According to the information available, the World of Warcraft movie is co-produced by Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures, and distributed by Warner Bros. The director has been confirmed as Sam Raimi, the director of Spider-Man.
Earlier reports had it that the Warcraft movie would be titled The Rise of the Lich King and open in 2011, and that David Wenham might play Arthas.
Other reports said the film would be set one year before World of Warcraft (isn’t that the timeframe of Cycle of Hatred? that story was pretty boring), and would tell its story from the perspective of ordinary people. That one doesn’t seem to have much to do with Arthas.
And today on Tencent I saw a report that the Warcraft movie has entered the script-writing stage.
Robert Tapert is a partner of Warcraft movie director Sam Raimi and currently serves as a producer and executive producer on the film. Here is what he said, in his own words:
“It’s in development,” Tapert said. “Right now we’re in the outline/story/script stage.”
The Warcraft movie has drawn attention ever since the filming plan was announced, and Tapert has now confirmed where it stands in development. He declined, however, to comment further on the relationship between the Spider-Man 4 delay and director Sam Raimi.
The World of Warcraft film brings together a long list of heavyweights. It is directed by Spider-Man director Sam Raimi (Sam Raimito), and its script is being written by Robert Rodat, the screenwriter who penned Saving Private Ryan, in the hope of delivering richly drawn characters while also letting audiences experience the brutal war behind the game’s story.
Live-action actors who have so far expressed interest and may later play characters from the game: Mark Hildebrandt — King Varian, Michele Morrow — Sylvanas Windrunner