There’s no debating that online role-playing games are addictive and have a huge audience. But will those factors build an audience for the upcoming World of Warcraft movie adaptation? To me, it depends upon how much Blizzard Entertainment, the company behind the games, is involved. We all know video game movies still haven’t found a way to work, but that’s because frequently the studio just takes the franchise concept and runs with it, leaving out the original people behind the idea.
From their Comic-Con panel with Legendary Pictures, it would appear Blizzard is quite involved and Paul Sams and Chris Metzen from Blizzard were on hand along with several of Legendary’s execs to dish out details on the idea behind the movie.
Attempting to closely capture the game’s audience, it would appear the movie is going to take place in the same world the game does, with events taking place shortly before the game began. This means popular Non-Player Characters might finally get more of their story told. The duo also announced the movie would be from the Alliance point of view, alienating the fan base who thinks playing evil is cooler. Oh well, at least this means the Horde still will be evil, not softened by some movie’s storyline. Leaving them as the bad guys can allow them to really be evil.
According to information reported by Kotaku, no script is finished yet and a director has yet to be attached, so the film is still a little ways off. The movie will be live action with CG effects, not a purely CG animated tale, and a 2009 release is planned for now.
