The World of Warcraft movie is shaping up to be the next great hope (a new hope?) for those of us that believe a good video-game to movie adaptation is possible. Lord knows we haven't seen a decent one yet. After the Peter Jackson-produced Halo movie fell through (or morphed into District 9) all eyes turned to World of Warcraft, another huge franchise in the video-game world known for it's epic storyline and distinctive characters. Could this be the one that works as a movie?
Well things looked positive when we recently found out that Sam Raimi is looking to direct the feature and today some more info on the possible full title and plot was revealed by MTV:
It was revealed in July that the [Raimi] will next (or at least soon) be turning to the massively multiplayer world of Azeroth for an adaptation of Blizzard's obscenely popular online role-playing game, "World of Warcraft." Until now, the movie's been going by the title "Warcraft" and no story details have been released. Well things have changed, and I think you fans are going to like it.
The eagle eyed fans at IncGamers spotted a change to the movie's details on IMDB.com (via Fidgit). First, the official title now appears to be "Warcraft: The Rise of the Lich King."
What's interesting about that title is it's actually nothing new. "Arthas: Rise of the Lich King" is a New York Times-bestselling book that hit stores earlier this year. The story follows Arthas Menethil, a once-noble prince and warrior who becomes a fearsome tyrant known as the Lich King. Presumably the movie will follow the plot of the book, at least roughly, in recounting the events of the fallen paladin's life.
So it looks like what we will actually be getting is an adaptation of a novel that's based on a video-game property... I guess I can handle that. Having not read the novel I have no idea if the story is any good or not, or whether it is ripe for adaptation, but if there is one filmmaker I have faith in, it's Sam Raimi.
Source:
MTV
January 27, 2008, 09:51:58 PM
