Screenwriter Hired for Warcraft Movie

Published by Jeff Leins on: October 13th, 2009

A week ago, NewsinFilm ran a story about a title change to the Warcraft movie on IMDB that included the subtitle “Rise of the Lich King.”  The details were based on rumor and speculation, but were labeled as such and gave us an opportunity to look at a possible storyline. Other websites (Warcraft and movie alike) are feigning the high ground, but keep in mind they have all run unfounded articles in the past. Ok, now that that’s out of the way, here is the latest from Sam Raimi’s camp:

In a phone interview about today’s DVD release of Drag Me to Hell, MTV had the chance to talk with Raimi, who is directing the live-action fantasy epic for Legendary Pictures, Warner Bros., and Blizzard Entertainment.

Raimi revelead the screenwriter as Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan, The Patriot) and said the intention is to make a faithful story that “feels like a ‘World of WarCraft’ adventure.”

“We would choose… something that encompasses lands and characters and storylines, and we would be true to it. But our story may or may not be about one of those central characters,” Raimi continued.

He’s clearly picking his words carefully here as the script isn’t complete and committing to an idea at this point would be an epic mistake.  Staying faithful to that lore is going to be the hardest task in the development.  With 11.5 million subscribers on Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, they want clear messaging for a massive fan base.

Raimi hints at an original story not already told in the video games, but waffles on the topic of a protagonist.  So at this point, we still don’t really know anything other than who is writing a (possibly) original story about (maybe) a character Warcraft fans have seen before (maybe not).

The Warcraft-based film was announced over three years ago, so movement has been slow.  Others are quick to point out producer Chris Metzen has denied an Arthas plotline, but that was two years ago and before Raimi was hired.  One thing that has remained constant is the idea to tell the tale from an alliance perspective.