Come May 8th 2006 Blizzard Entertainment made an announcement that their Warcraft franchise/universe would be adapted into a silver screen feature length movie. Legendary Pictures, a relatively new production company behind Superman Returns and Batman Begins, are to develop the live action film with distribution likely falling to Warner Brothers as part of an existing agreement.
Paul Sams, chief operating officer for Blizzard had this to say, “We searched for a very long time to find the right studio for developing a movie based on one of our game universes. Many companies approached us in the past, but it wasn’t until we met with Legendary Pictures that we felt we’d found the perfect partner. They clearly share our high standards for creative development, and because they understand the vision that we’ve always strived for with our Warcraft games, we feel there isn’t a better studio out there for bringing the Warcraft story to film.”
Whilst Thomas Tul, CEO of legendary pictures stated, “One of our goals at Legendary Pictures has been to bring heroic stories to life in groundbreaking ways, and it’s inspiring to work with a company such as Blizzard that takes that approach with each of its products. The Warcraft universe is possessed of such a rich mythology and, as such, serves as an ideal platform as we go about translating that universe into what we intend to be a major event film.”
With regards to the adaptation, Legendary Pictures’ Jon Jashni said, “We are intending to approach this as we would the adaptation of a best-selling novel: respect the essence of all that it is but also build upon that fertile base while translating it into a new medium.”
The official announcement can be found here.
As of the moment IMDB has penned a 2008 release date which is of course subject to change.