Here's one to file under, "Wait, whaaaa?". Sam Raimi has signed on to direct Warcraft, a film version of the long-running game series, including insanely popular massively-multiplayer-online-role-playing-game World of Warcraft.
The plan is for Raimi to oversee the development of this film while he works on Spider-Man 4, which is due to shoot next year, and then knock it off his To Do list straight after that.
For many World of Warcraft is synonymous with the kind of social dysfunction that leads grown men to spend hundreds of hours in the virtual world of Azeroth instead of eating, sleeping, going to work, looking after their kids or paying attention to basic bodily hygiene. However, with over 12 million subscribers, we've got to admit there must be something to it.
There's no word yet on what sort of quests or characters will be included, but with four games and countless novels, comics and other spin-offs to pilfer, the Warcraft universe certainly isn't short of lore or stories to explore on screen. Empire expects we'll be in store for an epic tale of conquest, heroism and endless whining about the amount of spam in Barrens chat.
The Dark Knight producer Charles Roven is overseeing the project, with games creator Blizzard Entertainment, Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Filming will begin as soon as Raimi finishes grinding exalted rep with the Wyrmrest Accord.