Sam Raimi will direct a live action “event” film based on Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft after he finishes Spider-Man 4, which is slated to begin shooting early next year.  The fantasy-themed World of Warcraft is the leading subscription MMORPG (massively multi-player online role-playing game) with over 11 million paid subscribers worldwide (as of 2008, see “Warcraft Hits 11 Million”).  WoW’s most recent expansion Wrath of the Lich King sold more than 4 million copies in its first month of release.  The WoW property has also spun-off a highly successful CCG (collectible card game) and a CMG (collectible miniatures game) from Upper Deck, two popular board games from Fantasy Flight, as well as an ongoing comic book series from DC/Wildstorm, and a series of popular OEL manga titles from Tokyopop.

According to Variety, the Warcraft film is being produced by Charles Roven (The Dark Knight) and co-financed by Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Raimi will “supervise the development” of the WoW film and then direct it after he completes his work on Spider-Man 4.  Warner Bros. Pictures president Jeff Robinov told Variety, “Warcraft is emblematic of the kind of branded, event films for which our studio is best known,” a clear indication that the studio is thinking of the project in terms of a big-budget summer “tent-pole” production, rather than the typical Resident Evil sort of video game adaptation.