News of the loss of Sam Raimi as director last month hasn’t stopped the development of the ‘World of Warcraft’ movie as Legendary Entertainment has brought on scribe Charles Leavitt to pen the latest script.

Leavitt has worked with Legendary before scribing ‘The Seventh Son’ for them, a film starring Jeff Bridges (‘R.I.P.D.’, ‘Tron: Legacy’),  Julianne Moore (‘Carrie‘, ‘Hannibal’), and Antje Traue (‘Man of Steel’) slated to be release next year. He’s also written the screenplay for ‘Blood Diamond’, ‘The Mighty’, and K-Pax’.

Legendary was said to have liked Leavitt’s take on ‘World of Warcraft’ and if it all works out, the project can move forward with the inclusion of a director search in the upcoming months. Whether Leavitt will draft a whole new script or rework the one written by Rober Rodan (‘Falling Skies‘, ‘Thor: The Dark World’) is unknown at this time.

‘World of Warcraft’ has been in development with Legendary since 2007 and hopes were high to seeing this project on the big screen. In 2009, it was announced that Raimi was attached to direct the film from a script written by Rodat. Then nothing was heard until Raimi divulged during last month’s Comic –Con that he was no longer part of the project.

“Actually, they don’t have me directing ‘World of Warcraft’ anymore,” he said in an interview with Crave Online, “because when I took the (‘Oz the Great and Powerful’) job, they had to move on to another director. They had to start making it.”

There are mixed opinions about moving forward with a ‘World of Warcraft’ film. When the project first started 5 years ago, the game was intensely popular but has since been losing subscribers with the introduction of other more popular MMORPGs. On a creative side, the game offers a multitude of plot possibilities and if it catches on, would be a great start to a franchise for Legendary. If things all fall in to place, expect a ‘WoW’ film to be released in 2014.

‘World of Warcraft’ isn’t the only game that the production company is trying to get off the ground. They are also working on bringing ‘Mass Effect’ to theaters. Currently, the company is looking forward to the release of two big sci-fi films they’re producing: ‘Pacific Rim’ and ‘Man of Steel.’

So calling all WoW players! Are you excited to hear that ‘World of Warcraft’ is moving forward or not? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Source: Variety