Wow. I’m a year late on this news, but this was brought to my attention by the SEQALAB podcast: they’re making a World of Warcraft movie.
I can’t decide whether I should be confused, perplexed, amused, or exasperated. Or all four at once!
Strangely enough, despite the fact that this movie was announced a year ago at BLIZZCON, there still isn’t very much information on it. It’s labeled as being in pre-production on IMBD, but they still don’t have a director or anything resembling a plot. I’m somewhat surprised that they’re going for a “war story” rather than a Lord of the Rings-type thing as I’m sure many of its players are into the genre, but eh… I dunno. Of all the uninspired game-to-movie ideas that have been tossed out there, I would have expected better from Blizzard (or maybe I just want a Starcraft movie instead because damn, that’d be awesome).
It’s been a year full of dead news already though. At this rate, I kind of expect this WoW movie to not make it out of production if it ever even enters it — WoW’s appeal is that you create your own character and your own adventures, more or less. I don’t really feel as if that would translate well into a movie that was removed from yourself and your character. Oh. Look. This guy agrees with me. If this movie’s made, it’s not going to make money. At all.
I never did like the idea of companies venturing into different fields and medias without first mastering their primary one — seems a bit stupid, doesn’t it? Why should Microsoft venture into gaming when its software has so many problems? Why should TOKYOPOP create a new division for movies when they can’t even handle their comics right now? Why should Blizzard try to make a Warcraft movie when they have games to finish making (oh, that’s the Starcraft-fan in me being pissed again, sorry)? I’ve only ever see one company take on multiple disciples extremely effectively and that’s, of course, Google. This isn’t to say others haven’t succeeded, I’m sure some have (how about that Xbox, eh?), but most of the time it doesn’t work that way.
It’s a hugely risky venture in hard economic times. Give up that movie, Blizzard, you’ve got more important things to do.
Actually, the WoW movie is done by Legendary Pictures, the same studio that did 300, Dark Knight, and Batman Begins. There’s hope that this movie won’t suck after all!
A good studio won’t impress me until they announce a director… a plot might be nice too. :P But yeah, having Legendary behind them will at least mean that their special effects will be good enough.
im 2 years late on this response but if you dont know already the director is sam raimi