Warner Bros.-based Legendary Pictures has picked up film rights to adapt the popular fantasy video game franchise World of Warcraft and will develop the project with game publisher Blizzard Entertainment, which is owned by Vivendi.While the “Warcraft” franchise has been around for more than a decade, the most recent iteration, the megahit online title “World of Warcraft,” has transformed the video game industry.Unlike most games, where players pay $50 once and play until they’re done, more than 6 million people around the world pay $14.99 per month to participate in the multiplayer game.Legendary put up half the money for Warners’ Batman Begins and the upcoming Superman Returns.
A ton of you are probably reading this and thinking, “dude they are going to fuck this thing up like every other video game movie.” Well, normally I would agree with you, but since Legendary Pictures is assisting in the financing I’ll have to say we may actually be in for a surprise. The fact they forked over $75M & $125M to help finance the Batman & Superman franchises only proves to show us they are going to take this thing seriously. Both those franchises were a joke, but after putting up the necessary funds and finding the right people to produce those films they quickly turned around both properties. I think its safe to say they will treat WoW with the utmost respect because of its ridiculous following. Of course, I could be completely wrong but I sincerely hope not.
