Blizzard Entertainment made big news recently with the announcement that a director had finally be chosen for the World of Warcraft movie set to begin filming in the near future. We take a look at that and what it means to Warcraft fans everywhere in today's column. Let us know what you think in the comments.

In 2006, Blizzard and Legendary Pictures announced that a live action film based on the Warcraft universe was in development and scheduled to be released in 2009. As 2009 approached with no news of production starting on the film, it seemed as though the project was slowly dying out. Then it was announced that Sam Raimi would be directing with a targeted 2011 release. Then at Comic-Con 2011, Chris Metzen reassured fans that the project was not dead but that it was still in the “treatment stages,” which typically means there is no shooting script and a lengthy road ahead before shooting will begin. In 2012, Raimi left the film to shoot a project he was committed to, Oz: The Great and Powerful. At this point there seemed to be little hope that a Warcraft film would ever be made. However, on the official forums Nethera informed us that the project had not yet been abandoned. Needless to say, we have been waiting. We have been waiting very, very patiently for some concrete news about the state of the Warcraft film.

Read more of Reza Lackey's The WoW Factor: A New Hope.

Originally posted by MightyChasm
haha World of Warcraft the movie?  Hopefully it will get into the 'so bad it's good' category, but I am putting money on it being plain bad.  

I'd be worried about it being like the D&D Movie, if it weren't for Jones being connected.  That guy knows how to make a good film, and I hope he can handle some epic Fantasy, but bring the depth of character to it that he as in other movies.

Holy Heaven's Gate, Batman.

The drama continues.

Originally posted by BillMurphy

Originally posted by MightyChasm
haha World of Warcraft the movie?  Hopefully it will get into the 'so bad it's good' category, but I am putting money on it being plain bad.  

I'd be worried about it being like the D&D Movie, if it weren't for Jones being connected.  That guy knows how to make a good film, and I hope he can handle some epic Fantasy, but bring the depth of character to it that he as in other movies.

Agree, he has directed some decent films (well Moon), but I cannot see his style translating into big-budget, schlocky fantasy.  Raimi however, I would pay to see a hunter shouting 'this is my boom-stick!'.  

Originally posted by BillMurphy

Originally posted by MightyChasm
haha World of Warcraft the movie?  Hopefully it will get into the 'so bad it's good' category, but I am putting money on it being plain bad.  

I'd be worried about it being like the D&D Movie, if it weren't for Jones being connected.  That guy knows how to make a good film, and I hope he can handle some epic Fantasy, but bring the depth of character to it that he as in other movies.

D&D movie now that wa some serious **** overthere i have to say, but im actually hopeful they pull it with warcraft, after all , arthas is the best choise for a movie imo.

Not a WoW player. Always interested to see video game properties given the feature film treatment. Sadly most (all?) of them are not good. Hopefully this one helps reverse the trend but the odds are not in its favor....

In before "Uwe Bolle...."

I highly doubt it will be good... though hopefully as mentioned above the 'so bad its good' catagory which provides entertainment. WoW isn't exactly the best catagory as far as storyline goes, and often movie adaptations tend to weaken the story a bit in favor of making it look more glamerous and fit into a smaller time spot so I just highly doubt it will do much in that department. 

Honestly, I almost feel the only way it will gain any bit of enjoyment will likely be if they focus on making it a bad movie, giving it more towards being enjoyable how stupid it is and provide some laughter towards it. The "Big Trouble in Little China" type of entertainment we cause laugh at for being strange yet enjoyable.

I would watch a two-hour version of the Lich King cinematic everyday from the day it released till the end of time lol. I'm hoping for a full-length Blizzard CG movie since the D2 cinematics :/

Duncan Jones is great, i'm sure he will make it pretty decent and did you have to remind us of that horrible D&D movie now? :)

Originally posted by Fearum
Will there be people that never move with ! over their heads in the movie?

 

like the opening day of LK ?)

http://media.wow-europe.com/viewer/wow_video.htm?vid=wlk_eu_2008&dir=movies/wlk_eu_2008&img=wlk_openings

Successful (gross revenue signifigantly > budget) video game adaptations:

Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat (the second one had a profit but not much), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (sequels did well too),  Resident Evil and sequels,  Hitman, Max Payne, Prince of Persia.

Out of those I liked Res Evil and Hitman.  Max Payne was alright.  There really isn't a whole lot to go on.  Box Office Mojo lists 32 films only. 

I'll go see it unless it looks really corny.

Originally posted by bliss14

Successful (gross revenue signifigantly > budget) video game adaptations:

Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat (the second one had a profit but not much), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (sequels did well too),  Resident Evil and sequels,  Hitman, Max Payne, Prince of Persia.

Out of those I liked Res Evil and Hitman.  Max Payne was alright.  There really isn't a whole lot to go on.  Box Office Mojo lists 32 films only. 

I'll go see it unless it looks really corny.

 

I have seen all of these except Max Payne and Prince of Persia, and they were all terrible.  Street Fighter at least was fun in an incredibly camp way.  The rest were all dire.  

I just don't get it. The Cinematics are why many have been asking for a WoW movie but instead they decide to do a live action movie which has no hope of being anything other than a cheesy b-flick due to the style of WoW... 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvYXoyxLv64

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCr7y4SLhck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq4Y7ztznKc

I would watch WoW movies if done like in the above cinematics. I will not watch some cheesy live action heep of dung just because it's got a Blizzard and WoW label on it. Though I think thats what they are banking on, "we have 9million or so players so just release some low budget turd with our name on it and watch it bank....". Why do something well when you can sale crap in a box for millions ; ; 

Blizzard has the money to make this an Avatar/LOTR quality CG/RL mix.

It all depends on whether or not they want to. The rumored 100 million budget points to a "yes."

Warcraft universe has arguable better/more rich lore than LOTR and those movies were done exceptionally well.

How? Great director, great writing (yes, Tolkein-heads the movies were well written) and a massive budget with an excellent blend of RL and high-quality CG integration (hello Gollum anyone?!)