Director Duncan Jones announced earlier this month that filming for the Warcraft movie is almost done. Warcraft is one of my favorite franchises so naturally I got very excited, but then I heard the bad news. The movie will only come out on March 11, 2016, that’s almost two years from now! From what I understand the remaining time is needed to generate all the CGI, which means that most of the movie will be computer generated, nothing wrong with that.
The studio taking care of the CG scenes is none other than Industrial Light and Magic, they are best known for their work on the Star Wars franchise. Moving one, the cast of the film includes relatively unknown actors such as Travis Fimmel (Vikings), Rob Kazinsky (Pacific Rim), Dominic Cooper (Captain America: The First Avenger) and Paula Patton (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol). We also know that Warcraft is produced by Legendary Pictures and directed by Duncan Jones.
I find all of this to be more or less promising, except for the fact that we have to wait another two years. However, if the movie is taken seriously (unlike most video game-based movies) the wait will surely be worth it. I did find the lack of more details or footage to be somewhat disturbing, but a recent article regarding the movie managed to spark my enthusiasm. Producer Thomas Tull had a discussion with IGN recently and has revealed that Warcraft footage will be shown at San Diego Comic-Con 2014, which takes place during July 24-27. Up until this point the only image featuring the movie shows off director Jones and what appears to be the Stormwind throne room, not much to look at to be honest.
Tull also discussed a few more aspects of the movie and gave us some tiny, but welcomed bits of information. “Doing a videogame movie has not really been done well, and I think part of the reason for that is it’s been done for the wrong reasons. If you simply say ‘How many people have played the game? How much money can we make?’ You’re doomed. You’re doomed right off the start.”
“Bringing a filmmaker like Duncan [Jones] on board to distill that and bring the incredible cast on board that he was able to get… we hope that when you see the first trailer for it, you’re going to say ‘OK, this is not what I was expecting.’ He’s an incredibly exciting filmmaker.” When asked if a Warcraft trailer will be available soon, the producer said: “We show up every summer at Comic-Con – we really enjoy it, and the fans seem to enjoy taking a look at things, so I wouldn’t be surprised.”
Last but not least, Tull also mentioned a little something about the possible plot. “With a great cast, there’s a lot of folks to follow, so I’d look more in that direction because there’s so many talented people working on it… We’re very aware of the fact that in the mythology of Warcraft, there are two tribes – two big things to follow. We think you’re going to get a chance to look at both.” This relates to earlier reports that claimed the movie will be based on the first Warcraft game, which means the two tribes Tull is talking about are most likely the Orcs and the Humans.
Many still claim that the movie is inspired by World of Warcraft, but this seems very unlikely at this point. Warcraft: Orcs vs Humans centers around the initial encounters and conflicts between the two races, and takes place long before the Wow events. This means that we will hopefully get so see legendary Warcraft characters like Anduin Lothar, Medivh, Ogrim, or Durotan on the big screen two years from now.