Sam Raimi to direct World of Warcraft movie

Legendary Pictures and Blizzard have confirmed the circulating rumours that Sam Raimi will be directing the upcoming World of Warcraft movie, which has been in pre-production for several years now.

The rumour was confirmed this morning by Variety, after Ain't It Cool News reported that the director was almost certainly attached to the project.

Also attached to the project is Charles Roven, producer for The Dark Knight and Blizzard's Senior Vice President of Creative Development Chris Metzen, who'll co-produce the movie. Raimi himself will be supervising early work on the World of Warcraft movie while also directing Spiderman 4 throughout next year.

Raimi is a somewhat unusual choice to direct the movie obviously, but his cult appeal from the Evil Dead series and work on classics like The Hudsucker Proxy has earned him a certain reputation, as has his close work with actor Bruce Campbell - who is now virtually guaranteed to get a cameo in the the film. His work on the Evil Dead film and his blend of slapstick comedy and over-the-top gore could potentially be well-suited to the World of Warcraft universe too.

"At its core, Warcraft is a fantastic, action-packed story," said Raimi. "I am thrilled to work with such a dynamite production team to bring this project to the big screen."

No other details about the film are available at the moment, but the press releases do refer to it as 'Warcraft', not World of Warcraft.

Our pals over at Den of Geek have cobbled together a nice round-up of some of Sam Raimi's best non-horror films, so head over there if you want to check out his credentials. Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the forums.