Today Warcraft is synonymous with long hours grinding, more long hours raiding, and potentially socially destructive behavior. But do you remember the franchises humble roots? The simple graphics? The excellent campaigns? The franchise has been pegged for a movie for some time, and now there’s finally some real news to speak of. According to Variety, Sam Raimi has officially been pegged to direct the upcoming Warcraft movie.
Raimi, who is famous for movies like Spider-Man and Darkman is excited about the project. “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.” Who’s the dynamite production team? That would be Chris Roven’s Atlas Entertainment, the folks behind The Dark Knight. Production is set to begin after Spider-Man 4, which Raimi is supposed to finish in 2010.
There are still a lot of details missing from the movie. No one yet knows whether it will be live action or CG, and there’s still that issue of release date. If they’re not getting started until 2010, we’re years away from actually seeing the thing, time during which the franchise’s flagship, World of Warcraft, is likely to see slumping subscriptions in the face of new IP.
Then there’s the ubiquitous concern about games turned into movies. They’re notoriously horrible, but hopefully with Blizzard and Universal involved this one might be the exception to the rule.
