Spiderman director Sam Raimi has been signed to head the pending Warcraft movie. Charles Roven (Dark Knight) has also been brought in as a producer. Blizzard’s Chris Metzen will co-produce.
Source: Blizzard Official Press Release [ more info ]

We've all heard yammering about a WoW movie. And most of us assumed it would be good given Blizzard's tendancy to do things right. Now despite my current issues with some decisions that are being made about the game, the idea that Sam Raimi will be directing the WoW movie intrigues me.

The Spiderman movies helped change the way we looked at comicbook films.* And if Raimi can tear himself away from the source material long enough, we might finally get to experience the kind of videogame-based movie we've all been desperately begging for.

Okay, okay. So I may be buying into the hype a little. But I'm willing to do that to break the horrible curse levied upon us the moment the Mario Brothers movie went into the can. Damn you [insert list of people associated with that film]! **shakes a fist**

UPDATE (9/23):
A couple of points of order. The movie will be based on Warcraft Lore. I personally think drawing a distinction beetween a "Warcraft" movie and a "World of Warcraft" movie is irrelevant since the same lore guides them both, and WoW is obviously the driving force behind there being demand for a movie in the first place. Beyond that, referencing a WoW movie specifically in the comic is intentional; it's what makes the Yogg comment "work".


* Following the lead of X-Men.

I remember hearing about this a long time ago. I thought they would have been near release at this point.

Two things:

1. Bruce Campbell cameo.

2. Ted Raimi as a Joxer-esque Leeroy Jenkins.

Radial... it IS Blizzard. If the film's development cycle is anything like the pre-Activision game's development cycle, I'm sure our grandchildren will love it.

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If the 4th wall is broken by something stupid like a reference to [name of planned in-game gimmick removed to preserve the integrity of this post], I may have to seek out Raimi and destroy him. I could get behind a Bruce Campbell cameo though.

wait.. but the Mario bros movie was hilarious.

while blizzard does have a tendency to do things right they are faced with the huge obstical of overcoming medieval movies tendency to be overly cheesy with terrible accents, like you said video game movies, and the HUGE amount of lore that is incorporated into the WoW universe. They'll either make it cover such a small portion that fans will feel cheated or bite off more then they can chew.

They'd need a project the size of LotR to cover all that and i just don't see blizzard putting in that kind of commitment.

sorry man, there may come a day when the curse is lifted but i don't see this project being the one to do it.

P.S this is my first post, read the comic for years keep up the good work

A Bruce Campbell cameo would be appropriate, since WoW itself has several Army of Darkness references (such as the Armor of Darkness quest, one member of the Dwarven Mortar Team yelling "This... is my BOOMSTICK!", and several versions of the Boomstick itself).

I'm not thinking so much of breaking the 4th wall wall as I'm thinking I could see some idiot wannabe paladin that's maybe decked out in pots and pans run into battle prematurely for comedic effect.

I can totally see Raimi doing that, considering his love of slapstick. If nothing else, I can see him putting that and maybe a /dance sequence on the DVD extras.

Of course, I don't think Metzen would let him get away with too much, so don't worry.

And yes, I can totally see Raimi as an actual player. Seems like he did mention World of Warcraft in an interview a while back, and he knew a little too much about the game for someone who didn't play.

I find Blizzards humor funny when applied to their own intellectual property, and I understand that the movie may be based on that and will have Blizzards hand in it, but I hope that they don't turn it into a comedy about the World of Warcraft.

This may be breaking the mold a bit here, but I've always invisioned the WoW movie to be a CGI movie, not a live action movie. Blizzard has arguably one of the best game based CGI teams out there. The Dwarf outside of Khaz'M in the original WoW trailer is one of the best CGI sequences I've seen in a long time.

For me the ultimate act of WoW movieness would be Blizzard + Pixar. You would have the art and 3D direction of the Blizz guys teaming up with the know how and ability of the Pixar people. If not Pixar, then ILM woud be my second choice.

/Prays to the movie gods for a Bruce Campell cameo!