Before Sam Raimi set out on the gargantuan task of making Oz The Great and Powerful, he was working on two equally huge and highly-anticipated films: Spider-Man 4 and World of Warcraft. Spider-Man 4 was set to right the wrongs Raimi and crew made on the third film, but eventually he and all his stars left the project. That opened the door for Marc Webb’s reboot, The Amazing Spider-Man.
Raimi was also developing an adaptation of the popular game World of Warcraft, with an eye on directing. Eventually, he left that project too. Duncan Jones is now set to helm.
In a new interview, Raimi explained exactly why he left both those projects. Each is an interesting, but still typical story of Hollywood drama. Read More »
.
Please Recommend /Film on Facebook
The director of Moon is going to war. Duncan Jones, the director of Moon and Source Code, has just signed on to direct Warcraft, a movie based on the extremely popular Blizzard video game world Azeroth, featured in games such as Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, and World of Warcraft. Legendary Pictures has the license, and a new script by Charles Leavitt (Blood Diamond).
The aim is to begin shooting the genre-bending action fantasy by the end of this year for a possible 2015 release. Read More »
Posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2012 by Angie Han
Legendary’s World of Warcraft adaptation is down a director, now that Sam Raimi‘s no longer attached, but don’t write it off just yet. The studio’s apparently determined to soldier on, and to that end has jump started its efforts by hiring screenwriter Charles Leavitt.
This marks the first bit of forward movement we’ve heard about since 2010, though with no one at the helm World of Warcraft is actually still a step behind where it was at that point. If all goes well with Leavitt, Legendary hopes to take the next step by picking a director in the next few months. Read more after the jump.
Read More »
Posted on Wednesday, July 18th, 2012 by Angie Han
The World of Warcraft movie that’s been in the works since 2007 or so finally seemed to get a push forward in 2009 when Sam Raimi signed on to direct. At the time, the beloved director was just coming off of the first two massively successful Spider-Man movies, and it seemed like if anyone could get the wheels turning on this video game adaptation it’d be him. As of 2010, a new writer had been hired and Raimi was gushing to press about how “exciting” the World of Warcraft movie was for him. And then… silence.
As Oz: The Great and Powerful got set up as Raimi’s next project, video game fans held out hope that the director would get back to World of Warcraft eventually. But that’s not happening anymore, he says, because Activision Blizzard couldn’t wait for him and had to find another director. Which is a little odd, because we haven’t heard anything about the project — with or without Raimi at the helm — in over two years. Read Raimi’s comment after the jump.
Read More »
Update: I was wrong, apparently there is video of construction. Looks like this theme park is actually happening.
Reports have begun to spread that a new theme park is being developed for China called JoyLand. But since there is no photos of actual construction, I’m a bit skeptical about the whole project. According to the official website, the new park will feature lavish World of Warcraft and StarCraft themed areas, and that the park is planning to open in May 2011. At this point in time there should be a lot of photos of construction, something I couldn’t find anywhere online. And why wouldn’t Blizzard have mentioned this licensing opportunity at one of their past Blizzcon gaming conventions?
Either way I think the concept images are cool enough to share and talk about the possibilities. The areas mentioned on the Joyland website are “Hero Gate”, “Taobao Avenue,” “Mysterious Island”, “Moore Park”, “World of Legend” (a popular Chinese MMO), “Universe of StarCraft”, “the Terrain of Warcraft”, “Moles World” and “Temple Mount”. Joyland also plans to house a giant e-sports center that aims to become a trade expo destination. Check out the concept images after the jump.
Read More »
Couple weeks ago, the big news was that Sam Raimi had not only been offered the director’s chair on Disney’s Wizard of Oz prequel Oz, the Great and Powerful, but that he’d taken the job. And while the idea of Raimi directing a big-budget 3D Oz film for Disney doesn’t seem like the greatest move he could make from a creative standpoint, the pairing does make a certain sense.
But it seems like the confirmation of his hire may have been slightly premature, as last night Raimi told Collider that he’s still not positive he’s taking that job. Sounds like he’d really rather do World of Warcraft, instead. Read More »
I’m not too enthusiastic about a Spider-Man reboot, but that’s probably not fair. Maybe somebody else can come along and make a film as good as, if not even better than, Spider-Man 2. Maybe. For me, though, immediate focus is shifting from the Spider-Man franchise to whatever else Sam Raimi decides to do next.
We’ve known since that he’s been attached to direct a World of Warcraft movie, with Robert Rodat writing the script, but a new report on Aint it Cool unsurprisingly suggests that it’s become his new focus.
…the phone lines were burning between a certain legendary locale and Raimi’s folks about firing up the furnaces to forge the weapons of war.
Legendary locale? A simple reference to Legendary Pictures, who are producing? Or – and I’m not sure about this at all – could he be meaning New Zealand and/or Weta? Or what?
More is bound to follow.
A few days ago there was a rumor floating around that the World of Warcraft film, to be directed by Sam Raimi, would be called Rise of the Lich King and be based off one of the WoW spin-off novels. That was based on the fact that the IMDB listing had changed to reflect that title, and we never ran it for exactly that reason. Anyone can add to and change the IMDB, so it’s not to be trusted. Now, however, we know that the script will be an original story, and we know who’s writing it. Read More »
Cool Posts From Around the Web:
