The Warcraft movie is coming in 2015, yet we barely know anything about it outside of the setting and who’s directing. At the Warcraft movie presentation at BlizzCon 2013, we learned a whole lot more, from setting to story and more.
Who’s Working on the movie?
When director Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) first read the scirpt, it was very human and Alliance centric. That wasn’t going to work. “It’s about both sides. It’s going to be red and blue.” He wants the movie’s audience to feel for the Orc heroes as much as they do the Human ones.
Academy award-winning special effects supervisor Bill Westenhofer is also a fan. “I just about spit out my coffee,” he said about being asked if he was familiar with the universe.
He started playing back in 2004 during the alpha test. He’s got a level 90 Mage. He would get up at 2 in the morning during the filming of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe to go on raids. He’s a player. Westenhoffer spoke of the Orcs, real human actors in makeup — not CGI.
During the panel Q&A, Westenhoffer compared the tone of the film to Gladiator. He also commented, on props, “The swords that are being built are the biggest swords a human being can wield.”
Mayes Rubeo, costume designer for Apocalypto and Avatar will be handling costumes. She’s pretty amazing. Simon Duggan of I, Robot and The Great Gatsby is handling cinematography.
The movie begins filming in Vancouver early next year.
Where are we going in Azeroth?
Let’s look at some concept art.
That’s Draenor, home of the Orcs.
And there’s Dalaran, the city of magic, floating in the sky.
Ironforge, city of Dwarves. Oh, and some panelists.
Stormwind, seat of the Alliance.
From comments made during the Q&A, it seems the movie will be focused largely in the Eastern Kingdoms of Azeroth.
They’re not just looking at the cities of Azeroth for inspiration. They’re looking at trees, leaves, rocks. Westenhofer regularly logs into his character to grab reference shots.
What’s the Story?
We’re not talking actors yet — when asked if they had cast picked out, Jones simply answered “Yup!” — but we’ve got some character names.
It’s the story of Anduin Lothar versus Durotan, Human and Orc heroes from the original real-time strategy games.
“It’s been hard to find an actor who looks like Durotan,” said Jones. “Every time I meet an actor I just try to squish his face.”
Both of these men are protectors of their people. War is coming, and both of them want to do the right thing for the people they are responsible.
During Q&A, Jones suggested the story offers plenty of opportunities for strong female leading roles as well.
Should we be excited?
I dunno, the creators certainly seem excited. There’s just still so much more information yet to be revealed. I’ll wait for more details and casting info before committing myself to excitement.
OK fine, cautionary woo. “Woo.”
Comments
9 responses to “We Know Much More About The Warcraft Movie Now”
So long as both sides, Horde and Alliance, are perceived as the good guys in their own eyes.
I dont want the movie to be a bunch of human Alliance characters running around killing a bunch of grunting, meat head, brainless Orcs.
It says it’s the story of Durotan vs. Anduin Lothar, so it’s very very VERY much earlier than the events of WoW.
There is no “Alliance” at that point, and the Horde is the orcish horde, not the current new horde.
This is waaay back in the events of Warcraft: Orcs and Humans.
And at that point, the Orcs really where the bad guys. It was because they where being pushed that way against their own nature, but that’s what they where at that point in time.
I’d be totally happy with a WoW movie where all the high level toons band together to gank the starting zones. It would be an accurate movie then.
Jones made it clear during the panel that he wants to make sure that both sides are represented and that people can get behind both sides. It’s not good vs evil like traditional movies, it’s red vs blue.
Yea i agree, if it focuses on Durotan they have no reason to make them super aggressive other than the blood pact with Mannoroth and even then Durotan was opposed to that all along and im pretty sure he didnt drink the blood. I could be wrong about him drinking the blood though, been a while since I had a read of the books
That was meant to be a reply btw 😛
You’re correct, Durotan (as well as his entire clan and a handful of others) did’t drink the blood.
Sounds like they got a superb team handling it. I’m ok with where it is heading right now 😀
Durotan didn’t drink the blood and worked hard to ensure the other orcs didn’t either.
Westenhoffer actually said they ARE using CGI for the orcs, but they do like to have accurate representations of the character on the real set. It’s easier for them to work this way, which is why the crew has gone to great lengths to build accurate representations of 1:1 scaled orc costumes even though they are using CGI.
Should we be excited? Yes, Mike. Yes, we should.
Though to be released ins a year and half time. I would wait an extra half anyear just to make sure its good.
Hm. I’m not about to start getting my hopes up about a video game to movie translation, but that’s not sounding particularly terrible. Yet.
For the Horde!
Sorry got a little excited