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Sam Raimi To Direct World of Warcraft Movie
Decado writes "Blizzard has just announced that Sam Raimi is to direct the new World of Warcraft movie. 'Raimi, acclaimed director of the blockbuster Spider-Man series, will bring the forces of the Horde and the Alliance to life in epic live-action film. Charles Roven's Atlas Entertainment will produce alongside Raimi's Stars Road Entertaiment.' While it's still early in the process, does this offer hope that someone might finally make a good movie based on a game IP?"
the Nerds will Flock to see it
require WoW players to stop playing WoW?
Can they even do that?
... this film gonna be bad... like so many other film based on a game... I can't even name one good film based from a game.
Maybe it's just a feeling...
I can't call that English
Thank God they didn't tap Uwe Bol for this one.
More music, fewer hits
I can't imagine remotely what this movie will actually be like. But I suspect it will suck.
Edit: Hopefully they won't cast Ben Affleck as Varian Wrynn either... or in any role, for that matter.
More music, fewer hits
Anyone remember Dungeons and Dragons The Movie and how awesome that turned out? Or the TV series based on Super Mario and Zelda?
Yeah...
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits" - Albert Einstein
Did anyone forget the shitstain that was Spiderman 3?
We had emo Peter Parker, and a song and dance number in the middle of it!
Here's hoping Raimi goes back to his evil dead roots and makes a proper movie . . .
oh yeah and Bruce Campbell had better be in it!
And No again since blank messages get rejected
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
Maybe the movie will be called Cataclysm?
For the real WoW experience, buy it on DVD and watch it a few hundred times.
This will set a new record for "Longest Movie Ever". It'll track a mage's journey across Azeroth, showing in excruciating detail all ten days of his adventure to level 80, casting the same spell on thousands of enemies, and collecting wolf pelts for people like John Wolfskinner, who can't seem to do their own work. And that's only part one.
Games, in principle, could make perfectly decent movies(half life could really do with a decent treatment); but I have a very bad feeling about this one.
Because of their business model, MMORPGs have to feature large worlds where large numbers of characters can be the center of attention, to the degree that there even is one. In most cases, WoW being one, there isn't even much in the way of "history" going on. The world stays pretty much the same, no matter what you do, the same NPCs show up, with only the occasional prescripted changed. That isn't inspiring material for a movie. At best, they'll pretty much have to make a Warcraft movie and just use WoW as a marketing tie-in.
Okay, so arguably none of them have been "good", but I can think of a few that were at least okay (and had 5.x or 6.x IMDb ratings): Silent Hill, the Resident Evil movies, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.
I have never played WoW, does it have as good of a story as the Diablo franchise?
If not, I'm still waiting for my Diablo movies.
As long as they don't let him write it. They let him write Spider-man 3 and it sucked donkey balls, whereas the first two are fantastic movies. He's a good director, but apparently not so good a writer.
I don't think WoW has an actually story that would translate to a movie. So whether this thing becomes something worth viewing depends largely on the script, I would imagine.
The press release doesn't mention a "World of Warcraft" movie, just a "Warcraft" movie. Perhaps this will be geared towards the more linear storyline of the RTS games?
1 (short ton / firkin) = 89.1432354 slugs / keg
Why can't I ever compose all my thoughts before clicking submit?
Look for a gnome-engineer-built yellow steampunk Oldsmobile on the streets of Stormwind.
More music, fewer hits
I haven't seen a synopsis yet, but why World of Warcraft, why not make it about the Warcraft history? If anyone's ever read the lore this game is steeped in it, and I think making a game perhaps based around the third war, or Warcraft III, would make for great story telling and a good movie. I don't really see this getting into theaters(I just can't image it) but I would see it as a direct to DvD.
Warcraft Movie not World of Warcraft Movie. Fail.
The movie will be 16 hours long and will chronicle the journey of Frank the warrior on his epic quest to gather seventeen moose heads from the moose spawning area. He makes it to level 12, setting the viewer up for the sequel, where he can finally buy new armour and eat the soft banana bread he was previously not battle hardened enough to eat.
It's been a long time.
A friend pointed out that this basically guarantees that Bruce Campbell will be involved.
Dewey, you fool! Your decimal system has played right into my hands!
...Army of Darkness was already half way to being a WoW movie.
"does this offer hope that someone might finally make a good movie based on a game IP?"
Actually I thought Doom was a decent flick. No masterpiece, but it's a "good movie".
Raimi is WAY past his prime. But then, so is WoW.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
What I find interesting is that Chris Metzen, Blizzard's senior VP of creative development and writer for much of the Warcraft universe is listed as a co-producer of the movie.
Which it is almost a foregone conclusion that he won't be, he'd take the story line of Warcraft 2 or maybe Warcraft 3 and adapt it under a different title.
It's just titled Warcraft. Remember those RTS games and books? I'll pretend it's based on those instead of WoW.
Though a character named 'Leroy Jenkins' would be hilarious.
You didn't like Bergman's The Seventh Seal?
Quick! Someone book all the Wayans brothers for other engagements during filming so there's no chance they'll be cast as lovable, doofus sidekicks to the 20-year-old white kid!
Else we'll get to see something like this:
Young Grurk is a hunter of his tribe, and he's set out to conquer the world. He meets some old leader of his tribe who proceeds to tell Grurk his life story, giving the watcher of the show a chance to head back to the lobby to get himself some treats. Then Grurk heads out to collect a few apples, fishes or Murlocheads for his Elder. On his way, he meets the token cleric who has essentially been given the same task, but they both choose to ignore each other. Grurk finally makes his way to great Orkgrimmar, where some other Elder tells him his life story (time for a piss break), then sends Grurk out to collect cactus apples, sea shells or Murlokfins (but of course from different Murloks, else it would get boring, right?). He meets some other people who do essentially the same drag he does, but again, everyone is ignoring everyone else.
Let's fast forward, the story doesn't really changes aside of the crap Grurk is gathering.
He finally arrives at some cave, some temple, some place of importance, where someone big bad is lurking inside. Suddenly Grurk acknowledges the existance of the Cleric (who is still doing essentially the same he does, just a bit slower) and they both start yelling and searching for a mighty warrior to join them in their quest to clean that temple of evil, while Mages and Rogues dance around them, trying to incite them to be taken along (but who needs them). They finally grudgingly agree to take the Mage along, but first he has to treat them to a feast.
Eventually they find the mighty warrior and they set out to conquer the temple. A lot of fights ensue, often their life is at stake and more often than not one of our heroes manages to save the day. Until the Warrior finally blinks, tells the rest "sorry, mom called, gotta mow the lawn" and vanishes into a puff of smoke.
Our heroes unwrap their porting stones and soon they find themselves in one of the local taverns. Fade out, more in the sequel.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I don't know if Blizzard has anything to do with the movie other than as a content source. But they already have experience in this area. The Diablo I and II cinematics and plot were well done. Same with the Warcraft 3 cinematics. Warcraft 2's movies were pretty gimmicky though.
I have hope, it could actually go well.
Here's a great idea. Let's take a medium like video games; that works extremely well for a specific method of storytelling which deeply immerses the player, and shoehorn it into another medium like say film. Which to date hasn't been able to adapt a single video game story into anything other than a fiasco.
And that was the last Terry Fox run I ever participated in.
"How does one kill that which has no life?"
P.
when you can live it...
It'll be told almost entirely in flashbacks to reproduce the grind experience to cater to the hardcore fans. There are plans to do a 10 minute edited version for the non fans
for those of you that read the article, who is Sam RAIMITO?
You know what, I'm boycotting any movie from now on that's "based" on anything. Be it a book or a comic or a TV Show or video game or a "reboot" of an old movie series or remake of an old movie or whatever. Give me something original.
Come on...I'd take a "Pan's Labyrinth" or "In Bruges" or "WALL-E" over a "Transformers 1 or 2" or "Batman _____(insert verb here)" or "Warcraft: The Movie".
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
Raimi also produces the Legend of the Seeker tv series. Make of THAT what you will!
Doom. That movie just plain awful. I like the rock and his movies but this one should never have gotten off the ground. I look forward to this movie as a player of WOW.
Army of Darkness was closer to a Diablo movie than a WoW movie, if we have to stay in Blizzard's IP...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Sam Raimi... not a bad pick of a director, don't really care for the spider-man movies as much as I do for the Evil Dead Trilogy :D
Wish they would've gotten Sam Raimi to direct The Last Airbender movie instead of M. Night Shyamalan... oh well... What a Twist!
Sooooo, they can take all three games and make three movies...then reboot the series with new characters from the World of Warcraft campaigns...sooooo...Blizzards trying to launch a big ol' movie cash cow that will last for a decade. I think the Lord of the Rings set a pretty high bar for fantasy films with the sticking point being characters.
While it's still early in the process, does this offer hope that someone might finally make a good movie based on a game IP?
preemptive TL;DR: No.
The breadth of the Warcraft lore makes it impossible to fit even a small percent of it into a single movie. And Blizzard will certainly want to tie the movie into the game somehow, which will only hinder the creativity of whoever is tasked with writing the screenplay. There will probably be an overabundance of cheesy in-jokes to target the gamers, but will just come off as stupid to the average viewer. Visually it will almost certainly look nothing like the CG cut-scenes in Warcraft 3 or World of Warcraft, which is exactly what gamers of WoW will be expecting.
And the final nail in the coffin: This is the same guy who directed Spiderman 3. Imagine Thrall doing the emo dance.
Who's Sam Raimito?:D
Starring Bruce Campbell as Leeroy Jenkins.
Good? Bad? Least I've got chicken.
I will only watch it if it features a cameo by LeeeeeRoooooooy!!! haha
Make a Starcraft movie! Come on, it has everything--love interest between Kerrigan and Raynor, cloaking spies with the power to call down nuclear strikes, nasty alien monsters, mysterious -other- aliens, and stuff blowing up all over the place!
You can't make a good movie from a shitstain of a game.
From Horde Commander: You must stop the Alliance from advancing on our position!
From Horde Hero: Uh.. quest is still red.. LOL! kk.. where?
From Horde Commander: You must journey in to the Barrens and stop their march from Ashenvale!
From Horde Hero: LOL! kk.. I accept.
From Horde Hero Buddy: Ya mon.. share kk?
From Horde Hero: LOL too low of lvl!
From Horde Hero Buddy: LOL mon!
From Horde Hero: All 80s! LOL!
*SPLAT*
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
*deep announcer voice* ... will more Hot Pockets and Mtn Dew ever be found?! ...
Four young boys embark on an epic journey to overthrow the evil tyranny of the nameless one. Gathering experience through tireless boar killing training, they prepare for the final challenge; defeating the nameless one. Join these adventurers on a journey through Blackrock Mountain where they meet a close friend Leeroy, who promptly runs off a cliff into a large pool of lava. LEEROYYYY echoes off the chamber walls. Follow closely as resources run thin and they begin to turn on each other
Rtards beware! The journey is near endless and the nameless one wields a sword of infallible power! Will these young boys be able to complete their quest?! Azeroth is not prepared!
Due for release early 2018
*end announcer voice*
Also, I heard Spiders were involved...everyone loves spiders. Like in that movie where a man is kinda like a spider...I think it was called The Fly...or something along those lines.
If you watch it by yourself, it's a pretty good movie.
If you watch it with four or nine friends, it's a really good movie.
If you watch it with 24 friends, it is a fantastic movie.
Leeeeeroy Jenkins!
A good movie based on MMORPG game IP has already been made: Ben X revolves around the game Archlord and the real life of some players. Think Rainman meets WoW.
Leeerooooy Jenkins!!!
South Park already did this about the only way it would be watchable, as a satire of WoW gamers. A "serious" WoW movie would be dreadfully dull.
I'm thinking it'll probably end up like this.
The enemies of Democracy are
It's about two gnomes who find a bracelet of power, and they have to take it to the Burning Steppes and cast it into the Cauldron.
They form the Brotherhood of the Bracelet. Along the way they're trailed by a murloc named Gottom, who's obsessed with the bracelet, and nine bracelet bogeymen.
It could be a three-parter, called 'Ruler of the Bracelet'.
The first part would be called 'The Brotherhood of the Bracelet',
followed by 'A Couple of Towers',
with the climactic ending called 'Hey, the King's Back!'
This is what i am willing to bet the farm on being the story....
"Movie opens with a guy buying some redbull at the store, talking to hsi freind how excited he is to be raiding icecrown tonight. they also get some cheetos and buritos, altho none of them are fat. They than goto his basement and they start showing all the people over vent and stuff that make up the raid, 5 of them are in his basement, one is a very cute nerdy chick who none of them relise is a hottie. A TERRIBLE lightning storm comes into town as they are clearning trash and a direct hit to the house and lights go out. Next scene we find our heros sitting outside of a small shack in a town they dont reconise....and blah blah blah they have to help some guy fight the evil horde *(which i think is bias, why not make a horde movie, the alliance are tools anyways) and help save the kingdom of stormwind. Oh and along the way the chick becomes some total hottie that the lead falls in love with after she falls for the main human guy from the wow world."
Send me my check please blizzard...k thanks!
What, was Uwe Boll too busy?
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Plz give a role to Leroy Jerkins!!
After a question in Jeopardy, we need him into this film!
I can't call that English
At last count, my bookshelf had 11 paperbacks from the Warcraft universe. All of which fall in with the story in the various Warcraft games. I'm fairly certain they can pull 2 hours of movie from there and make it entertaining to watch. The content is there.
The funding is there too. Blizzard brings in nearly 2 Billion USD a year in WoW subscription fees alone. Not to mention merchandise, account changes that require money and the game/expansions themselves that cost money to buy.
I'm sure Bliz will look at it as an investment, too. Those people who were on the fence about playing the game might just do so if the movie is made well enough. Not to mention the additional Merch they might sell with tie-ins. (World of Warcraft Mountain Dew anyone?)
Do I expect this to be an Oscar winner? Maybe if the score or special effects are well done, they'll have a chance at one of those fluke ones that get mentioned while going into commercials.
Do I expect it to be better than all this other garbage we're getting now in the wake of the writers strike? Hands-down, yes. Not because I'm a fanboi or anything, but simply because the rest of the stuff out there now is just recycled garbage. This summer specifically has been a terrible season at the box office compared to what was expected. Here's hoping GI Joe will turn it around, though the trailers have me weary.
Like someone said - Bruce will most likely have some role if you get him out of Miami for a bit. But really with Herc/Xena under his belt, this should be old hat for Sam. Just a matter of making the right phone calls to get all the old people back together in some new roles (cameos or main) (RIP Kevin Smith :(
Ted Raimi as Topper McNabb
Lucy Lawless as Jana Proudmore
Renee O'Connor as the head chick in Darnassus
Hudson Leick as human female character in just their underwear
etc...
I wonder how many reviews will compare it to LotR - Orcs vs Men, albeit with the Orcs being more of a proper character instead of just generic bad guys.
I doubt it will be as much of a grind as sitting through Transformers 2.
He practically invented the badass heroe. Shotgun and chainsaw anyone?
Expect broken mirrors, silly jokes, weird camera angles and cameos of Bruce Campbell and his Oldsmobile Delta 88 (although I'm not sure how he's going to include it in a WarCraft movie)
BTW, the article doesn't specify that it's World of Warcraft, just that it happens in the Warcraft universe. I know this is /. but the editors or the poster could actually read the title of TFA.
This isn't what you think. It's going to be a heart-felt story about little Jimmy's hard road out of internet gaming addiction. He gets the shakes when it's raid day and he can't get online anymore. He gets sunburned as his skin isn't ready for sunlight after years living in his parent's basement. Eventually he utters his first word that isn't some form of leet-speak or wow-talk and his parents cry as they can understand him for the first time in years.
I too liked the Silent Hill movie. I found it captured the look and feel of the game, and enjoyed that they weren't so bound by canon in the adaptation. I've never felt like I was so trapped in a fever dream before in a movie. It was like a European art film masquerading as a Hollywood movie -- maybe that's why it worked for me.
Hope it doesn't turn out to be another Max Payne!!
i saw these actions scenes when it was called Lord of the Rings
he specifically asked to insert a verb, so The Dark Knight is excluded... anyway, I respectfully disagree. Haven't watched in Bruges, Transformers 1 was adequately funny, 2 was a piece of crap, but both Wall-E and Pan's Labyrinth are excellent movies, at least as good as TDK, and possibly better. For once they actually make sense whereas TDK not always does so.
Where is that guy who'd die defending what I had to say when I need him?
Regardless of the quality, I'm sure they'll be able to get people to watch the movie (or buy the DVD), if they include a code for a sufficiently nifty in-game item as a premium.
If they have a different premium for movie and DVD, I'm sure you'll be able to get people to do both. Or hey, how about multiple collector versions of the DVD...
Now, a movie that I would see. People getting ganked for begging. Gold farmers going toe to toe with legitimate people. Constant bitching between peasants. Parties falling apart because the only tank as to go clean his room.
It would be a riot.
Steve's Computer Service, Hobbs, NM
And hire a good director, like blade runner. Also: scale models > computer graphics. Unless the entire movie is computer graphics, then it is acceptable.
They should let Uwe Boll direct it, just for the hilarity of watching him box everyone that hates it.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
So Sam's making a movie based on a game that quotes one of his own most famous lines. I've nothing insightful to add here, i just found that funny and a little strange. It'll never happen, but i wouldn't mind Mr. Campbell with a shotgun in there somewhere....
That which does not kill us makes us... st
I'm hoping it will have the chat scrolling on the left side of the screen.
WooHoo! 2.5 hours of replaying old Barrens chat from the server logs.
I am a long time WoW player and a RPG nut and this doesn't interest me in the slightest. Not really sure why but as much as I like playing WoW, the so-called storyline is sadly lacking, and where it is thick enough to actually involve yourself it is uniformly bad. That said, when I get done posting here and checking my email, I'm gonna login and check my AH toon, and run some daily quests.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Well, if that's your poison, then you need to know, even the undead fear... The Goon!
Oh, and also, kawaii.
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
We can all live in hope!
100% Mortgage
This requires picking of villains in a way not to alienate half your audience.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Leroy Jenkins is the protagonist.
As in all mainstream Sam Raimi movies, Bruce Campbell will have a breif cameo. He's rumored to be playing Leeroy Jenkins.
This sig is false.
What, was Uwe Boll too busy?
He was very explicitly denied the right to make this movie because he sucks. Or so Blizzard said.