Back a few years ago, video games were reaching a fever pitch again, to the point where I was wondering when the big video game movie was going to come along.
Halo was in the works at Universal, but it never came to pass because the film was prohibitively expensive. This makes you wonder if other studios will also also be unwilling to shoot a video game flick due to similar cost concerns.
In any event, it was certainly interesting to read reports indicating there is some movement with the World of Warcraft movie, which Sam Raimi was originally going to direct.
Personally, I think Raimi’s would have been a great choice to helm the project, I mean, just imagine him bringing his Evil Dead style mayhem to a game movie. Then again, Raimi has already moved on to the Wizard of Oz prequel, Oz: The Great and Powerful.
While there’s no new word on who could be the next director, there is a new screenwriter attached to WoW, Charles Leavitt, who also gave us KPax, Blood Diamond and Legendary’s The Seventh Son.
The previous screenplay for WoW was written by Robert Rodat, who penned Saving Private Ryan and The Patriot.
As Bobby Kotick, president of Activision Blizzard, told Variety, Blizzard is “very excited about having a World of Warcraft film. They’ve been very careful and thoughtful about the development process. I just think [Legendary founder and CEO] Thomas Tull has such a great track record. If there’s someone we want to do business with, he’s at the top of the list.”
One day there should be a Hollywood video game called Escape From Development Hell, which many films never do. Quite a few people tried very hard to bring Halo to the big screen to no avail, and World of Warcraft hasn’t had an easy journey either.
In the development hell process, writers and scripts are typically the most expendable commodity, so let’s hope someone can lick it, and bring it to life, hopefully with a director as inventive and geek friendly as Raimi.
