While the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show hogged game-industry headlines this week, a major development in the film world appears to have occurred. According to the Hollywood Reporter, pre-production of Spider-Man 4 has been halted due to "clashes" between executives at Sony Pictures and film director Sam Raimi over the script. According to show business blog Deadline Hollywood, visual effects technicians slated to work on the film have been told to seek work elsewhere, as the delay will at least be several months.

Sam Raimi

Besides the potential impact on any related Spider-Man games, the news may affect what could be the biggest game-based movie to date. That's because last July, Raimi signed on to direct a major motion picture set in Blizzard's Warcraft universe, which is also the setting for the über-popular game World of Warcraft. The project was first announced by production company Legendary Pictures (300, The Dark Knight) in 2006, and at one point Steven Spielberg was rumored to be interested in directing it.

Since the Warcraft movie never had a hard release date, it can't technically be delayed by any change in Spider-Man 4's debut date, currently set for May 6, 2011. However, any postponement of the latest web-slinger film, which the Reporter believes will now be released in late summer 2011, would almost certainly hold up work on the $100 million-plus fantasy epic.

Unfortunately, inquiries about the status of the Warcraft movie had not been answered by Blizzard Entertainment as of press time. The World of Warcraft developer and publisher is deeply involved with the big-screen project, which is being co-produced by Blizzard senior vice president of creative development Chris Metzen.

Source: Gamespot