“300″ Producer Talks World of Warcraft Movie

At the recent Hollywood & Games Summit, Thomas Tull — chairman of Legendary Pictures and producer of “300″ — gave a keynote where he discussed, among other things, a film in the works based on World of Warcraft. He made of point of stating that video games should not be made into movies just because of their sales figures:

“Sure, there are 8 million people playing WoW, but even if all of those people saw the movie multiple times, we’d still be screwed.”

He continued though, saying that he feels good about the WoW movie:

“It doesn’t matter to us if it’s based on a graphic novel like [Frank Miller's] 300, or a TV show – if there’s a great universe and story, that’s what’s interesting to us…I think some of the stuff that makes a game translate well into a movie is a good story. If there’s a lore, if there’s a road and story and a world that’s been created, and characters that are interesting in a way that’s more than just point and shoot.”

He also discussed how involved the developers of the game are in the production of the film:

“We are working very closely with the designers and writers, and they’re very involved. I think on the bigger [films] you have to have that. They’re sitting right there at the table with us as we develop the story and the script, and I think we’re nailing the story and what’s compelling about it.”