E3 06: World of Warcraft headed for Hollywood

New York Times reports that Blizzard plans to announce its PC MMORPG's jump to the big screen on Tuesday.

LOS ANGELES--World of Warcraft has been rumored to be jumping platforms to the Xbox 360 for some time, but if The New York Times is correct, the next jump it makes will instead be to the world of film.

The Times is reporting that Blizzard will announce Tuesday that its massively successful, massively multiplayer online role-playing game is set to be made into a big-budget fantasy picture along the lines of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films, with Warner Bros.' Legendary Pictures handling the production.

Director, cast, release date, and budget are all undetermined as of yet, but the paper quotes Blizzard CEO Paul Sams as saying that the goal is to make "one of the best films in the world," a World of Warcraft pic that will appeal to gamers and nongamers alike. He said Legendary Pictures management was keenly attuned to what Blizzard wanted out of a World of Warcraft film. Legendary's first film was Batman Begins. Other projects being brought to the big screen by Legendary Pictures include Superman Returns, The Ant Bully, Where the Wild Things Are, and Frank Miller's 300.

243 Comments

  • lordmasterrof

    Posted Nov 8, 2008 9:22 am PT

    They can easily pull it off - go with the "Arthas against Illidan" story, and then make a sequel were Arthas is the "lich king" and so and so

  • Ubergosuprogg

    Posted Oct 17, 2008 11:50 am PT

    Live action I think, I think they can pull it off they're good at what they do I'm sure they can make a storyline that werks with fans and non fans alike. we'll see what they come up with though.

  • Ryan123Fan

    Posted May 11, 2008 7:53 am PT

    I think they'll have to come up with a brilliant storyline, or it'll kinda suck. As with most game-based-movies, the storyline sucks. And since they're usually just one movie, it'll be too short to fit in an epic, legendary story.

    And another problem like YoePoeJoe said, maybe only Warcraft players or those that read any warcarft lore would know what they're talking about. Sure they could make it "understandable" to everyone, but they might break lots of lore and warcraft history, which will great disappoint a lot of fans like me...

  • ultim8-rovdyr

    Posted Apr 22, 2008 9:48 am PT

    so will it be a live action movie, or animated? or maybe along the Beowulf lines?

  • Lauren201294

    Posted Dec 9, 2007 2:56 am PT

    If they don't make it on the WC3 and WC3 The frozen throne storylines it will suck, if they doand do it right, it will make game to movie history.

  • darth-revan

    Posted Jun 12, 2007 7:33 am PT

    "Smoolander Simply put, fantasy movies do not sell. The only ones that do are those have a HUGE literary base behind them, al la LOTR and Harry Potter. A WoW movie would be a financial ruin."

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I would call over 8 million subscribers a relatively large base for profit.

  • Titanfan2083

    Posted Jun 11, 2007 4:48 am PT

    I only saw the first and last movies on this list but those were incredible, i really loved them

  • JohnnySoftware

    Posted Dec 16, 2006 10:55 am PT

    Pretty exciting.

    The South Parks TV show episode titled "Make Love, not WarCraft" and the raft of decent World of WarCraft crafted music videos available on YouTube prove that this game is great for producing entertainment video.

    Squaresoft, makers of the Final Phantasy video games for game consoles went under due to the cost of producing its Final Phantasy motion picture.

    It was good, but probably not worth burying the company to produce.

    Hopefully, Blizzard will not follow the same path.

  • jakeboudville

    Posted Aug 25, 2006 12:49 am PT

    interesting.....

  • acucar

    Posted Aug 7, 2006 8:39 pm PT

    Have you ever played Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos/The Frozen Throne?
    Do you remember the cinematics from those games?
    If Blizzard makes a film... that would be cool... ain't I right?

  • arthurdayne

    Posted Jul 14, 2006 5:59 pm PT

    There better be two naked night elves making out in that movie, otherwise I will be really disappointed

    HAHAHAHAHA

  • Urrego

    Posted Jul 6, 2006 10:33 pm PT

    umm, Perhaps it will totaly suck ass, but perhaps it will be great, as some1 upthere said, they dont release a game unless its A+++, um, if they can make it look like the Lords Of the Rings it would be awesome

  • doffythebest

    Posted Jun 21, 2006 5:16 am PT

    This is both positive and negative. If they get te feeling right it could be a good movie, but on the other hand they could make one hell of a big blowup on it.

  • Thor1981

    Posted Jun 14, 2006 10:04 pm PT

    I can see it now: I pay for the ticket, get popcorn, sit through previews. Then the movie opens with "Handshake..." then the movie projector either freezes or crashes. Seriously, I am curious as to how this would look on celluloid...

  • mister-sandman

    Posted Jun 2, 2006 5:29 am PT

    blizzard never releases a game if they dont think it is A++ game (starcraft ghost and warcraft adventures anyone?)

    so that prolly means or this movie is gonna be a LOTR beater. or there wont be a movie

  • Axelpwnsall

    Posted May 31, 2006 12:14 pm PT

    eberkain_basic said, "What's the last game-based movie that was any good, and how many have failed miserably since then." and my answer to him is FF7 the advent children

  • Smoolander

    Posted May 31, 2006 7:28 am PT

    Simply put, fantasy movies do not sell. The only ones that do are those have a HUGE literary base behind them, al la LOTR and Harry Potter. A WoW movie would be a financial ruin.

  • allsportsgp

    Posted May 27, 2006 11:50 pm PT

    WoW was fun in 2005 and early 2006 - time to move on folks, stop wasting your lives on a product that fails to deliver. Those that play know what I'm talking about, no need to explain all of it's downfalls here.

    Go live your life!

    Best Wishes,
    Former WoW'er since joined USAF.

  • burn6

    Posted May 25, 2006 9:59 am PT

    Mr. Boll is definitely a killer! I hope WOW is not one of his agenda in the coming years.

  • obi_2_kenobi

    Posted May 22, 2006 8:28 am PT

    Man, that movie is going to suck so bad!

  • vegedus

    Posted May 22, 2006 6:46 am PT

    This would be great... If Blizzard made it... Imagine a film looking like the Warcraft III CG's! That would be totally cool! I say films based on fantasy games should be animated *points to advent children*

  • hardhittin12

    Posted May 21, 2006 4:48 pm PT

    hey i liked Mario Brothers the movie. And the New final fantasy movie was good. ok mario bros sucked but final fantasy was good

  • YoePoeJoe

    Posted May 21, 2006 3:56 pm PT

    Probably only warcraft fans will understand whats going on in the movie.

  • ionostuff

    Posted May 21, 2006 2:13 pm PT

    !

  • Kessel

    Posted May 21, 2006 11:24 am PT

    Kinda nervous, 300 looks terrible, and they haven't named a director yet. Everyone make the sign of the cross to keep Uwe Boll away.

  • Popy_arthas

    Posted May 21, 2006 11:00 am PT

    I'll keep silence until we get more info... And ill keep a thread of hope over my sceptic wiev of the subject.

  • stephant_6

    Posted May 21, 2006 10:20 am PT

    This can definitely hurt the franchise if the movies suck.My dad thinks its dumb how I play WoW all the time so if it got made into crappy movies he'd rip on me for the rest of my life*eek*.But they could turn out to be awsome!

  • EcksBocks360

    Posted May 21, 2006 4:06 am PT

    screw WoW! they announced a zelda movie!

  • deathosaurus22

    Posted May 20, 2006 11:37 pm PT

    i wantz my char to be famouse!! hez gonna get a part in teh movie w00t

  • ZodiakLucien

    Posted May 20, 2006 4:53 pm PT

    horrible idea

  • riandro

    Posted May 19, 2006 10:40 am PT

    WAHOO! cant wait...... where is it? when is it? who is it? what is it? how is it?
    MORE INFO plz0r

  • V1RuS0fL1fE

    Posted May 19, 2006 8:13 am PT

    Its probably gooing to be good...but in a sucky way? :s

  • Kastigador

    Posted May 17, 2006 3:27 pm PT

    Movies -> Games... Maybe. Games->Movies... Suck(unless you get to ogle Angelina Jolie).

    It doesn't matter though cuz WoW is so popular they're bound to make a profit just from the 6 millions active players alone. I'm just looking forward to their take on 50 man raids. Some guy sitting there spam healing a tank for 15 minutes... wooooo.... exciting.

  • Jogo19853

    Posted May 17, 2006 5:58 am PT

    I hope they won't make some crap from this. After King Kong I'm not sure if Peter Jackson is good enough to make a movie about WoW

  • ewjim

    Posted May 17, 2006 12:31 am PT

    They will ruin another game...

  • UmbrellaMaster

    Posted May 16, 2006 1:20 pm PT

    Sooo... will the movie include a whiny community of night elf females who never stop dancing, act suspiciously male, and constantly make chuck norris jokes? If not, there's no way I'm watching it because it's not true to the game world.

  • Armoured_Mage

    Posted May 15, 2006 1:14 pm PT

    hmmm wonder if mages will 2 shot every1 in da film.

  • bboyart

    Posted May 15, 2006 3:53 am PT

    The movie made from game probably won't satisfy game fans but it could prove commercial like Doom3.

  • dunnedlor

    Posted May 15, 2006 1:50 am PT

    LEEROY JEENKINS

  • Lord_cornholio

    Posted May 14, 2006 2:34 pm PT

    This can very well be the best thing that has ever happend to warcraft. If this turns out well, which i think it will, they should definetly try it for starcraft and make sequels.

  • fatzombiepigeon

    Posted May 14, 2006 11:24 am PT

    If Peter Jackson gets to make it, it would definitely rock.
    Hopefully they give it to him. He would make it into a masterpiece.

  • Similis

    Posted May 14, 2006 8:27 am PT

    ^^

  • chic-warmer

    Posted May 14, 2006 6:51 am PT

    YES!!!!! ALWAYS THOUGHT OF 'if there's gonna be a halo movie..y nt warcraft!' AND FINALLY ITS GONNA BE THERE!!!!!!!! WOOOOHOOO!!!!

  • ddrfan

    Posted May 14, 2006 2:00 am PT

    YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
    HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
    WoW Movie !

  • calvinalex911

    Posted May 13, 2006 11:49 pm PT

    cool a warcraft movie will realy be mind blowing

  • SwiftBullet

    Posted May 13, 2006 8:38 pm PT

    Umm... Well sounds... interesting but id like to point out that games and movies have never really had good transitions... Perhaps blizzard can pull it off but seriously speaking movies that turn into games or vice versa suck (except maybe Final Fantasy XII amongst other exceptions)

  • NNY420

    Posted May 13, 2006 8:12 am PT

    it shall suck..
    need I remind everyone of Bloodrayne the movie..
    sure she was pretty hot and you got to see her boobs but still.. it wasnt worth it..

    this movie would surprise me if its any better..
    if it was about a guy who played wow soo much he thought he was a level 23 knight or whatever.. that could be intresting.. cuz I dono how people can be dumb enough to pay to play.. things like this shouldnt be making soo much money, we should be demanding they make the game free to play..
    yeah..
    then the movie would be intresting.. well actually it would be too real. and people would be freaked the **** out..

    I dono.. Im quiting smoking soo everything is just grr..

  • diablusx

    Posted May 13, 2006 7:54 am PT

    If it goes LOTR trilogy type then it will one of the most sweetest movies ever...but if it goes for a story about a lone anything it will fall into the land of suck (D&D).

  • awangreen

    Posted May 13, 2006 6:27 am PT

    no one cares

  • ryaz_weaponx

    Posted May 13, 2006 5:44 am PT

    i hope this one rocks have alot of expectation, the last game based movie i saw was DOOM n it sucked.

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