Sam Raimi Slams Blizzard Upside their Business Over Warcraft Movie Mess-Up

So, why did Sam Riami leave the Warcraft movie project that everybody is so excited about? Was it simply so that he could be replaced by a younger, fitter (allegedly) and less entirely predictable (again... allegedly) David Bowie Jr? Or was there another reason?

Well, Raimi's dismissal came as a bit of a shock and until now no one has drilled down. Well, they have now, it's Blizzard's fault (according to Sam). Get the skinny down below:

"Robert Rodat was working on the script, and it was taking a long time. I think they were getting a little antsy at Legendary, the production company. Actually, what happened was even more complicated, so let me go back a little bit.

"First, they asked me", says Sam, "if I wanted to make it, and I said, "Yes, I love World of Warcraft, and I think it would make a great picture." So I read a screenplay they had that was written by the guys at [Warcraft developer] Blizzard, and it didn't quite work for me. I told them I wanted to make my own original story with Robert, so we pitched it to Legendary and they accepted it, and then we pitched it to Blizzard, and they had reservations, but they accepted it.

"Then Robert wrote the screenplay, and only once he was done did we realize that Blizzard had veto power, and we didn't know that.

"And they had never quite approved the original story we pitched them. Those reservations were their way of saying, "We don't approve this story, and we want to go a different way," so after we had spent nine months working on this thing, we basically had to start over. And Robert did start over, but it was taking too long for the people at Blizzard, and their patience ran out. Honestly, I think it was mismanagement on their behalf, not to explain to us that the first story was vetoed long ago. Why did they let us keep working on it? Were they afraid to tell me?"

Who knows. Maybe we never will.

Source: Vulture