sam-raimi posts

It was a case of "good news; bad news" this week for World of Warcraft fans. Blizzard's hit MMO game has now reached the 12 million player subscriber mark according to a new press release from the developer. Even with that new high number growth in the game's subscriber base has clearly slowed down. Blizzard announced that it reached the 11.5 million subscriber mark nearly two years ago. Blizzard clearly hopes the release of World of Warcraft Cataclysm, the third expansion pack for the MMO on December 7, will boost new player sign ups.

In related news, folks waiting patiently for the World of WarCraft movie may have to be patient for a while longer. Our sister site Cinematical reports that Sam Raimi, who was announced as the director for the adaptation some time ago, is now set to direct a prequel to the classic fantasy film The Wizard of Oz for release in 2012. While that doesn't mean Raimi won't direct th World of WarCraft movie it's looking like that film project has been pushed back by at least a couple of years.

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 been a while since director Sam Raimi was named to be the director of the movie adaptation of World of Warcraft. Since then the director has decided to pass on helming the fourth Spider-Man movie leading many to speculate that the movie adaptation of Blizzard's hit MMO will be his next project.

Collider.com chatter with Raimi this week on video as he attended the Saturn Awards ceremony. In short he still seems very much committed to making the World of Warcraft movie although the actual production is still a long way off. At the moment there's only a 40 page script treatment for the movie. Oh and he's still a huge WoW player. Good to know.

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]