Private Ryan writer on Warcraft film

Spider-Man helmsman Sam Raimi has spoken to MTV News about plans for the Warcraft film he's set to direct, and has revealed that he's got Saving Private Ryan writer Robert Rodat working on the script.

Rodat's brief, Raimi said, is to create an original story focusing on strong characters, which Raimi will then set within an authentic recreation of Blizzard's fantasy universe.

"We want to be really faithful to the game... to the Horde and the Alliance and the mythology that takes place in the game, and the archetypes that the game presents," Raimi said.

"I think we would try and find touchstones within the game to make it accurate and true and choose one or some of the lands that are portrayed in the game with as much accuracy and authenticity as possible. But we would have our writer, Robert Rodat, really craft an original story within that world that feels like a World of Warcraft adventure."

Raimi said that Rodat, whose credits also include the Mel Gibson period piece The Patriot, was chosen for his strong character work in particular.

"I've never made a video game movie," he said, "but my approach would be to work with the best character writer I can find, which in this case is Robert Rodat, and tell a great character story within the fantastic environment of the world of Warcraft, while staying true to their mythology."

Raimi's mention of an original story give the lie to last week's rumours that the film would be subtitled Rise of the Lich King and be based on the Warcraft novel of the same name.

Those rumours were based on the film's IMDB listing, which bore the Rise of the Lich King moniker last week but has now been changed back to plain old Warcraft.