With Mark Wahlberg's noir video game flick Max Payne debuting atop the box-office chart, Hollywood is once again clamoring to find other game properties to slap on celluloid. It's a risky gamble -- for every Tomb Raider blockbuster lies a thousand House of the Dead flops.
So if you're going to turn a video game into a film, it helps if you're already good at this sort of thing. And it doesn't hurt if you pick as popular a game as possible.
It's no wonder, then, that gamers and cinephiles alike are excited at the news of Spider-Man director Sam Raimi praising the big-screen possibilities of beloved multiplayer game, World of Warcraft. In a spirited MTV article exploring the problems behind video game movies, Raimi weighed in by explaining why games tend to be tougher to turn into compelling flicks than comics.
"In the world of video games, it's usually more of an environment or a scenario, not character-based ... but they certainly could [be better]. There's 'World of Warcraft' -- what an awesome video game! It has such great, adventurous characters in it and such fantastic landscapes and rules. ... You could make a brilliant 'World of Warcraft' movie -- as fine as any of the best superhero movies -- if you had the right writers and directors."
Such as...Sam Raimi? While he has yet to announce any formal plans to make a WoW film, we couldn't think of a better man for the job who ISN'T Peter Jackson. But with news of two more Spider-Man films on the way, the chances are looking slim.
For now.
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