The World of Warcraft Movie – possibly one of the most anticipated game-to-movie film adaptations – has hit massive delays. Through some strange circumstances, Hollywood director Sam Raimi is off the case and will no longer continue work on the movie. Instead, Duncan Jones – the rather brilliant mind behind the movie Moon – will take over all responsibilities on the Warcraft film adaptation. In an interview with Vulture, Sam Raimi criticized Blizzard’s management and argues that he and script writer Robert Rodat spent over nine months writing the screen-play for Blizzard, only to eventually be told that Blizzard had already vetoed their involvement but failed to inform them sooner.
Warcraft Miscommunication?
It is understandable that Raimi and Rodat would be frustrated about this, but one would have to ask whether there was any two-way communication going on between them and Blizzard during those nine months in the first place. They were clearly communicating well enough in the beginning, as Raimi got to read the original draft of the screenplay written by the World of Warcraft developers. As he wasn’t particularly awed by the script, he told them “I wanted to make my own original story with Robert, so we pitched it to Legendary and they accepted it, and then we pitched it to Blizzard, and they had reservations, but they accepted it.”
Apparently, it was only when Rodat finished the screenplay that Blizzard came out and declared their veto, stating that “[They] don’t approve this story, and [they] want to go a different way”.
We basically had to start over. And Robert did start over, but it was taking too long for the people at Blizzard, and their patience ran out. Honestly, I think it was mismanagement on their behalf, not to explain to us that the first story was vetoed long ago. Why did they let us keep working on it? Were they afraid to tell me?
