In talks with MTV, Sam Raimi has revealed that “Saving Private Ryan” writer Robert Rodat will be penning the World of Warcraft movie adaptation. The storyline will be an original effort, set in the Warcraft universe but not following the Lich King book (which had been rumored as a subtitle).

“We would choose… something that encompasses lands and characters and storylines, and we would be true to it. But our story may or may not be about one of those central characters.”

“We want to be really faithful to the game. We would have our writer, Robert Rodat, really craft an original story within that world that feels like a ‘World of WarCraft’ adventure. Only obviously it’s very different ’cause it’s expanded and translated into the world of a motion picture.”

“[The hope is to properly capture] the Horde and the Alliance and the mythology that takes place in the game, and the archetypes that the game presents. 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.”

MTV are reporting that the movie adaptation of Warcraft now appears to have a title, ‘Warcraft: The Rise Of The Lich King’. The title falls in-line with a recently released NY Times best-selling book, “Arthas: Rise of the Lich King”. However, they cite the source of this information to be the unreliable and socially powered IMDB.com, which has since removed the phrase.

If we are to believe the subtitle and that the movie will follow in the footsteps of the book, then the plot would revolve around Arthas Menethil,

a once-noble prince and warrior who becomes a fearsome tyrant known as the Lich King.

I’d take this with a big grain of salt and instead wait for some official word.