14 DAY TRIAL // The universe that Blizzard started with the Warcraft series is truly an amazing one and it deserves all the spin-offs, side-projects and all other forms of franchise additions. As far as the stories are concerned, the games that have left the company's front door are nothing short of amazing so when it announced a movie, there was no surprise. What was present was anticipation as a film project was first announced by CEO Thomas Tull at the BlizzCon 2007. The movie was supposed to have a $100 million budget and should have been released by 2009. Obviously, it wasn't.
But now the project seems to still be alive and progressing even. According to the popular Internet Movie Database site, the Warcraft-inspired movie has been given a title and an exact placing in the vast Azeroth time line. The film has been entitled Warcraft: The Rise of the Lich King and will probably have a script inspired by the novel with the same name. Christie Golden's novel Arthas: Rise of the Lich King became part of New York Times' Best-seller list in just a week after it was released. Plenty of video games have been turned into movies but only a mere few have been decent. Let's hope a proper script and the funds to back it up will save this one.
The title the movie received implies that most likely it will follow the rise, or fall as some may see it, of prince Arthas Menethil to the Frozne Throne of Northrend. The end of the Human Campaign of Warcraft III left the corrupted paladin wandering the frozen lands of the continent, only to return to the Eastern Kingdom as death knight, one of Lich King's champions. After killing his father, King Terenas Menethil II, and in his memorable words, succeeding him, he brought the downfall of the kingdom and the coming of the Burning Legion in the Undead campaign.
The Frozen Throne Expansion followed the journey of Arthas back to Northrend where the Lick King, feeling the threat of Illidan and his Naga army, called out to his champion to defend him. In the end, the two became one, and the Lich King was freed from his prison. Most likely, the movie will depict these two campaigns. The film has a new release date of 2011 and has Sam Raimi as director. The Wrath of the Lich King expansion for World of Warcraft also follows the exploits of the undead lord and did amazingly well. It sold over 2.8 million copies worldwide in less than a day of its launch and by the end of August it sold nearly 2 million copies in the US alone.