BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT® SIGNS SAM RAIMITO (spiderman) TO DIRECT WARCRAFT MOVIE

[grondramb]

http://www.blizzard.com/us/press/090721.html

I have the feeling this is going to be bad... but Blizzard has lots of money and they could have done worse for a director.

Raimi, acclaimed director of the blockbuster Spider-Man series, will bring the forces of the Horde and the Alliance to life in epic live-action film. Charles Roven's Atlas Entertainment will produce alongside Raimi's Stars Road Entertaiment.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – July 22, 2009 -- Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. and Legendary Pictures announced today that Sam Raimi has signed on to direct the eagerly-anticipated major motion picture based on Blizzard Entertainment®’s award-winning Warcraft® universe. Raimi has, in the course of his career, clearly demonstrated a genius for developing and adapting existing fictional universes for mainstream audiences while staying true to the spirit of the original content.

http://www.blizzard.com/us/press/090721.html

[grondramb]

I guess this is encouraging too

Charles Roven’s producing talents were recently seen with last summer’s blockbuster The Dark Knight, which grossed in excess of $1 billion, was nominated for eight Academy Awards® and won two. His body of work also includes the widely acclaimed Batman Begins and the sci-fi classic 12 Monkeys.

[keirgrey]

A Warcraft movie is "highly anticipated"? Video game movies tend to be a BBOS.

[Dirtypacman]

I don't really see it being 'good' - but then again I could be wrong. Regardless I am excited for it.

[heySkippy]

Sam Ramito?

I think this has the potential to not suck if he makes it more in the spirit of Army of Darkness and less of Spiderman.

[Ludwig van Jaethoven]

Got a good laugh at this comment exchange on digg this morning.

Here's what we know:
- Warcraft movie
- It won't be CG only
- Credible director who's responsible for a lot of geek favorites
- Warcraft has a solid story
- Out in 2011
- A lot of money available to go into it

Of course everyone's going to have their pre-conceived notions of what *could* go wrong... but from what we know so far, this movie has a chance of being something cool.

[Mysteryman]

There are two things going in favor of the Warcraft movie. The first is that there is actual story and substance to the game. A finely detailed story already exists and doesn't have to be manufactured for the sake of a movie for action games like Street Fighter, Mortal Combat, or Doom.

The second, and this is most important, Uwe Boll is not making this movie. When you think of any horrible video game movie, theres a high likelyhood that Boll pushed it out of his bowels onto the movie screen.