"World of Warcraft Movie"
Sam Raimi
|
The Cast: |
|
Warcraft Movie Trailer, Movie Clips, Interviews,
News |
|
Pictures: |
|
Miscellaneous: |
|
|
|
|
|
Samuel Marshall "Sam" Raimi (born October
23, 1959) is an American film director, producer, actor and writer.
He is best known for directing cult horror films like the Evil Dead
series and Drag Me To Hell as well as the blockbuster Spider-Man
films.
In The News:
Nothing in the news at this time.
Biography
Early life
Raimi, the fourth of five children, was born in Royal Oak, Michigan,
and grew up in Birmingham, Michigan. He is the son of Celia Barbara
(née Abrams), who owned lingerie shops, and Leonard Ronald
Raimi, who owned home furnishing stores. Raimi was raised in Conservative
Judaism; his ancestors immigrated from Russia and Hungary. Raimi's
eldest sibling, Sander, died in a swimming accident in 1968 at age
fifteen. His elder brother, Ivan Raimi, is an emergency room doctor
and screenwriter who sometimes collaborates with Sam. His brother,
Ted Raimi, is an actor and played J. Jonah Jameson's assistant Hoffman
in all three Spider-Man movies. His older sister, Andrea Raimi Rubin,
is a stenographer and is not involved in the film industry. Raimi
attended Wylie E. Groves High School, and Michigan State University
and majored in English, leaving after three semesters to film The
Evil Dead.
Film
Raimi became fascinated with making films when his father brought
a movie camera home one day and he began to make Super 8 movies
with childhood friend Bruce Campbell. In college, he teamed up with
his brother's roommate Robert Tapert and Campbell to shoot Within
the Woods (1978), a 32-minute horror film which raised $350,000,
as well as the short comedic film It's Murder!. Through family,
friends, and a network of investors Raimi was able to finance production
of the highly successful horror film The Evil Dead (1981) which
became a cult hit and effectively launched Raimi's career. He began
work on his second film Crimewave (1985), intended as a live-action
comic bookthe film was not successful, due in part to unwanted
studio intervention. Raimi returned to the horror genre with the
seminal Evil Dead II (which toned down the savageness of the original
in favour of slapstick, showcasing his love of the Three Stooges).
A long-time comic book buff, he attempted to adapt "The Shadow"
into a movie, but was unable to secure the rights, so he created
his own super-hero, Darkman (1990). The film was his first major
studio picture, and was only moderately successful, but he was still
able to secure funding for Evil Dead III: Army of Darkness, which
turned away almost totally from horror in favor of fantasy and comedy
elements.
 |
|
|
In the 1990s Raimi moved into other genres, directing such films
as the western The Quick and the Dead, the critically-acclaimed
crime thriller A Simple Plan (1998) (starring Bill Paxton and Billy
Bob Thornton), and the romantic drama For Love of the Game (1999)
(starring Kevin Costner). Raimi achieved great critical and commercial
success with the blockbuster Spider-Man (2002), which was adapted
from the comic book series of the same name. The movie has grossed
over $800 million worldwide, spawning two sequels: Spider-Man 2
and Spider-Man 3, both directed by Raimi and both grossing roughly
$800 million each. After the completion of the third Spider-Man
film, Raimi is slated to direct a film adaptation of The Wee Free
Men by Terry Pratchett. Prior to directing the Spider-Man films,
Raimi lobbied to direct Batman Forever when Tim Burton was ousted
from the director's chair, but was rejected in favor of Joel Schumacher,
whose reputation at the time outshone Raimi's.
Raimi frequently collaborates with Joel and Ethan Coen, beginning
when Joel was one of the editors of Evil Dead. The Coens co-wrote
Crimewave and The Hudsucker Proxy with Raimi in the mid-1980s (though
Hudsucker was not filmed for almost a decade). Raimi made cameo
appearances in Miller's Crossing, The Hudsucker Proxy, as well as
with Joel Coen in Spies Like Us. The Coen brothers gave Raimi advice
on shooting in snow for A Simple Plan, based on their experiences
with Fargo. He has also worked in front of the camera with Miller's
Crossing as a coldblooded gunman, The Stand as a dimwitted hitman,
John Carpenter's Body Bags in an unusual role as a gas station attendant
(all three roles saw Raimi dying in distinct ways), and Indian Summer
in what is perhaps his biggest role as a bumbling assistant to Alan
Arkin. The film was written by his childhood friend writer-director
Mike Binder and shot at the camp that they both attended when they
were younger. He also produced The Grudge, The Grudge 2 and The
Grudge 3. According to Entertainment Weekly, Raimi had expressed
an interest in directing a film version of The Hobbit, the prequel
to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In 2008, Guillermo del Toro was
selected as the director, with Peter Jackson as the executive producer.
Raimi may direct By Any Means Necessary, the next film based on
the "Jack Ryan" CIA character created by Tom Clancy. Disney
also approched him to direct W.I.T.C.H. The Movie, based on the
popular same-name comic.
Blizzard Entertainment announced on July 22, 2009 that Sam Raimi
will be directing a film based on the Warcraft universe.
Television
In addition to film, Raimi has worked in television, producing such
series as Xena: Warrior Princess, featuring his younger brother
Ted Raimi and long-time friend Bruce Campbell, Hercules: The Legendary
Journeys, American Gothic, Cleopatra 2525 and Jack of All Trades.
In 2008, it was announced at Comic-Con in San Diego that Raimi would
be executive producing a new syndicated TV series called "Legend
of the Seeker," based on Terry Goodkind's best-selling The
Sword of Truth fantasy series.
Recurring trademarks, motifs, and partners
In his film and television projects, Raimi's brother Ted Raimi
and his friend Bruce Campbell often appear in on-screen roles, though
these appearances are often just short cameos. The trio have been
working together since their college days. Both Ted and Bruce have
appeared in all three Evil Dead and Spider-Man movies, as well as
Xena: Warrior Princess, which Sam produced. In the Dead films, Campbell
plays the recurring star role of Ash, while Ted played various small
parts every time. In the Spider Man films, however, Ted plays Daily
Bugle advertising manager Ted Hoffman, while Campbell has played
different roles every time. In Xena, Ted and Bruce played the recurring
roles of Joxer and Autolycus. Raimi occasionally appears on-screen
in his own movies, usually in similar fashion to the cameos made
by his idol Alfred Hitchcock: A silhouette behind a projection screen
(Spider-Man, in the wrestling scene), a passer-by with some kind
of physical interaction with the film's protagonist (Spider-Man
2, as the student whose bookbag hits Peter Parker in the back of
the head), a hitchhiker in The Evil Dead. Raimi also wears a suit
with white shirt and tie on-set in another homage to Hitchcock.
An adept fan will also notice Raimi's recurring usage of soda crackers
as a back prop.
Raimi often works with film editor Bob Murawski, a fellow Michigan
State University alumnus; among Raimi's films edited by Murawski
include the Spider-Man movies, The Gift, and Army of Darkness. Raimi
has included a 1973 yellow Oldsmobile Delta 88 automobile (nicknamed
"The Classic") in every film except The Quick and the
Dead. Bruce Campbell, at Comic-con 2005, advised that a special
covered wagon frame had covered the vehicle to maintain the motif
of the film. A bottle of Maker's Mark also appears regularly in
his movies.
Other Raimi screen-framing trademarks include:
A distinctive camera shot where the camera follows a moving object
(such as an arrow or a projectile weapon) at high speeds creating
a first-person point of view from the object itself;
A rapid dolly zoom to bring a far-off object suddenly into the center
of the shot or to pull back from the main focal object to show what
is happening around the perimeter (sometimes called "push-pull");
Montage sequences with overlapping close-up shots to establish a
set of similar actions over elapsing time.
In the Making The Amazing documentary on the Spider-Man 2 DVD, both
Tobey Maguire and Bruce Campbell jokingly describe Raimi's penchant
for "abusing" actors: In order to get realistic closeups
of a character getting hit by debris, Raimi usually stands just
off-camera throwing items, swinging tree branches, etc., at the
actor who is at the center of the shot. Scenes from the documentary
show that Raimi is the one throwing popcorn at Peter Parker during
the walk to the wrestling ring in Spider-Man and tossing gold coins
around during the bank robbery scene in Spider-Man 2. This technique
was parodied by Spider-Man actor James Franco in his Funny or Die
series, Acting with James Franco, Episode 2: "Green Screen".
Personal life
Raimi
has been married since 1993 to Gillian Dania Greene, daughter of
actor Lorne Greene. They have five children. Three of the Raimis'
children (daughter Emma Rose and sons Lorne and Henry) appeared
as extras in Drag Me to Hell and Spider-Man 3 during the movie's
climactic final battle. On occasion, Raimi collaborates with his
elder brother Ivan, a doctor and occasional scriptwriter. Together,
they co-wrote the screenplays for Drag Me to Hell, Darkman and Army
of Darkness and fleshed out most of the plot for Spider-Man 3. Ivan
also contributed to story and script development for the three Spider-Man
films. He has claimed his three favourite films to be Treasure of
the Sierra Madre, The Big Lebowski and Psycho.
Raimi is recorded as having made several political contributions:
to Arlen Specter in 1996, Barbara Boxer in 2002 and George W. Bush's
presidential campaign in 2004. Outweighing amounts to those politicians
are donations to the political action committee of the Director's
Guild of America.
As Director:
1977: The Happy Valley Kid (short film)
1977: It's Murder! (short film)
1978: Within the Woods (short film)
1978: Clockwork (short film)
1981: The Evil Dead
1985: Crimewave
1987: Evil Dead II
1990: Darkman
1993: Army of Darkness
1995: The Quick and the Dead
1998: A Simple Plan
1999: For Love of the Game
2000: The Gift
2002: Spider-Man
2004: Spider-Man 2
2007: Spider-Man 3
2009: Drag Me to Hell
2011: Spider-Man 4 (pre-production)
TBA Warcraft (pre-production) |
As Producer:
1981: The Evil Dead
1988: The Dead Next Door
1989: Easy Wheels
1991: Lunatics: A Love Story
1993: Hard Target
1994: Darkman II: The Return of Durant
1994: Timecop Peter Hyams
1996: Darkman III: Die Darkman Die
2004: The Grudge
2005: Boogeyman
2006: The Grudge 2
2007: The Messengers
2007: Rise: Blood Hunter
2007: 30 Days of Night
2007: Boogeyman 2
2009: The Grudge 3
|
Top
This article (or parts thereof) is
copied from an article on Wikipedia.org
- the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community.
Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles
provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the
accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed
under the terms of GNU
Free Documentation License.
World of Warcraft Movie, a Sam
Raimi film.
World of Warcraft Movie 2011.
Copyright © 2009 - wowmovie.co.uk
- All Rights Reserved.
Disclaimer: This is a fansite and not the official website for
the movie "World of Warcraft".
This site is in no way associated with the official production
of the Sam Raimi World of Warcraft movie or Blizzard Entertainment's
World of Warcraft. The World of Warcraft logo is a registered
trademark of Blizzard Entertainment.
|