Since the beginning of Sam Raimi’s auspicious career in film making, he has always managed to shoehorn close personal friend and King of the B-Movie circuit Bruce Campbell into the scene somewhere, whether lead role in his cult classic Army of Darkness, to a less major part in movies like the Spiderman trilogy.  It’s become a trademark of Raimi, and so when everyone who follows him heard that he was going to be directing the Warcraft movie, rumors abuzzed with people trying desperately to figure out where they would find Campbell in the movie.

Not wasting any time, Raimi has already let slip that he knew where his college chum would be located in the film.  Monday, at a conference call between creative writers at Blizzard and Legendary Pictures co-producers, Raimi hinted quite loudly over the idea of casting his friend in the role of the leader of the Defias Brotherhood, Edward VanCleef.

While disappointing that it’s such a small part for most Bruce Campbell fans, it was warming to see it and the inclusion of the Defias Brotherhood in the film.  In World of Warcraft lore, the Defias Brotherhood is a band of thieves and brigands who work to destabilize the Alliance of humans, elves and dwarves.  Those people who know the game will remember that the pirate king Edward VanCleef was the end boss of the Deadmines instance, one of the first major early dungeons in the game.

Originally, the role was set aside for Michael Clarke Duncan of Armageddon and The Green Mile fame, but Raimi decided against it during the casting of the film and didn’t like the dark tone VanCleef and the Brotherhood were being portrayed.

“You know, it’s just too grim.  Can’t the Brotherhood be more Robin Hood like? The film is going to already be epic; it needs more humor to offset that.  If anyone I know can bring that to the film, it’s Bruce.”

A copy of the conversation transcript can be found on the next page.

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