Since its announcement, there has been tons of buzz surrounding the Warcraft film. Warcraft: Rise of the Lich King has already been put under the reigns of Sam Raimi (Spider-Man franchise, Drag Me to Hell) as it tells the story of Arthas, the young paladin prince who would be corrupted by an evil sword and ultimately become the ruler of the undead legions of Azaroth.
Speaking with MTV News, Raimi said “We want to be really faithful to the game…to the Horde and the Alliance and the mythology that takes place in the game, and the archetypes that the game presents… I think we would try and find touchstones within the game to make it accurate and true and choose one or some of the lands that are portrayed in the game with as much accuracy and authenticity as possible.”
Raimi followed by revealing that Robert Rodat, the Oscar nominated writer of Saving Private Ryan would be penning the script for the movie. An interesting choice for writer of the 2011 release, Rodat did the script for The Patriot in 2000 before disappearing from the scene for almost ten years.
While Rodat has shown he is adept at war drama, this will be his first venture in to the world of epic fantasy that Warcraft encompasses. He also must face the stigma that video games rarely get translated in to quality films, with the rare exception of the first Resident Evil movie. After such debacles as the Super Mario Bros. movie or box office failures like Silent Hill, Rodat has a lot of pressure going in to this film, especially from the more than 11 million World of Warcraft subscribers who will undoubtedly be the first to attend the movie when it hits theaters.
