I’m not sure how many of the 9.1 million subscribers to World of Warcraft are active playera at this point, but I don’t think there’s any doubt that the property remains a valuable one. It would easily rank among the top videogame franchises in terms of potential crossover value, and yet without really any examples of a great videogame movie the wave has never broken on the exploitation of such franchises.

In this particular case WOW was last part of a toss-up decision that saw a post Spider-Man Sam Raimi picking between Azeroth and Oz, with the result of that choice just starting to surface. A Warcraft film has been without heat ever since, but the recent hiring of a screenwriter proves Legendary still has an eye towards the fantasy combat property hitting the big screen one day.

Word is that Blood Diamond writer Charles Leavitt had some sort of new pitch on how to translate the MMORPG to the silver screen, and this hiring likely represents a new start for the project, from scratch. A for Rami perhaps hopping on once Oz is complete, the director himself has said Blizzard’s moved on, but if Legendary is just now getting the screenwriting process started again, it’s not entirely impossible that Raimi could board back on. Wouldn’t count on it though. This sounds like it could be a good franchise for someone like Neil Marshall to crossover into the bigger time, no?

And suggestions from chewers of who should jump behind the keyboard camera?

via /Film