Re World of Warcraftwhy no movie?
One problem is that it’s a built-in audience who would always torrent a film rather than going to the cinema or waiting for it on DVD.
Because there’s nothing original or distinctive about WoW?
There probably will be, eventually.
It’ll also most likely be a direct-to-DVD animated film and suck as badly as the Dragonlance one did.
Lots of things.
Canon and story, for instance. A part of the point of WoW is procedurally generated story. The film would either have to rehash known history or be breaking new ground. Considering the development time of a script and then turning it into a movie, Blizzard would necessarily be second-guessing themselves.
Blizzard’s penchant for “releasing when it’s done” is another big point. Creative control in the hands of rich perfectionists is every producer’s worst nightmare.
When has that ever stopped anyone?
They are actually planning a Warcraft movie. Legendary Pictures (the good people who made 300 among other fine movies) currently have the rights for it. Rumor has it that the story is set during the five year period between Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft.
Blizzard and Legendary Pictures (studio behind 300 and a host of other licensed action films) announced a WoW movie deal at Blizzcon 2007, scheduled for 2009, but it seems to have not progressed beyond concept art and such. So, it looks like the movie rights are being held by a company that isn’t actively developing it. Who knows, we might see a quickie done before the rights expire, or Legendary might cede the rights to another studio, but overall it looks like nothing’s going to happen.
(Looks like I typed this up at the same time as Reverse, who’s definitely quicker with a keyboard! 
)
I might watch a documentary about how to play the damn game (still doin’it solo, by the seat of my pants)!
But a movie might just confuse this old man even more!
Q
In any case, thankfully Uwe Boll has been flatly denied the rights to make it. Especially not him.
Also, the built in audience would never go see it because it is showing on a raid night.
Because it would probably be as awful as the Dungeons and Dragons movie was.
I’m betting the movie will look something like The World of World of Warcraft.
What an ass.
But seriously - there’s no story, no characters, and the world is a non-descript Tolkien clone. That’s all fine for a game, but where’s the movie?
There’s a lot more story than WoW makes apparent; I think the prior warcraft games had a lot more storyline and character development, and there have been several books printed about major game events and characters. The problem I see with it is Blizzard isn’t really all that consistent with their lore… when their first expansion came out, the lore for the new Draenei race was a retcon of the origin of the major antagonist (Sargeras and the Burning Legion). As I recall, the lead art designer ultimately admitted to forgetting the original lore when they came up with the expansion lore. How can a screenplay be written when the storyteller can’t even keep track of what happened when and to whom?
Soooo…you haven’t actually played the game, then.
I’ve heard complaints about the designing team rewriting the background lore to suit the new expansions, and that the story itself is weak, but there is undeniably a story, as well as notable NPCs.
Hell, look at the entry on Arthas, the central character of Warcraft 3 and a key figure in WoW. And that’s just one guy. There’s also the rise of Thrall and his cooperation with Jaina Proudmoore, Malfurion Stormrage and his brother Illidan, the flight of the draenei from Draenor, the return of the missing king Varian Wrynn…
There’s a lot of backstory in the game that players never actually get to witness firsthand and would slaver over if it became a movie. Hell, just make the movie around Arthas going mad and becoming the Lich King, something that is a central focus in WC3 and WoW and you hear about over and over again, and the movie would still be highly profitable.
Are you completely unfamiliar with Hollywood?
Ummm… exactly how many times have DC and Marvel comics reset / restarted / retconned / otherwise screwed with Superman et al, and yet: no shortage of superhero movies.
Having a screenplay that disagrees with previous canon: No problem. (Pretty much Hollywood SOP really). 
Eh, well, I’m one of those people who’s still annoyed about elves at Helm’s Deep, so I suppose my perspective on it is skewed. 