Spider-Man director claims Blizzard 'mismanaged' Warcraft film

I wonder how many actually read the article?  I see a lot of comments here stating that Blizzard was in the right.  Did they miss the part about how he wrote a new script for NINE MONTHS and Blizzard kept their mouths shut up until the end?  Why didn't Blizzard say, "no this won't work" during the first few days?  They should've spoken sooner -- not 9 months later!  Very bad business decision there.  While I agree that Sam should've just stuck with the script, I agree that both parties are at fault, but I find more fault with Blizzard just for sitting there for 9 months and not saying anything.  That guy just basically wasted a year of his life when he could've been doing something else more productively.

As much as I have been on Blizzard's case for some disappointing business decisions, I must say Blizzard is in the right about this.  Blizzard knows its own lore more than Sam Raimi does; often screenwriters adapting for film change the core video game story so much that it becomes unrecognizable (see Super Mario Bros, all the Uwe Boll movies, Hitman, and Max Payne).  Blizzard has valid reasons to be overprotective of its IP.  And, to be honest, Duncan Jones is a great replacement with a fresh, but still retro perspective (choosing practical effects over digital) in filmmaking.  His two sci-fi films Moon and Source Code were excellent done under a small budget. 

Blizzard transferred the story from Warcraft 3 into World of Warcraft, serve them right for the bad press! I think the guys at Blizzard need to grow up!

Blizzard would have been stupid to just trust Hollywood to do everything with their IP, considering the history of really bad videogame-based movies.

By the time a warcraft movie is made, people just won't care anymore.

Raimi is probably sour from working with Disney on "The Great and Powerful OZ". That thing is a stain on his movie record. Or let's not forget his struggle with the forcible inclusion of Venom (which was laughable), and which he did not want in the end.

This is why ASSASSINS CREED/Ubisoft is constantly working  closely with development of their movie  aswell as working with mostly unknown writers.

If that works out well or not we'll see.

Im sure it sucks for Raimi but this is blizzards IP and they should be allowed to make it or break it as they see fit.  But i have seen more game/movie tie ins suck from being Hollywood-ized then following the script or story too closely. 

After the constant trouble with Sony during the production of Spider-man 3 and pre-production of the cancelled Spider-man 4, I am not surprised that Raimi would avoid working with a party that had veto power over his scripts.

I invested in Blizzard/Activision. The stock actually has risen, but recently the company seems a bit adrift. Hopefully the next Starcraft 2 rights the ship.

I am not surprised Blizzard rejected Raimi's script.  This is the same director that took an established character (Spiderman,) and took away a very pinnacle part of the character: mechanical webshooters.  "I am going to change this because I can," is Raimi's line of thinking.  WarCraft is not Raimi's creation.  For Raimi to put his own spin on the WarCraft story is not only wrong, but extremely arrogant on Raimi's part.  After all, Raimi did "OZ the Great and Powerful" as a prequel to "The Wizard of Oz" and people quickly called the movie "An unnecessary prequel."  The guy strikes me as a control freak.

Rob Pardo should first calm his own people down ( Jay Wilson - Diablo 3 director said F#@$ that loser to brevik over a mannered criticism and then he should listen to community to fix their CRAP called Diablo 3 that failed so miserably...

And then he can talk about controversy... If titan , their new mmorpg , fails too ... Blizzard is going down. Just quote me and remember this.

From what I can gather here, when Rami jumped up to Blizzard and said 'I want to direct your movie they couldn't believe their luck lading such a major director for their lil' ol' vidya' game movie. But soon, they realised that Rami didn't want to make a Warcraft movie, he wanted to make *his* version of a Warcraft movie, a Hollywood Blockbuster. Sure, WoW is about the big battles and amazing visuals but, as a big WoW fan, I know the best thing about Warcraft is its deep, emotional characters, the rich and varied lore... It seems Rami wanted to make a 'saving private ryan', OTT war flick. I'm not saying that kind of content isn't needed, but it shouldn't be the main draw of the movie.

Rami is way too Hollywood. Compare his Spiderman films to the new Amazing Spiderman movie. Ramis' films were all glitz and effects... I don't want a WoW film overtaken by Hollywood ambition, and I feel that is what Rami would have done, so for one I'm glad to see him gone.

Hopefully Duncan Jones can dig deep into the lore and give this film the amazing characters and epic feel this series deserves, not just another full on 2 and a half hours of gore and special effects without a hint of emotion.- K

K

Will it be a great movie or end up like the Dungeons and Dragons movies?  Hmmm... Since it's Blizzard, I'm guessing the latter.

Resident Evil is the only one best game based movie ever..

I love Raimi and all, but Jones IS a better director, really. 

I remember when Blizzard was synonymous with quality.  The good ol' days.  Well, back to loving CDProjektRed :D

As far as I know blizzard is not in the filmaking industry. What else would you expect?

Well stick to the way Blizzard want it then do go changing it so it turns out bad!

Shoulda kept Reimi

I wouldn't take the movie to Hollywood. The way they treat the animation/VFX industry is disgusting. And a Warcraft film may as well be an animation (not live action).

Why go to Hollywood?  Hire a good author instead to write the script, and make the movie out of the CGI that you already know how to do well.  Much rather see a CGI Warcraft movie than live action.

It's a video game movie.  The hollywood people don't understand how to translate games into movies, and the video game devs don't understand how to make a movie from a game.

No one wins, especially not the viewing public.

I hope this turns out terrible because Blizzard needs a reality check, their ego is sky high even though they disappointed a lot of people in recent time.