HOME TRAILERS 2023 SCHEDULE 2024 SCHEDULE SHORT FILMS REVIEWS PODCAST INTERVIEWS NEWS FEEDS ABOUT US

LATEST NEWS

Sam Raimi Talks About Plans for His World of Warcraft Movie

by Alex Billington
June 25, 2010
Source: Collider

It was announced last year, just before Comic-Con, that Sam Raimi was attached to direct an epic movie based on the incredibly popular World of Warcraft video game made by Blizzard. A year has passed and we haven't heard much since, although in October they did find a writer - Robert Rodat of Saving Private Ryan, The Patriot and so on. Our friends at Collider caught up with Raimi just recently on the red carpet of the Saturn Awards last night and spoke, at length, about his thoughts on the game, how they're planning to adapt it, the world it'll be set it, and anything he could get out of him at this point in development. Read on!

Raimi was first asked why he wants to make the World of Warcraft movie and why it interests him so much.

"I love the visual world that the guys over at Blizzard have created. It's incredibly, engrossingly terrifying and exciting. And I like the use of scale, the giant monsters they have, I love the different landscapes your character can move through. I like the first person interaction you have with other players online. There's so many aspects about the game I really enjoy, like the battles, like performing spells and learning new spells and getting to the next level like everyone else."

For those that think Raimi is not a gamer, the filmmaker said that he once had a level 29 Shaman that got deleted but now has a level 72 character that he didn't even "power level", he leveled it up all himself, so he's definitely been immersed in that world. As for how far in they are, apparently they've only got 40 pages so far and "we're still working on the story right now." They're trying to find the characters first, and through finding them, they'll then begin crafting the story. "There's no real angle on it, we're just trying to create realistic characters that can live in the World of Warcraft as though you were in the game itself, in one or two or three of those environments, and see the interaction with those great mythical, iconic characters."

When asked about the troubles adaptating video game movies (and most of them being pretty bad), he says he doesn't know how the other filmmakers made them so he doesn't want to "generalize." In brief, he they love the game and he wants to do the best they can. "I'm attracted to the characters, the weaponry, the environment that they've created," Raimi says. In reference to weapons, he specifically called out "Orcs with axes" and "Human Paladins with the warhammers" and it'd be really cool to "see them in battle." I agree! I'm not sure how close this is to actually happening (IMDb has it listed for 2013) but it's great to hear his thoughts about it. We'll keep you updated!

Find more posts: Hype, Movie News, Opinions

23 Comments

World of horsecrap. Work harder, Raimi.

Voice of Reason on Jun 25, 2010

myeah... the wait is too much, a warcraft movie should have been done like 2 years ago. wait for 2 more years? only if it's breathtaking like avatar (the cgi ofc). other than that, not much to see in wow if you're an old player.

adrian on Jun 25, 2010

WoW = not exciting. Raimi = not exciting.

ryderup on Jun 25, 2010

ryderup = so why even bother posting here... /facepalm I am excited, me love Raimi and his movies im SURE that blizzard would like to have an impact on the film, warcraft and blizzard are to big to just "hell go and make a movie we dont care" I agree that best thing in warcraft is "world" and how it looks and, wathcing paladins with big hammers and orcs with big axes both swinging on the screen, it SHOULD be great and in 3D (lets face it, it will be) im really wondering how much it gonna costs and how big its gonna be, just even imagine a trialer for that... i just cant its gonna be really funny

gfdgd on Jun 25, 2010

I hope they will have a really good team in contact with blizzard the whole time, because fans of WoW is what they are aiming this at and if they don't get the lore right, then it will just be horrible. Not to mention they are going to have to represent all 10 races in the movie at some point. If they don't then */10th of the community will be pissed. AND THEN on top of that. The entire community is split right down the middle. So if they focus the story purely on alliance you will have Horde lovers hating the movies and like wise if Horde are the main characters. This movie is just a huge QQfest waiting to happen.

Hedgehog on Jun 25, 2010

Blizzard will not let this film fail. Blizzard's future in film is dependent on this film's success

Lew on Jun 25, 2010

I love Raimi films but who cares about this crap

Jimmy Love on Jun 25, 2010

gfdgd = so comments and opinions are only for the ones who love the news? /facepalm

ryderup on Jun 25, 2010

I bet Raimi started playing WoW for research and got sucked in just like everyone else. Soon he'll be living in a 1 bedroom apartment with bottles of mountain dew and hot pockets covering his lifeless body. If this ever gets made it will make so much money the same way that Spiderman did.

peloquin on Jun 25, 2010

This movie has the same kind of development cycle as Duke Nukem Forever.

GuidoSarducci on Jun 25, 2010

everybody loves to hate, y'all got nothing nice to say keep it to yourselves.

blabbermouth on Jun 25, 2010

I think a WoW movie would be better served if the whole thing were done in CGI, the same people who make the CG Cinematics for the game and expansions. Otherwise, especially with Raimi at the helm, I fear a live-action treatment of WoW will resemble a little too close to 'Army of Darkness'. There are some truly epic and compelling stories within the Warcraft lore that deserves more than a campy, costumed action adventure.

twittwit on Jun 25, 2010

if you want to skip reading this, I'll sum up Raimi's plans with this: "I plan to ruin this movie." there, that's all you need to know.

Colt on Jun 25, 2010

I love how it's listed for a 2013 release and to see people saying it's going to suck lol I'm looking forward to hearing and seeing more about this movie, can't wait for a teaser or a trailer

Duck on Jun 25, 2010

I've been a fan of the warcraft games since first playing warcraft II in the 90's If they want to do this right, firstly they need to get the Lore downpat and make sure the main heroes from WCIII are in the movie.

Zoom on Jun 25, 2010

Hey blabermouth Fuck off hows that for nice

Jimmy Love on Jun 26, 2010

Raimi = Midas Remember... Spiderman 3 wasnt his fault...

Dreckent on Jun 26, 2010

Warcraft movie shouldnt be made by actors. Just CGI all the way, blizzard has proven many times their CGI is top notch... Having real life actors drama, politics will appear demand more air time and all that shit. As for Sam Raimi... he just sit out on this one. I dont think he understand or know bout warcraft.

HanDsomepig on Jun 26, 2010

You guys really love to criticize! I highly recommend you all to read the world of warcraft history; it's, by far, one of the best fantasy tales I've ever read and it's huge as well. Bigger than Star Wars, I dare to say, and Star Wars is my favourite of all times. My expectation is high for this one, specially since the story is so big, so I'm wondering which part of it he'll decide to tell.

moron on Jun 26, 2010

wow with all the hate on here i thought i was reading an aint it cool news talkback

Eviltodd on Jun 26, 2010

40 pages and in development for 4+ years now... nice... can't wait till... Summer of... 10191...

bozo on Jun 28, 2010

If this is live action it will probably suck. It should be 100% cgi, just like all of the WoW trailers. That would be truly epic.

magpul on Nov 7, 2010

Avatar is a great example of a film based on some CGI.. They did well..

Musicnthunder on Jan 27, 2012

New comments are no longer allowed on this post.