Blizzard denies Boll request to direct WoW movie

by Kyle Orland { Apr 21st 2008 at 12:45PM }

That sound you just heard? It was over 10 million World of Warcraft subscribers breathing a simultaneous sigh of relief, now that the MTV Movies Blog is reporting that reviled game-film director Uwe Boll won't be getting his hands on the movie version of the popular fantasy franchise.

Boll recounted a conversation with Paul Sams in which the Blizzard COO reportedly told the director, "We will not sell the movie rights, not to you ... especially not to you." In a rare moment of self-awareness, Boll seemed to understand Blizzard's reluctance, speculating that "because it's such a big online game success, maybe a bad movie would destroy that ongoing income." A bad movie? But how could the self-described "only genius in the whole fucking business" ever make a bad movie? It just doesn't make sense!

Blizzard joins Konami in the exclusive "Smart companies that definitively won't let Uwe Boll near their successful franchises" club.

Tags: Blizzard, movie, uwe-boll, World-of-warcraft, WoW

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

NATO_Duke @ Apr 21st 2008 12:50PM

I couldn't imagine a good movie being made with that game.

Mrblonde @ Apr 21st 2008 12:58PM

I could. I think it could work. But, at least he won't be able to defile another video game with his horrible movie making ability. All companies that make good games need to join in on this club

A Pissed-off English Gamer @ Apr 21st 2008 1:24PM

You can't imagine a good movie based on a game with such a rich lore? Your imagination is broken, i think.

Josh Warner @ Apr 21st 2008 1:43PM

Script excerpt:

-Garnian, the dwarf rogue, sighed in resignation after killing Edwin VanCleef for the 27th time. "No matter how many times we kill this guy, every time we come back he's here again!" he exclaimed. "Also, I can see his fricking armor, cape, and sword - he's wearing them goddamnit - so why can't I take them all, every time!?"
...
"Screw this, I'm going back to killing hundreds of animals for their pelts."

Yeah, I don't see that working out. Unless it bears no resemblance to the game.

JakubK666 (Ninja Defence Force) @ Apr 21st 2008 1:46PM

It should start off as a trilogy a la LOTR.

For the first two movies, you just watch some guy grinding over and over again.Then in the second half of the third movie, he finally hits 70 and the real action starts.Oh and then for the rest of the movie he raids Molten Core over again to grind "epic lootz".

Maverick Saturn @ Apr 21st 2008 2:03PM

Well hey, if South Park did it, whats wrong with anyone else :)

mr mobius @ Apr 21st 2008 2:17PM

Be a Tolkien-esque epic fantasy movie with the Horde and the Alliance ending in an almighty battle near the end.

Hashbrown Hunter @ Apr 21st 2008 2:52PM

Actually, I think Boll's over-the-top cheesiness and high level of broken storylines might fully capture the experience of WoW (and the 10 million MMO-whores that play it) in a movie.

...I'm not kidding. He's the perfect director for this.

Mr.ESC @ Apr 21st 2008 3:04PM

“I couldn't imagine a good movie being made with that game”.

Gold Rush a WOW Story.

Meet Lee and Steven 2 of the best gold farmers the world (of warcraft) has ever known doing what they know best, GOLD FARMING!!! Join these 2 intrepid guys in their quest for virtual gold that they will later sell on ebay or use it to lure n00bs into credit card FRAUDS!!!

You I’ll see SUSPENSE!

Lee-Oh I have to pay for another month.

You’ll see DRAMA!

Jimmy-Hey guys stop gold farming I have to finish this quest.

Steven-GTFO newf*g this is our spot.

Jimmy-What the hell guys? I have to finish this quest.

Steven-LOLz no but we allow you to finish this quest if you pay us.

Jimmy-Pay you? You guys are f*cking ghey,I’m playing guildwar.

Lee-Or you could pay us and we also level your character to level 60.

Jimmy-Umm kay.

You’ll see HORROR!!!

Jimmy-WTF? Guyz you stole my other account.

Lee-Yeah lolz,newf*g

Jimmy-You said you’ll level my character to level 60?!

Steven-We did but we never told you will be able to use it.

Jimmy-That’s it I’m going to complain with Blizzard.

Lee-Yeah you do that qu33r.

You’ll se Comedy!

Blizzard-You are calling to Blizzard tech support how can I help you.

AND MORE.

Gold Rush a movie of global proportions!!
Available now in your local torrentz or in sh*tty youtube acounts.

NATO_Duke @ Apr 21st 2008 3:16PM

Mr.ESC - yeah, that would sum up their plot lines well.

Tiptup300 @ Apr 21st 2008 3:25PM

LEEEEEEEROY JEEENKINS!

NoHitHair @ Apr 22nd 2008 12:38AM

A Pissed-Off English Gamer:

"Rich lore"? From the Warcraft universe? I hope you're joking. Especially if we're only talking about the World of Warcraft lore specifically, which are even more pathetic.

Retconning aside (of which there's plenty), the Warcraft universe's draw lies far more in their concept art than story content. Reading through Warcraft's backstory is boring not to mention confusing. Unless they made a Warcraft II movie I wouldn't be interested at all.

As for Starcraft - that's a movie that if done right might raise a few eyebrows.

tc @ Apr 21st 2008 12:51PM

BURN!

dizzy @ Apr 21st 2008 12:56PM

as much as I dislike Blizzard for creating great timesinks, I gotta give them a thumbs-up for giving boll a nice fat "F U" to his face.

Ghen @ Apr 21st 2008 4:54PM

My thoughts exactly =) That's what every person (218,000 and counting) who signed the petition against him wishes they could do!

Ninjakamster @ Apr 21st 2008 12:56PM

I can't see how the life of me how you could make a movie out of WoW.

DangerMouse @ Apr 21st 2008 12:58PM

His shirt is full of irony.

And movies are only made by boll to make a quick buck of the game's well-known name. WoW makes a shitload of money every month, that a worthless movie would be pennies to the amount they're cashing in on the game.

jason @ Apr 21st 2008 4:02PM

"His shirt is full of irony."

I laughed at that sentence, since people iron shirts and you said it was full of irony...

RudyHuxtable @ Apr 21st 2008 1:07PM

In a twist of irony, I'm going to make a game about Uwe Boll making a movie about a game. The only way to win is to get someone to say something nice about the movie you make. That's it. Just one in game critic. Even if it's a negative review. If, for example, someone says, oh, "The donkey in the stable was well fed," you win.

Nigeria - MK: 0430-8491-9123 @ Apr 21st 2008 1:10PM

I would like to see Uwe Boll make a movie of every possible popular video game franchise, just to piss people off.

deaftly @ Apr 21st 2008 1:20PM

Im sure postal is going to cause a pretty big scene.

Maverick Saturn @ Apr 21st 2008 2:01PM

If he sticks you in it as an actor, I'll pay to watch it :)

BigD145 @ Apr 21st 2008 3:05PM

Postal has some weird comments on Bolls movie for them. They know people are going to hate it, but they also ask people to support the movie because it supports Postal's image and income.

Kye - Joystiq Greybeard @ Apr 21st 2008 1:13PM

Hells yeah!

*hi^5s random people*

Wheres the beer!?

Tim @ Apr 21st 2008 1:17PM

I don't get his shirt.

Gatari Me?

_(o_°)/¯

The Purveyor of Justice @ Apr 21st 2008 1:18PM

I can't help but wonder if it is his intent to make crap movies...I mean, look at all this publicity the guys getting.

Kujel @ Apr 21st 2008 1:18PM

That's too funny, he tried sinking his teeth into a blizzard IP and he got shot down, lol lol lol!

Kael @ Apr 21st 2008 1:22PM

What, it's hard to see what they could do with a Warcraft movie? What couldn't they do? They've got a huge, developed universe deeper than any one person could understand at once, and the story wherewithal for an unlimited number of heroes, supporting characters and villains to do with as they will. Their established lore and characters are already enough fuel for ten movies, but the Warcraft world is completely open to any kind of story you'd want to tell, even one involving time travel, for crying out loud (there's precedence)! The sky's the limit.

Varone @ Apr 21st 2008 3:00PM

Er, I understand it all at once. Anyway, any story they could take from Warcraft, I would much rather play out in-game with a well scripted quest and go on the adventure myself with my friends. Plus, movies dont give you epics at the end of it.

Maverick Saturn @ Apr 21st 2008 1:28PM

Here is a Boll WoW movie:

Two hobits journey into the unknown to deliver a bracelet to an upside down volcano.

Wait a second...

FOXHOUND @ Apr 21st 2008 1:38PM

LOL nice, but that's still too close to source material.

The WOW movie pitch by Dr Boll was an interstellar crew searching for new life and civilizations, boldly going where no man has gone before... HOWEVER, The actual film will run for 120min and simply have Tara Reid sitting in a chair explaining how her nipples aren't pepperoni slices and that Hollywood and film lovers should take her acting "talent" seriously.

Maverick Saturn @ Apr 21st 2008 1:57PM

Lmao, alternatively, you could stick a few fake looking zombies in there and watch her (pretent to) scream.

riggs @ Apr 21st 2008 1:29PM

*slaps uwe bolls hand*
"dude....no"

Legion @ Apr 21st 2008 1:50PM

I'm actually upset.

JakubK666 (Ninja Defence Force) @ Apr 21st 2008 1:50PM

*facepalm

Don't know what's worse.

That game,Uwe or his movies?

Schweppes7T4 @ Apr 21st 2008 1:55PM

oh cmon... obviously the movie would be based more off the story of WoW... aka, warcraft (the rts).

personally, i think it could be really good, especially if it was based directly off the story... and done by the same CG people that make blizzards in house clips

Lemmiwinks (SSBBFC: 0903-2436-0891) @ Apr 21st 2008 2:00PM

I would think it'd be hard to fit feces jokes into a film based on WoW ethos.

Maverick Saturn @ Apr 21st 2008 2:02PM

When he takes on the Duke Nukem Movie, its time to run

tc @ Apr 21st 2008 2:12PM

actually, if they stuck him to work on a Duke Nukem film at least we wouldn't hear from him for another 10 years...

Maverick Saturn @ Apr 21st 2008 2:16PM

Good point, time to prepare :)

dozdoz @ Apr 21st 2008 2:10PM

Please take a minute out of your day and sign this petition for the betterment of humanity and the future of cinematography.

Stop Dr. Uwe Boll Petition
http://www.petitiononline.com/RRH53888/petition.html

His response to the petition
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/201191.html?playlist=featured

M @ Apr 21st 2008 2:19PM

Well played Bliz .

Mr.ESC @ Apr 21st 2008 3:12PM

Uwe Boll-Hai guis can I has rights for WOW movie?

Blizzard-Haha Oh Wow.

Uwe Boll-Is that a yes?

Blizzard-Security.

Uwe Boll-Well what about Diablo?

Blizzard-Security be sure to punch him in the face...Twice.

Rituro @ Apr 21st 2008 10:42PM

WoW does not need to be made into a movie -- not by Uwe Boll, not by anyone.

The original Warcraft trilogy, however -- "Orcs & Humans", "Tides of Darkness"/"Beyond the Dark Portal" and "Reign of Chaos"/"The Frozen Throne" -- might make for an interesting movie. I'd see any of those well before a WoW movie.

Slayer @ Apr 21st 2008 5:27PM

I said it once and I'll say it again. Uwe Boll is a madman and needs to be stopped at all cost.

icqpimp @ Apr 21st 2008 8:15PM

fuck world of warcraft
and this pro-nintendo site

fred @ Apr 22nd 2008 12:23AM

http://image.linkinn.com/userfile/pictures_0801/Image/Lolwutpear.jpg

rType @ Apr 21st 2008 9:06PM

"I couldn't imagine a good movie being made with that game."

The movie wouldn't be (isn't) drawn from World of Warcraft, it would be drawn from the Warcraft universe. You might as well say that you can't imagine a good movie being made out of Lord of The Rings Online.