A director often has a number of projects in development at the same time, as not all of them will ever reach the stage where they will go into production. But sometimes, more than one of those projects may be ready to go at the same time, forcing the director to make a tough decision as to which to do and which to pass on. That’s the situation that Sam Raimi found himself with an adaption of the online video game World Of Warcraft a while back when he signed on to Disney’s Oz, The Great And Powerful. As he told Crave in an interview “Actually, they [Activision Blizzard] don’t have me directing World of Warcraft anymore because when I took the Oz job, they had to move on to another director… They had to start making it.”
So Raimi is no longer working on the World Of Warcraft film, but who is?
The last word out on the World Of Warcraft project was back in late 2009 when Saving Private Ryan screenwriter Robert Rodat was hired to write an original script. But after Raimi’s hiring for Oz in June 2010, there has been silence. No news if Rodat has turned in his draft. No news as to who the new director Raimi says that they moved on to. Nothing.
Has Activision Blizzard abandoned the idea of making the movie? While the game is still fairly popular, the company has stated in financial reports (as reported by Screen Rant) that subscriber numbers have been decreasing. Can a film be made that would appeal to both players of the game and non-gamers? Would former players want to come back to see a movie based on the game? These are probably some of the questions that Activision is wrestling with right now. And if they have already found an answer then perhaps the ongoing silence is an indication of their decision.
