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Diablo Movie Now in the Works?

Posted by Zonk on Mon Jun 18, 2007 01:22 PM
from the everything's-turning-up-blizzard dept.
Media Movies Entertainment Games
To go along with the still fairly-mysterious World of Warcraft movie, via CVG comes the word at Blizzplanet that a movie based on Blizzard's Diablo games may be in the works. "Few weeks ago, a rumor circulated the net that Gary Whitta would be working with Legendary Pictures to develop a Diablo film. The participation of Gary Whitta hasn't been confirmed, but surprise-surprise. Legendary Pictures website is listing DIABLO under the 'In Development' section. No press release has been made available. The news section has been replaced by a 'Legendary 2.0 is coming soon' notice. A week ago, the news section over at Legendary Pictures website had not been updated since Q3 2006. Stay tuned for any updates. A press release could be posted by them in a few days. Diablo is coming to the big screen!"
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[+] Warcraft Movie In The Works? 122 comments
The New York Times is reporting that World of Warcraft maker Blizzard plans to make a big-screen adaptation of its very popular gameworld. From the article: "Many details of the film deal remained unsettled or undisclosed on Monday, including the choice of director, cast, the planned release date and the exact budget (rarely a firm number in the movie business anyway). But Blizzard and Legendary appeared united in wanting the project to be a major departure from Hollywood's undistinguished record in turning games into films. 'We try to make big, epic, immersive games at Blizzard, and we have a track record of making some of the best games in the world,'" Paul Sams, Blizzard's chief operating officer, said in an interview. 'Similarly, our goal is to make one of the best films in the world. With Legendary, they have a creative and management team that is so attuned with us it was like we were separated at birth. We want to make a movie that will not only appeal to our existing fans, but will also bring in people that have never heard of Warcraft before.'"
[+] More Details on The Warcraft Movie 77 comments
Gamespot had a talk with Paul Sams, Blizzard COO, and dug up some additional details on the Warcraft film. From the article: "We're not trying to take what we've done and...try to make a literal translation to the big screen. What we want to do is to make a great movie that happens to be set in a video game universe. That's a differentiator, and a key differentiator. A lot of it comes down to picking the right people. A lot of the other video game movies that have come out before this haven't had the budgets, the right people, and haven't had the right mindset. We and Legendary want to make a great film, an event picture, big-budget picture, that is a great stand-alone, fantasy-based movie that is good for you regardless of whether you're familiar with the Warcraft universe."
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Diablo Movie Now in the Works? 25 Comments More /

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  • Interesting idea (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hedwards (940851) on Monday June 18 2007, @01:27PM (#19553233)
    but will it work. I think that in many respects a Diablo or Fallout based movie has some chance of being worth watching. Whoever gave the green Doom and Resident evil should have been fired. A game can rely on being interactive to advance interest, allowing for the player to make choices, and movies don't at all. The limit to the intereaction is in how one is moved by the movie. In that sense I think that a RPG based movie would have some potential in that adventure movies can and have been well done in the past.
    • When you're basing it upon a game ...

      Well, really GOOD writers could still come up with a good movie. But these people aren't looking to make a good movie.

      They're looking to cash in on the name. They're hoping that enough Diablo players will want to see the movie that they'll turn a profit NO MATTER HOW BAD IT IS.

      Otherwise they'd be mining the hundreds of years of literature for books that have not been made into movies yet.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by StarvingSE (875139)
        Well, really GOOD writers could still come up with a good movie. But these people aren't looking to make a good movie.

        No, the really good writers just aren't interested in writing a game-to-movie port. It doesn't matter how good or deep a game is, video games are still seen as the exact opposite of classic literature and having no intellectual value. Because of this, good writers probably don't want to associate themselves in the genre. Even if they wanted to do a fantasy-themed movie, they would choo

        • Because of this, good writers probably don't want to associate themselves in the genre. Even if they wanted to do a fantasy-themed movie, they would choose to go after Lord of the Rings before Final Fantasy since the former has literary merit.

          Most writers, even the good ones, don't make much money from writing.

          So, throw a LOT of money at one of the good writers and allow him/her to write under a nom de plume.

          Let the writer talk to some of the fans of the game to see what aspects resonate with them. Show the

    • Resident Evil made enough money that a sequel was made, so whoever greenlighted that probably shouldn't have been fired. People went to see it, it made money, ergo it was the right idea. Art isn't what the movies are about. Art movies generally don't make big bucks, it's just nice when they do.

    • Re:Interesting idea (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ajs (35943) <ajs@@@ajs...com> on Monday June 18 2007, @01:55PM (#19553717) Homepage Journal

      Whoever gave the green Doom and Resident evil should have been fired.
      Yes, but not because the source material did or did not lack a basis for the movies. Actually, R.E. was a decent attempt. They tried fairly hard, but simply got trapped by the ugly rules of horror movies. Had they decided to make an atypical horror movie, it might have worked. I liked the characters. I liked some of the story (though some was too obviously formulaic). The ending was nice, though it could have done with slightly less skin which made a scene that should have felt scary and stark feel more like a peep show in a hospital.

      The Doom movie was bad writing and bad casting, but there was nothing about the Doom story that lacked for good source material. In fact, the primary problem with the Doom movie was that they removed the interesting parts of the story (the "demons" were the result of experiments with alien DNA, not demons from hell).

      I maintain that a good movie could have been made from either source. It simply wasn't and the person who greenlighted either film certainly knew that early on.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Flimzy (657419)

      I think that a RPG based movie would have some potential
      That explains why Dungeons & Dragons [imdb.com] (2000) was such a wonderful movie, with an average user rating of 3.6 (out of 10).

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by werewolf1031 (869837)
        Keep in mind that D&D by itself is no more than a (fairly generic) set of gaming rules designed to facilitate roleplay in a variety of fantasy settings; in and of itself it does provide not a specific world setting with its own rich history. Now, if they'd bothered to draw specifically from one of TSR's old settings designed for the D&D game system, eg. Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, etc. (sorry I'm out of touch with the newer settings, if there are any), and adapted a story from one of those fictional

  • Blizzard Would Make Any Annocements (Score:4, Insightful)

    by moore.dustin (942289) on Monday June 18 2007, @01:30PM (#19553285)
    Blizzard would be the place any Diablo movie would be announced, just like everything else they do. They would work it up, start the hype machine, and ride it through the movies release. I highly doubt they are going to let word just, spill out. Nothing should be taken for anything of worth till Blizzard, themselves, say they are making a Diablo movie.

  • Why? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by CastrTroy (595695) on Monday June 18 2007, @01:30PM (#19553291) Homepage
    Why do they keep on making movies based off video games. Has there ever been a single one that wasn't completely crap? Sure they generate a few bucks, but it's not like any of the actors/directors/writers actually gain any prestige by working on these movies. Why even bother creating such crappy movies.

  • Excited? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Fozzyuw (950608) on Monday June 18 2007, @01:31PM (#19553295)

    Diablo is coming to the big screen!

    I cannot say that I'm excited. But it begs to ask, will we see "Diablo 3: the Movie" game?

  • MY script for the movie: (Score:4, Funny)

    by spocksbrain (1097145) on Monday June 18 2007, @01:33PM (#19553333)
    *clang* *clang* *clang* "cha-ching" *clang* *clang* *clang* "cha-ching" *clang* *clang* *clang* "cha-ching" *clang* *clang* *clang* "inventory is full" x 1,000,000 The End. BTW... they are fun and addicting games, and I still love them. However, I would rather have movies based on the stories from warcraft or starcraft universes, much more depth)
    • *clang* *clang* *clang* "cha-ching" *clang* *clang* *clang* "cha-ching" *clang* *clang* *clang* "cha-ching" *clang* *clang* *clang* "inventory is full" x 1,000,000 The End.

      On the DVD extras of Star Wars III, there's a segment on the pre-production of the movie. Lucas walks in with the script and one of his employees says something like, "That was fast!"
      Lucas then says something like, "It wasn't hard. It's line of dialog and then several pages of 'then they fight'."

      cha-ching! indeed!

    • Re:MY script for the movie: (Score:5, Funny)

      by kkohlbacher (922932) on Monday June 18 2007, @01:48PM (#19553597)
      I can see it now...
      Sitting in movie theatre, on screen a Paladin emerges from the shadows slowly reaching for the treasure chest below him:

      Paladin: "Here it is. The Brainhew. +14 to Minimum Damage, +4 Light Radius, 10-14% Mana stolen per hit, and 15-35 fire damage. The legends were true..."

      *Movie theatre crowd erupts into cheers, hoots and hollers*
    • Oh it could be done. Starring Johnny Depp as Fighter, Ian McClellan as Sorceror (or Caine), and Angelina Jolie as Rogue it might even be watchable. You've got to mix it up, have some drama. "Please! Find this Butcher and slay him, so that our souls may finally rest!" Dude! Wirt played by Elijah Wood. He'd show up at odd times, and need saving, thus providing comedic relief, plus the antics of Fighter. It would the best horrible movie ever, one of the great camp exercises of our era.

  • Diablo Movie Now in the Works?


    Hope not. Ask the Dungeons and Dragons franchise how hard it is to bring fantasy hack-n-slash to the big screen.
  • 90% of the movie will be about clearing the same sections over and over until the main characters gets the right ubber drop.

    No wait it could be about the main characters fighting cows with weapons...that actually might be fun to watch :-)

  • Details (Score:3, Funny)

    by Dachannien (617929) on Monday June 18 2007, @02:42PM (#19554525)
    Maybe they'll finally explain how tiny little Rakanishu can hide two magical halberds and a pile of gold coins under his loincloth.
  • click click click click click click click click click click click click

    Hmm... Slashdot thinks that my description of a typical Diablo game violates their "lameness filter". I agree, but why should my post be punished for that? It's Blizzard's fault.

  • Been there done that (Score:4, Funny)

    by aarku (151823) on Monday June 18 2007, @05:16PM (#19556927) Journal
    It's a musical and it goes something like this:

    *Sung to the tune of Badger badger badger [badgerbadgerbadger.com]*

    Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky

    UNIQUE! UNIQUE!

    CaClicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky Clicky

    UNIQUE! UNIQUE!

    Oooooooh, a rare, ooooh it's a rare.

    (Repeat ad infinitum.)

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