Sam Raimi On The World Of Warcraft Film

Along with speaking about his upcoming title Oz, older projects such as the Spider-Man trilogy director Sam Raimi delved into some background details of his time World of Warcraft film and the issues plaguing it. Though currently being helmed by Source Code director Duncan Jones, Raimi reveals what seem to be considerable problems on set.

While only speaking briefly about it, the most outstanding issue seems to be the level of control and influence Blizzard have over the project. While recent stories such as the ongoing Starcraft II trilogy, I still can't believe that's being done, have been strong Blizzard seems to only be allowing a very limited degree of control over the project and little elbow-room especially in the script department.

Upon reading the screenplay given to him by Bilzzard, Raimi noted that he felt "it didn't quite work for me" and instead had a new version written up by Robert Rodat: "We pitched it to Legendary and they accepted it, and then we pitched it to Blizzard, and they had reservations, but they accepted it." It was only following this that both learned that Blizzard had the option to veto any part of the film and "never quite approved" of the story which they had now been given.
After a total of nine months working on the screenplay Blizzard effectively said, as paraphrased by Raimi, """We don't approve this story, and we want to go a different way"". While Rodat did indeed start on a new script, Blizzard then felt that they were taking too long and their patience ran out.

Raimi noted his confusion on this decision, questioning why they did not explain that the story had been vetoed long ago and kept them working on it for so long in spite of this. He considered this to be an act of "mismanagement on their behalf" which cause them to waste so much time.

Still, for all these problems Raimi ended his talk on a hopeful note stating that Jones was a talented director and that "I bet that if anyone can do a great job with it, it's him."
Here's hoping we do end up with a solid film as Mr. Raimi hopes.