At the San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend, director Sam Raimi helped promote his upcoming "Oz The Great and Powerful" by revealing the first trailer for the quasi-prequel. During the panel, Raimi answered a question about his long-developing adaptation of "The Shadow," and revealed that the project wasn't moving forward because they couldn't get the script right. Add another gestating project to the scrap heap, as Raimi is also no longer working on video game adaptation "World of Warcraft."
Back before Raimi ultimately decided to direct 'Oz' he was also working on "World of Warcraft," even revealing at the Saturn Awards in 2010 that he had yet to commit to the Disney flick and instead gushed about "World of Warcraft" and his level 70 character. Raimi and screenwriter Robert Rodat ("Saving Private Ryan") had a "40 page document" already written but were still "working on the story." Whether Raimi and Rodat ever cracked the story we may never know, because Raimi is no longer involved.
"Actually, they don’t have me directing 'World of Warcraft' anymore because when I took the 'Oz' job, they had to move on to another director," Raimi told Crave Online after the 'Oz' press conference at Comic-Con. "They had to start making it."
While we'd like to take Raimi's word that Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures had to move on and hire another director, there's been no announcement of a replacement director on Blizzard's website, and there's been almost no word of the movie since Raimi did his gushing at the Saturn Awards two years ago. So, either Raimi doesn't know exactly what's going on since his exit or the new director is doing one of the best jobs ever of making "World of Warcraft" secret and away from the peering eyes of the Internet. Congrats, whoever you are!
Meanwhile, no one asked about the remake of "Poltergeist," so we'll have to assume that Raimi is still producing it.
