaming pile of crap.

That does not mean the movie will be "a steaming pile of crap" also... That being said, this is not something I am looking forward to either.
No doubt that it will be a big success and earn a lot of money - no matter how good it is.

[tsmith15]

The definitive WoW feature was already done by South Park YEARS ago.

LIVE TO WIN!

[poltah]

I really disliked all of the Spider-Man movies. But on the other hand, Drag Me to Hell was awesome.

Basically, if we get Drag Me To Hell Sam Raimi, I'm onboard.

[dolson]

I guess all those WoW addicts will get a brief bit of sun exposure on the way to the theater.

Unless, of course, they go to an evening viewing.

[blacksymbiote]

A World of Warcraft movie to me sounds like the Transformers 2 of Lord of the Rings. It doesn't seem like it'll be a serious movie, and the game is flashy and colourful. Lord of the Rings for the kiddies. And I lost all faith in Raimi after Spider-Man 3.

[gm_wil]

I think they are too late with this . . . so many people are dropping it (including me) because it's gotten old . . . a couple years ago they would have had hordes (pun intended) foaming at the mouth for a movie . . . now, not so much.

-

[rokov]

I'm very excited about this. Despite Spiderman 3, I' still a big Raimi fan and I think that if he gives it kind of an Army of Darkness feel, but with a larger budget, it could be amazing. I wonder if they're still going to set it during one of the wars (the original plan) or bring it forward and set it during WoW to really capitalize on it's popularity.

[poltah]

I think they are too late with this . . . so many people are dropping it (including me) because it's gotten old . . . a couple years ago they would have had hordes (pun intended) foaming at the mouth for a movie . . . now, not so much.

-

That's not true though. The game hasn't peaked yet.

[gm_wil]

That's not true though. The game hasn't peaked yet.

*Shrug* My gut says it has for most people, one of the reasons I bet they drop it in mass to try the new Blizzard IP (they will announce it at Blizzcon) or the new Star Wars MMO. I gottsa feelin' . . . BUT . . . BUT . . . I can't forget Blizzard is the very best when it comes to "dangling the carrot." They might have planned this and waited on a movie to revitalize interest in order to battle waning subscriptions. The fact they keep your character even after cancellation helps too - I came back for a second run. Now, the ultimate plan (in my opinion) would be a timed release of an expansion that deals with events from the movie . . . whether it be a portal in the caverns of time to an entire expansion that takes place in the past, or one that follows WLK . . . . it will be interesting to see . . . and I really hope it's an animated version in the style of their game trailers for expansions . . . that would draw more non-WOW people because I think interest in live action fantasy has run thin with people after the whole Lord of the Rings craze . . . and the computer animation popularity is a bit higher right now . . . and computer animation really has no limitation, no CGI mixing, and would fit the WOW universe better . . . woah, long post Scotty - Kirk out.

-

[poltah]

Well, player wise it hasn't peak yet. At least from the last report a couple of months back, the game still gained more and more players.
Of course there are people with numerous accounts and stuff like that, but still.

I agree that the SW MMO has potential to draw away players. The next Blizzard MMO will be for consoles.
There's no reason for them at all right now to make a new PC MMO. They'd only take away customers from themselves.

And even if the SW MMO draws away some players, they'll come right back with the next WoW expansion pack.

[ramshaw]

As far as plot the movie takes place around a year before the events of World of WarCraft. So all the fanboys wet dreams (including my own) of a WarCraft 3 retelling can be forgotten.

The fact that Raimi is directing has me a bit worried since I didn't like Spider-Man 3 all that much because Venom was given the raw end of the deal along with the infamous Saturday Night Fever scene. Plus I didn't care all that much for Drag Me to Hell. I'm with holding judgement until I see a trailer or something, hopefully it will be in a similar style to Blizzard's cinematics.

[ramshaw]

Well, player wise it hasn't peak yet. At least from the last report a couple of months back, the game still gained more and more players.
Of course there are people with numerous accounts and stuff like that, but still.

I agree that the SW MMO has potential to draw away players. The next Blizzard MMO will be for consoles.
There's no reason for them at all right now to make a new PC MMO. They'd only take away customers from themselves.

And even if the SW MMO draws away some players, they'll come right back with the next WoW expansion pack.

I don't think the next Blizzard MMO will be for consoles. Blizzard thus far have shown little interest in developing for consoles, see StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3. With 12,000,000 subscribers to WoW there is little incentive to put their next MMO on consoles. They wouldn't be taking customers from themselves as much as retaining customers from WoW, enticing old customers back and gaining new customers to play the new game.

[theantconnection]

When I hear this news, I immediately think about how Peter Jackson was slated to Direct the Halo movie...

I'll believe it when I see it.

[sisterchristian]

A couple random points...

I think Mr. Raimi fits with the sense of humor that blizzard has baked into the Warcraft IP. Also he can do the serious edge that is also there as well. Sounds really good to me!

Based on the blizz press releases they are either at the start of a plateau or in the middle of one. My personal guess sit they are in the middle of a plateau in north america and dead in the water world wide (remember no one can play in china at the moment)

Based on the comments made by blizz and the dev's they are only at the tech stage of the "next gen mmo". Several have commented that they are playing the game world of warcraft assets (art and such). And it sounds like they don't have it tied to an IP yet, they are just working on the tech. It could be WoW2 or World of Starcraft, or Thrall's island adventure.

[theantconnection]

interesting...

[lavahot]

Why can't Chinese people play? Is it censorship on behalf of the Chinese Government?

[falen]

I lost faith in Raimi after Spiderman 1, and he didnt exactly win me back with Spiderman 3, I'll give this the benefit of the doubt, but not expecting to be blown away.

[lavahot]

Dudes, Spider-Man 1&2 were awesome, Spider-man sucked giant donkey balls. I can't think of any other terrible movies he's done. Evil Dead 2 was meh.

[poltah]

I really thought Spider-Man 1+2 weren't very good. They were alright I guess, but not good movies by any stretch.
Spider-Man 3 is one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

However, Drag Me To Hell was awesome.

[wideawakewesley]

Dudes, Spider-Man 1&2 were awesome, Spider-man sucked giant donkey balls. I can't think of any other terrible movies he's done. Evil Dead 2 was meh.

Spiderman 1 & 3 were utter turd. 2 was decent and Army of Darkness and Drag me to Hell were a blast.

[falen]

I don't want to have a nergasm over it or anything, but I found the Spider-man movies very hard to enjoy since Spider-man was the one comic book superhero I was familiar with as a child and read the comics. All I could think of during the movies was how badly casted it was and how they fucked up who Mary Jane is supposed to be.

IMO, the animated Spectacular Spider-man is better written and even though they change things around it is a much better tribute to the source material.

[forbizzle]

Based on the production team they're throwing at this movie, it will be big and probably pretty good. Even if the story ends up weak in some way, I trust Sam to make something entertaining with the resources they're giving him.

There's a lot of money to be made on this baked in audience, and for once they've got a video game with a huge backstory. Blizzard has always spent more time than normal flushing out the story behind their games.

Everybody that thinks this game will purely be fan service is in for a surprise I think.

[poltah]

Based on the production team they're throwing at this movie, it will be big and probably pretty good.

That logic doesn't work though. Look at the Matrix and Pirates sequels. And Spider-Man 3.

[lavahot]

That logic doesn't work though. Look at the Matrix and Pirates sequels. And Spider-Man 3.

The WoW movie technically isn't a sequel.

At the panel for WoW secondary products (cards, action figures, etc.) they jokingly hypothesized what role Bruce Campbell would play. They wanted him to be a troll and while I think he can pull that off I think it would be better for him to play a mage. That's not to say that they are mutually exclusive, you can have a troll mage, I just see him as human.

[maxhdrm]

Not sure on this. On one hand we have the man that butchered Spiderman. On the other we have a man capable of Army of Darkness and Drag Me To Hell. I think his style will likely suit the World of Warcraft setting, but as someone who doesn't care about the IP in anyway, I don't much mind whether he butchers it either.

Probably a good choice, but time will tell.
Now, now Raimi is a master and he did an excellent job on the first two. To his credit he didn't want to put Venom in the third. that was a push by the studio and why it was such a small part.

Warcraft a movie...not possible and history has shown that videos have never been corrolated to the big screen well (ie mario bros., double dragon, doom etc.) yeah ok tomb raider was good but not great. Silent hill was just ok as well. until the studios "get it" when it comes to video game to screen adaptations, I think they should just give up.

[gm_wil]

1 - Now, now Raimi is a master and he did an excellent job on the first two. 2 - until the studios "get it" when it comes to video game to screen adaptations, I think they should just give up.

1 - I thought he did great with the two spidermans . . . I think I liked the 2nd more than the first. (Third was a turd)

2 - how can they get it right if they give up . . . trial and error requires a trial. Anyone see Hitman? That was based on a video game wasn't it? (I havn't seen it yet)

-