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Boll: Blizzard froze me out of WOW movie

News was in no short supply during the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo, but one of the biggest tidbits to come out of the trade show was news that Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures would be teaming up for a silver-screen adaptation of the massively popular massively multiplayer...

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News was in no short supply during the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo, but one of the biggest tidbits to come out of the trade show was news that Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures would be teaming up for a silver-screen adaptation of the massively popular massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft.

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At the time, Blizzard Entertainment was adamant about its level of control over the project, with chief operating officer Paul Sams saying it took the developer five years to find the right partner. Directorial partners have faced a similar level of scrutiny, with Sams saying, "While I can't give out names right now, there's some meaningful people that have expressed interest."

One of those people, meaningful or not, was apparently infamous game-to-film adaptation specialist Uwe Boll, reports MTV. "I got in contact with Paul Sams of Blizzard, and he said, 'We will not sell the movie rights, not to you...especially not to you,'" related Boll. "Because it's such a big online game success, maybe a bad movie would destroy that ongoing income, what the company has with it."

As of last year's BlizzCon, Legendary Pictures had estimated a $100 million budget for the film, with an estimated theatrical debut in 2009--when the upcoming Prince of Persia film is also slated to unspool. Blizzard nor the production company has firmed up details on who will be directing or starring in the live-action project, which has not yet entered preproduction.

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