Raimi directs Warcraft

...Huh.

So, according to AICN: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/41761

AND Variety: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118006299.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

Unless both of those are full of bupkiss, apparently... Sam Raimi will direct the feature film adaptation of "Warcraft." There's no specification as to whether this is just a fantasy/action film set in the "Warcraft" universe or something tied directly to the "World of Warcraft" MMORPG franchise, but it's the popularity (and pop-culture ubiquity) of "WoW" that's driving this, no question.

Until there's something concrete (story, tone, pitch) this is honestly kind of a "huh, could be good" for me. The idea of Sam Raimi helming a mega-budget fantasy/action epic is, of course, automatically worth looking forward to even if you DON'T take into account what an awesome steward he was of that genre with his Hercules and Xena shows... in which case it becomes a MUST SEE... but I've really never been into MMORPGs or Warcraft in general; so I won't be geeking out until I at least start seeing some under-dressed starlets done up as Night Elf wenches (again, thank Rao that Raimi was also the boss of Xena.) And even WITH Raimi's involvement... look, I'm sorry Warcraft fans but... without substantial plot additions, how can this hope to be anything other than LOTR/Narnia again but with different costume choices? Part of the appeal of this franchise (especially in MMORPG form) is the way it encapsulates a generalized melenge of every fantasy cliche and trope in existance. Until details emerge, I maintain my earlier position that doing the formula of a normal human pulled "into" WoW for real (or vice-versa) is the most plausibly-decent way of doing this.

Funny, though, how things change: When Raimi was announced as the director of "Spider-Man," it was a HUGE deal for film geeks because it represented something "we" almost never get: A major studio taking the chance of letting a geek-cinema icon take charge of a big-ticket franchise the pairing of which was a geek wet-dream. Now, not even a decade later, his attachment here is big news in an entirely different direction - Raimi is NOW the type of A-list blockbuster talent that "we" almost never get to see tackle game-adaptations.