At the Comic-Con panel for Oz the Great and Powerful, we learned that director Sam Raimi was no longer involved with an adaptation of The Shadow because he couldn’t find a script he liked. A couple years ago, Raimi was also linked to an adaptation of the mega-popular Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG), World of Warcraft, but it appears he’s now left that project as well. For those unfamiliar with WOW, it takes place in a fantasy setting where player can take on the roles of orcs, humans, elves, etc., boost the levels of their characters to gain new abilities, raid dungeons, fight monsters, and basically never leave their homes again.
Hit the jump for what Raimi had to say about the project, and what the future may hold for World of Warcraft.
Speaking to Crave Online at Comic-Con, Raimi said:
“Actually, they don’t have me directing World of Warcraft anymore because when I took the Oz job, they had to move on to another director. They had to start making it.”
That part about a new director is curious because we haven’t heard about any new developments on the flick. When he’s speaking about “they”, presumably he’s talking about Warner Bros., since they owned the screen rights. However, some contracts have stipulations that if a studio doesn’t start making a movie by a certain date, then the rights revert to the original owner (in this case, it would be World of Warcraft developer, Blizzard Entertainment).
It’s possible that these rights were renewed after Raimi left the project, which is why we haven’t heard anything new regarding the screen adaptation. At the time Raimi exited the film, it may have been more urgent to get another director on board, but clearly Warner Bros. is taking their time. It may also be the case that the studio decided against making the film, and let their option lapse.
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Wow is on the decline. May be Warner Bros. is saving themselves a flop by keeping it on the back burner.
damn … now we wont get a troll wearing a power rangers suit as the villain … and there goes the lame bruce cambell cameo
Firstly, it was not going to be a “WoW” film. It was going to be just “Warcraft”. WoW came after Warcraft.
Secondly, why are you all just sitting around doing nothing about this? I thought we all agreed that Sam Raimi was the PERFECT director for a Warcraft movie. Don’t you want the studio to simply WAIT FOR RAIMI to finish the Oz project and THEN let him be the director of Warcraft again? Why aren’t you TRYING to help Raimi?
You should all be starting petitions, creating communities to show you want the studio to let Raimi come back as director of Warcraft when he’s ready.
Raimi was really looking forward to making Warcraft, and now his dream is about to be pushed away from just because he was busy with one other movie. That doesn’t seem fair to me at all. Something has to be done.
Here is a Facebook page to promote this common interest. If you have a Facebook account, LIKE the page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bring-Sam-Raimi-back-for-War-Craft/509783929035318