legendary-pictures posts

There hasn't been a lot of news about the upcoming World of Warcraft movie but that doesn't mean progress isn't being made. Our sister site Joystiq reports that during a Comic-Con panel on Blizzard's hit MMO, Blizzard's VP Chris Metzen confirmed that the development of the feature film had slowed down. A script treatment is being worked on and Metzen stated that once it is completed, "hopefully it'll start moving very quickly, very soon."

And what about the movie's director Sam Raimi? Metzen says Raimi is still "very, very passionate" about the World of Warcraft movie. However Raimi is also a very busy man. During Comic-Con it was announced that Raimi is also attached to direct Earp: Saints for Sinners, a sci-fi version of the classic Western hero tale. He's also rumored to be working on a prequel to The Wizard of Oz.

It's looking like the long standing rumors that a Mass Effect movie has been under development is now moving forward. The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blog site is reporting that mega-independent movie studio Legendary Pictures (The Dark Knight, 300, and most recently Clash of the Titans) has picked up the movie rights to BioWare's sci-fi RPG series.

The story states that a script for the movie is being written by Mark Protosevich, best known for his work on the recent Will Smith film I Am Legend. BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk will be executive producers of the planned movie version as will Casey Hudson who has lead the development of the Mass Effect games.

It was a busy day in Hollywood on Monday and one of the biggest stories was the revelation that director Sam Raimi and star Tobey Maguire won't be involved in the making of any more Spider-Man movies. Both were supposed to be involved with Spider-Man 4 but script disputes with Sony Pictures have caused the entire project to be scrapped. Sony will still make a new Spider-Man movie but it will be a new reboot of the franchise with a new director and cast.

Last July, Raimi was announced as the director of the long-in-development movie adaption of World of Warcraft. At the time of the announcement, Raimi was supposed to start work on the movie after completing his work on Spider-Man 4. With that movie no longer part of the equation, our sister sister WoW.com asks if the movie version of Blizzard's MMO champion game will be fast tracked. So far there's no word on what Raimi's next project will be.

You may remember that former game journalist and current big time Hollywood screenwriter Gary Whitta admitted publicly that he had worked on drafts for the upcoming World of Warcraft movie for two years. That ended when Sam Raimi was named as the director of the adaptation of Blizzard's hit MMO game.

Now MTV News is reporting that the new screenwriter has been revealed. According to an interview with Raimi he stated that Robert Rodat, who has credits including Saving Private Ryan, is now writing the script for the adaptation. Raimi also stated the movie will be an original story and not really based on specific World of Warcraft storylines. Raimi is scheduled to begin production of the movie after his work on Spider-Man 4 is completed.

It's been a game-to-movie project that, quite frankly, we thought was in the typical "turnaround hell" state but word from Variety and Aint It Cool News is that Sam Raimi has been signed to direct the film adaptation of World of Warcraft. Yep, the man behind the Evil Dead and Spider-Man films is going to take on the task of bringing Blizzard's MMO world to celluloid life.

Legendary Pictures, who bought the movie rights to the game a few years ago, is still co-funding this venture with Warner Bros. According to Variety's article Raimi will make World of Warcraft his next picture after he finishes work on Spider-Man 4 which he is scheduled to direct in 2010. That most likely means that the World of Warcraft movie won't start filming until 2011 at the earliest.

This announcement was certainly timed to be made around this week's San Diego Comic-Con and we wouldn't be surprised if more info about this move was revealed at Blizzard's own World of Warcraft panel to be held on Thursday (maybe with a Raimi guest appearance?).

Update: Blizzard has now issued an official press release on Raimi's move to direct the movie. Raimi is quoted in the press release as saying, "At its core, Warcraft is a fantastic, action-packed story. I am thrilled to work with such a dynamite production team to bring this project to the big screen."

[Via Wow.com]

A few weeks ago, Epic Games vice-president Mark Rein said that rumors that Epic Games would be bought by Electronic Arts were "rubbish". Now Variety has word from what they call are "multiple sources" (all unnamed) that Epic is in talks to be purchased by movie company Legendary Pictures.

The movie financing company has gotten its money from a number of Wall Street investors and currently has a five year deal with Warner Bros. Studios to co-finance films like Batman Begins, Superman Returns, 300, and The Dark Knight. Legendary is also helping to develop the upcoming Watchmen and World of Warcraft films and signed a deal to co-finance a Gears of War movie adaptation. It's unknown why Legendary feels buying a game developer will be a help to their business, although Epic's licensing of their Unreal Engine has made it more than just a simple game studio for some time.

In his Cut Scene blog, Variety reporter Ben Fritz admits that this deal may not go though but he states, "I can assure you based on my reporting that there are serious talks going on." However when Big Download contacted Epic VP Mark Rein for comment he replied, "It is just another rumor."