It's hard to believe that we've been hearing rumors of the World of Warcraft movie's pre-production for more than half a decade. The project finally seems to be moving forward, indicated by the announcement of Duncan Jones as new director in January, but the man he replaced, Sam Raimi, recently shared some insights into the nature of the film's delays.
In an interview with Vulture , Raimi pinned the blame solely on Blizzard for keeping the cinematic adaptation of one of gaming's most successful franchises in limbo. "I read a screenplay they had that was written by the guys at Blizzard, and it didn't quite work for me," Raimi told Vulture. "I told them I wanted to make my own original story with Robert [Rodat, screenwriter]."
Rodat's story was pitched to Blizzard, and according to Raimi, they accepted it with "reservations."
"Only once Robert was done did we realize that Blizzard had veto power, and we didn't know that," he continued. "And they had never quite approved the original story we pitched them. Those reservations were their way of saying, 'We don't approve this story, and we want to go a different way,' so after we had spent nine months working on this thing, we basically had to start over. And Robert did start over, but it was taking too long for the people at Blizzard, and their patience ran out. Honestly, I think it was mismanagement on their behalf."
As one of the few genuine PC gamers in Hollywood, I think Jones is a great selection, but as an Evil Dead fan (and a defender of the first two Raimi Spider-Man films as some of the best in superhero cinema), I'm still a little disappointed that he's no longer involved.
