Blizzard Entertainment’s legendary Warcraft franchise has spawned a series of video games, toys and books, so it’s only to be expected that it’d make the move to the big screen one of these days. Today the company announced that Sam Raimi has been hired to direct the film.
Warcraft started life as a real-time strategy game in 1994. The game series has evolved over time and is the setting of World of Warcraft, the most popular massively multiplayer online game in the world. At the core of all the mythology that has spun out of Warcraft is the story of an ancient conflict between the forces of The Alliance — humans, dwarves, night elves and others — and The Horde, orcs, trolls and other creatures.
Raimi is the director of the Spider-Man trilogy; he’s also the director of the cult horror classic The Evil Dead. He’s working with Atlas Entertainment to produce the movie, under the aegis of Charis Roven, whose credits include Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and 12 Monkeys. Legendary Pictures is co-producing and co-financing the film with Warner Bros.
Blizzard’s still keeping a tight wrap on details of the movie. More information, including cast and targeted release date, will be revealed a development progresses, according to the press release.