*Update - 11/2/2015, a new official poster released:
**Update 5/18/2015 - First photos of Orgrim Doomhammer from Wired:
Filming for Warcraft finished in June of 2014, the film now has a full 20 months of post-production until its release on June 10th, 2016. I figured we could have a place where myself and the three other people on GAF who are genuinely looking forward to this could have a place to discuss it as details slowly trickle out over the coming months.
Directed by Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code, off-spring of David Bowie)
Info about the film from a Blizzcon 2013 Q&A Panel with Duncan Jones + Blizzard folk:
**Update 5/18/2015 - First photos of Orgrim Doomhammer from Wired:
Filming for Warcraft finished in June of 2014, the film now has a full 20 months of post-production until its release on June 10th, 2016. I figured we could have a place where myself and the three other people on GAF who are genuinely looking forward to this could have a place to discuss it as details slowly trickle out over the coming months.
Directed by Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code, off-spring of David Bowie)
Cast:
Daniel Wu - Gul'dan
Info about the film from a Blizzcon 2013 Q&A Panel with Duncan Jones + Blizzard folk:
- The film will take place during the events of Warcraft: Orcs and Humans (the first game in the series), and will detail the first clash between, well, Orcs and Humans.
- The human knight Anduin Lothar and the orc chieftan Durotan are the focus of the film:
- Duncan Jones wanted to tell the origin of how these two races/cultures first encountered each other as opposed to jumping in the middle of a more recent Warcraft storyline.
- Chris Metzen (Blizzard's lead story/lore guy) said they've danced around a few different stories over the years but Duncan really wanted to tell this one.
- The original screenplay (presumably the one from when Sam Raimi was still attached to direct) was apparently very "Alliance-centric". Jones wanted to spread the love out more evenly between the two factions.
- Jones wants the audience to be able to feel empathy for Orc heroes as much as the human ones.
- Orcs will be created through CGI + mo-cap.
- Trying to make the Orcs photo-realstic while also keeping them in that distinct Warcraft style is a challenge
- Orcs won't be monsters, they'll have just as much personality as the humans
- The Orc language is being fully fleshed out for the film, more-so than it ever was in the games
- Blizzard's creatives are heavily involved with the production, but obviously there is a balance between their input and the Hollywood guys
- The film will feature "the biggest swords you'll ever see on a human".
- WoW's style is difficult when approaching it from a practical, real perspective. Small things like shoulder-pad size and unsheathing weapons (when weapons in the Warcraft universe are so huge they don't have scabbards) - are things they've had to figure out how to translate to live-action and not make it silly.
- The film's tone will be "like Gladiator", very "down in the dirt, covered in grime"
- Film is not planned to be the start of a trilogy, Jones gives the indication that the movie will tell it's own story. But of course, if the film is successful, they'd love to keep making them.
- "Why a movie and not a TV series?" - audience question. Metzen says they've been working on the film for so long that these days they could totally see it as a TV series thanks to Game of Thrones, but six or seven years ago, no way. It started as a film, so it'll stay a film.
- Film will likely be PG-13 (no real surprise), because you can get away with a lot in a PG-13 film these days (the games are Rated "T for Teen" by the ESRB, for reference) .
Technical stuff:
- Bill Westenoffer is the VFX supervisor for the film (Recently won an Oscar for The Life of Pi, also worked on effects for The Golden Compass and the Chronicles of Narnia films)
- "Incredible team" at ILM will handle the film's effects
- Simon Duggin is the film's cinematographer (The Great Gatsby, i Robot)
- Paul Hirsch will edit the film (Worked with Jones on all of his previous films as well as The Empire Strikes Back and Ferris Bueller's Day Off)
Not specifically film stuff:
- Jones has played every Warcraft game to date, and other MMOs for years, was a clan leader in Ultima Online.
- Bill Westenoffer has been playing WoW since the alpha test. While working on VFX for The Golden Compass, he'd stay up until 2:00am to raid with his guild.
