warcraft-movie
Latest
World of Warcraft film teaser debuts at SDCC
Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures created something of a stir at this year's San Diego Comic Con by reportedly debuting a teaser trailer for the long-anticipated World of Warcraft movie. The trailer featured a human warrior and an angry orc and apparently was set in Hellfire Peninsula, also known as "that horrible place I dragged my Mage through levels 60-63." Actual filming begins in 2014, with director Duncan Jones referring to the teaser as more of a "mood piece." The film, titled simply Warcraft, will feature a mix of live-action and computer-generated effects. And no, the trailer doesn't seem to be available anywhere online. This Mountain Dew commercial is probably close enough, though.
First Warcraft teaser trailer debuted at San Diego Comic Con
Multiple sites are reporting that a teaser trailer for the World of Warcraft movie - simply titled Warcraft, was shown earlier today at San Diego Comic Con. The panel, featuring Warner Bros. and Legendary films, showed trailers for the upcoming Seventh Son and Godzilla before whipping out the surprise teaser for the Warcraft film and announcing that filming begins in 2014. No footage of the teaser seems to be available online yet, but news sites described the trailer as a lone knight standing in an alien, desert world with a glowing green sky. After looting a discarded suit of armor, the knight is besieged by creatures coming over the hills. As an orc approaches, swinging his sword down, the trailer then cut to the logo. Although the trailer isn't currently available online, we may see it pop up at some point soon. Director Duncan Jones made a brief appearance to mention that the trailer is a "mood piece," and that official shooting will begin early next year. While some players may have been doubtful about the eventual existence of the Warcraft film, its eventual existence is growing more certain by the day -- and the teaser definitely has everyone talking. We'll update if the teaser itself shows up online, until then you can read more about it from Superherohype.
Warcraft movie will buck the bad game movie trend, according to Legendary Pictures
No, we don't have a release date or casting information yet, but during a recent press tour for Pacific Rim, Legendary Pictures founder and CEO Thomas Tull answered a few questions about the Warcraft movie to be. Will this be the video game movie that bucks the trend of bad video game movies? Tull thinks they can: by ignoring the video game aspect. "We don't know how to make a movie out of Warcraft, the video game," Tull explained to reporters. "It's the incredible story, and the war, and these races, and everything these guys at Blizzard have come up with. They have 100 books, and just this incredibly rich world that they've created." And fortunately, this is a sentiment director Duncan Jones seems to share. Before he was tapped to direct, he commented on the Warcraft film in a 2011 interview saying, "A good game adaptation is where you find the story or the emotional aspect that's at the heart of a computer game and you replicate that on film. It doesn't mean you need to have first person perspective or try and capture the mechanics of a game." Of Jones, Tull explains, "This guy gets it." So we may still not know the details, but we're holding on to hope for a great Warcraft film on the horizon.
Video: A short history of the WoW movie
In light of the recent news about the WoW movie, WoW Insider thought we'd prepare a short recap of its history. We begin way, way back in 2006, when it was first announced that Blizzard and Legendary Pictures had agreed to collaborate on a live-action representation of the Warcraft universe. Since then, the movie has gone through several changes, in a six-year on-again-off-again saga. This is explored in more depth in the video above, but I'll summarize some of the key dates here: 2006: Warcraft movie announced, Legendary and Blizzard collaborate 2009: Writer Gary Whitta leaves, Sam Raimi is announced as Director with Chris Metzen. 2009: Robert Rodat is announced as screenwriter 2010: Announcement at BlizzCon that the script is "pretty much laid down" 2012: In July Sam Raimi left the team 2012: In August, Variety announced that Charles Leavitt was the new writer 2013: In January, Duncan Jones is announced as the new Director 2013: April sees the announcement that VFX will be handled by Bill Westenhofer 2013: Slashfilm asserts that the film will release in 2015, filming starting in January 2014. We'd love to hear your thoughts on all this, as I mention in the video, the script has obviously been a major stumbling block. What are you hoping to see? When are you hoping to see it? And will it be better than all the other video game movies?
Warcraft movie to finally start filming in early 2014
It's been a long time coming, but the Warcraft movie may finally be filming in the first quarter of 2014. Producer Charles Roven told Slashfilm of the 2014 date, so there's a good chance we'll see Warcraft on the big screen by 2015 -- the release date that was floating around when Duncan Jones was announced as the movie's director early this year. As to the details of story or casting, no one knows anything for sure -- but with filming starting in 2014, we're bound to find out more details soon. Thanks to readers Craig and Timothy for the tip!
The Queue: Looking to the future
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. In yesterday's edition of The Queue, there seemed to be more questions about the next expansion than the current one. Since the next expansion hasn't even been announced yet, there isn't much we can do with those, but we sure can try. Joey4 asked: weapon models to me seem to go by expansion theme, wrath had a dark cold look especially on greens and mists had the Asian theme, do you think we will see awesome looking models again like BC xpac had in the next xpac?
Bill Westenhofer announced as VFX director for Warcraft movie
Nick Carpenter, Vice President of Art and Cinematics at Blizzard, recently tweeted that award-winning visual effects specialist Bill Westenhofer of Rhythm and Hues Studios will be directing the Warcraft live-action film. Westenhofer has received Academy Awards for his work on The Golden Compass and Life of Pi, as well as a nomination for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. His numerous special effects credits also include Elf, Men in Black II, Stuart Little, and Speed 2: Cruise Control, among many others. If you've been following the development of the long-anticipated Warcraft movie, this is certainly some very good news. Westenhofer is an accomplished and respected visual effects professional, and his involvement can only mean good things for the Warcraft film. Hopefully we'll learn more soon!
Sam Raimi explains why he's not directing the Warcraft movie [UPDATED]
It's been an awfully long time since we've heard much about Blizzard's Warcraft movie -- long enough that we wondered if the project had faded into legend, much like the Dance Studio. Sam Raimi was announced as director way back in 2009 and spoke enthusiastically about the project as recently as 2010. And since then? A heck of a lot of silence, right up until the beginning of this year when Blizzard announced that Duncan Jones would be directing the film instead. So what happened? Well, while doing press for his new movie Oz the Great and Powerful, Raimi explained: Blizzard had reservations about the story he and writer Robert Rodat had pitched them. Ramai and Rodat spent nine months working on a script before realizing Blizzard had veto power, and, in the end, things fell apart. It doesn't surprise us at all that Blizzard would insist on having full creative control, but it does surprise us that some kind of miscommunication might have killed Raimi's version of the film. Of course, this is just Raimi's perspective, but except for a single tweet from Rob Pardo, Blizzard is keeping mum on the deal. I don't want to create controversy, but there are two sides to every story...vulture.com/2013/03/sam-ra... - Rob Pardo (@Rob_Pardo) March 6, 2013 However, at least the movie is now moving ahead -- and even Raimi seems excited by Duncan Jones directing: "I loved his movie Moon, and I think he's a strikingly talented director. I bet that if anyone can do a great job with it, it's him." Now that we know that, we can finally get back to talking about important things, like debating our ideal casting choices. Update: Added comments from Rob Pardo.
Breakfast Topic: What do you think the WoW movie storyline will be?
I'm almost certain it won't involve pandas ... Well, that's my opinion at least. But what's yours? It seems to me that it's unlikely the movie will be able to encapsulate the entire of WoW history, given the sheer quantity of it that we have to play with. If it tried to do so, it'd be the longest film on record, for starters, and what's more, even at a Lord of the Rings level feature length, it'd still have to travel at remarkable speed and skip over a great deal of the lore. So, my reckoning is that it'll have to take a certain chunk of WoW lore and focus on that. I suspect it'll be something that's already been written, as new invented lore that either takes place after the current story position or is tangential to it risks causing problems in future. I think it'd be really cool if, for example, the WoW film took a story that players had just a tiny taste of, like the story surrounding Theramore, and made it into a film. Yes, the book already exists, but I can't imagine that the numbers who have read it would equal the numbers who would watch the film. What do you think? What do you suspect might be chosen for the film's storyline, and what do you fear? What would you love to see, and what would annoy you?
WRUP: Cast the Warcraft movie, again
This week the Warcraft movie secured itself a new director after losing Sam Raimi last year. The new director will be Duncan Jones, the director of Moon and Source Code, who had expressed an interest at directing the film while Sam Raimi was still attached to the project. Personally, I'm happy to see Jones taking on the project ... Not because I love Jones (he's fine) but because I was worried an adaption by Sam Raimi would be too lighthearted for my tastes. If I had it my way every film would be directed by Christopher Nolan. So now that we have a director, let's write up our dream cast list again. For those of you who have been reading WoW Insider a long time, you'll know I already wrote mine a couple of years ago, so now it's your turn to take a stab at it. Oh yeah, and what are you playing this weekend? Pfft, just tell us your dream cast list! It's way more fun. Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) I'm currently trying to resist purchasing The Cave on Steam. We'll see if that holds out over the weekend or not. Other than that, a little raiding and a whole lot of writing. Bonus question: Man I have no idea, but if they don't at least consider Michele Morrow (@michelemorrow) as Sylvanas I am going to be a little sad.
Breakfast Topic: Who would you cast for WoW Insider: The Movie?
Sure, everyone's excited for the Warcraft movie, and who isn't guessing who'll bring Arthas to life (or death, as it were). But who would your dream cast be for WoW Insider: The Movie? First, the most obvious -- Liam Neeson would play Matt Rossi. Neeson can wear an impressive beard, but it's more his cold determination that makes him perfect for this role. That, and a certain line about setting mythical sea creatures free. Next up is J. K. Simmons as Adam Holisky. After mastering both J. Jonah Jameson and Cave Johnson, I think he can take on Holisky. Third in line our favorite hunter columnist. I'm going to take a chance and say that Michele Marrow should play Frostheim. Sure, we'd have to rewrite the part for her, but I bet Michele Marrow could get him down pat. Now, if we're talking about absolute dream casting here, when I think of Fox Van Allen and Tyler Caraway there are only two people that come to mind. Fox would have to be played by Walter Matthau, and Tyler by Jack Lemmon. More choices after the break.
What's your dream cast for the Warcraft movie?
A few weeks ago, Hollywood headlines were filled with talk that director Sam Raimi is trying to secure Hilary Swank for his next film, Oz: The Great and Powerful. Now, I know that's not especially interesting to the Warcraft community, but it got me thinking about the Warcraft film again, since Raimi will eventually be directing it. Who will Raimi try to cast in the Warcraft movie? Then around the same time, the WoW Insider team got word on the further developments of Michele Morrow's campaign to land the role of Sylvanas Windrunner. This sparked the idea that someone on staff should put together a dream cast for the future Warcraft movie. As the token film school dropout, I jumped on the assignment and promptly put together the most expensive movie cast list ever. Be sure to let us know what your picks for the Warcraft film would be! %Gallery-122920%
Breakfast Topic: What are your Warcraft movie predictions?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. With the Warcraft movie on the horizon (though probably the distant horizon, at best), a lot of us are wondering what it might be like. Sam Raimi, the director of the recent Spiderman movies, is still supposedly attached the direct the film. Outside of the director, though, there aren't really any people set in stone to work on the project. That leaves open a lot of speculation of who might land starring roles. Of course, that will also all depend on what story they end up using. As far as I know, they will not be basing the plot off any specific plot line we have now. We won't be seeing a movie about the Lich King or Deathwing's attack on Azeroth, though many of the important lore figures are likely to be around. Instead, this movie will focus on an as-of-yet unknown hero. I predict the main character will be human, both from the popularity of the race in game and the ease of casting a human, relatively. (There just aren't that many orcs in Hollywood.) I'd also go as far as to say this human will be functionally close to a warrior or a paladin, since American movies love to see brute force fighters and wrathful avengers. Someone like Chris Hemsworth is someone I could see being a lead actor. There are just so many potential plot lines, character choices, and talent specializations that could be chosen for this movie. What do you think the movie will be like? Are you expecting a typical adventure plot or something that is highly tuned to Warcraft themes? A star-studded cast or a bunch of talented unknowns?
Director predicts Warcraft film will break video game movie trend
Last week, Badass News posted an article detailing an interview with director Duncan Jones in which the Warcraft movie was one of the main topics of discussion. Jones is the son of David Bowie and director of the impressive science fiction flick Moon, as well as Source Code, another sci-fi title being released later this year. Though the interview reveals nothing about the production of the Warcraft movie, Jones thinks that the film is going to break the ongoing trend of terrible film adaptations of video games. In the article, Jones says he believes it's possible to make a good adaptation -- it just has to be approached properly. "A good game adaptation is where you find the story or the emotional aspect that's at the heart of a computer game and you replicate that on film. It doesn't mean you need to have first person perspective or try and capture the mechanics of a game," he says. Jones thinks the Warcraft film will be the film to break the mold because director Sam Raimi seems to be approaching the film correctly. "From the little I've read of interviews with him, the way he's approaching it makes so much sense. It's what I was talking about – it's not worrying about how the game plays, it's about creating the world of the game and investing the audience in that world." Jones explains that he's a serious gamer himself and is skeptical about other directors who claim the same. He doesn't think most directors have the time to be both hardcore gamers and filmmakers. Jones, on the other hand, says he stays up all night to accommodate his gaming habit and cites titles like Starcraft 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops. He also says he's looking forward to Diablo 3. Jones admits that he's "hugely jealous" of Raimi's getting the chance to direct the Warcraft film; the writer of the article goes so far as to suggest that Jones have a chance at directing it, since Raimi set it aside to work on The Great and Mighty Oz. That's not really quite how Hollywood works, though, so unless Raimi steps down from the project himself, I wouldn't count on his losing the project just yet.
15 Minutes of Fame: Film follows fantasy of fighting Onyxia
Work Warning: Brief profanity in the video. From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. Just as Azeroth prepares to explode in all its cataclysmic glory, films on gaming seem to be exploding onto the scene. There's the documentary from LFG Productions (many of you may have seen them filming at BlizzCon and our reader meetup last month) that will be following leading raiding guild <Blood Legion> in a full-court press into Cataclysm. There's The Raid, another take on raiding life that we also saw at BlizzCon, and the "zanier" take on gaming culture of Gamers. In contrast to all those documentaries comes the short narrative film /afk. This live-action film, featuring extensive in-game footage produced by a whole host of well known machinimators -- Gigi, Teagen the Rogue, Baron Soosdon, the list goes on -- tells the tale of a WoW gamer whose psychiatrist informs him that he is gaming-addicted and should delete his character. Game over? Not quite. "The problem is that he always had this dream to solo Onyxia," explains creator Benjamin Dressler, "and he doesn't intend to leave without reaching that goal." /afk debuts on YouTube later this week with a unique, in-game event that literally "unlocks" the premiere. On Nov. 19, Aventhor, the night elf character from the movie, will appear on Alleria (EU-A) at 7 p.m. GMT and Drenden (US-A) at 5 p.m. CST. Find him and unlock "/afk"! Players must find Aventhor on each server and perform his quests to unlock the movie on YouTube. For more details on the premiere event, see the video at the end of the article -- and join us after the break for a peek behind the scenes with creator Benjamin Dressler.
Sam Raimi discusses Warcraft movie
Sam Raimi revealed quite a bit of information about his work on the Warcraft movie in a recent video interview with Collider.com at the Saturn Awards. Many promising things were said during the interview, but some points of interest include: Raimi and scriptwriter Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan, The Patriot) are working on a treatment for the film. So far they've written a 40-page document. Raimi is playing WoW to get a feel for the game world. He has a level 72 character. Legendary Pictures (Batman Begins, Inception) is excited about the project and Legendary Pictures founder and producer, Thomas Tull is a big fan of the game. The movie will be set entirely in the Warcraft universe. No video game component will exist in the film. (Thank Elune.) Raimi also addressed where he is at with the Oz prequel, a project he signed onto last week. Raimi is now currently signed on to direct both films, and though he does not provide any confirmation on which film he will direct first, in the interview he seems much more invested in the Warcraft film at the moment. He says in the interview, "well, right now, I'm not really committed to Oz. We're going to have to wait and see how that all goes, but I did read it. I love the script. I think it's a great project. It's something I'd like to become involved with." For the highlights from the interview, hit the jump.
Warcraft movie update: Metzen says "still getting it together"
It's been months since we've heard a peep on the Hollywood news lines about the Warcraft film or director Sam Raimi. When Spider-man 4 was canceled in January, there was speculation that Raimi might be headed to the Warcraft film next. A month later, we reported a rumor that Raimi's next project might not be Warcraft, but a film adaptation of The Shadow. Seeing as Sony let the rights to the film lapse in March, it doesn't sound like The Shadow is in any state of serious development; but it does raise the question of what exactly is Raimi up to right now? While we still have no exact answer to that, Chris Metzen gave us a small update on the film in an interview over at vg247 published yesterday. When asked if a considerable amount of time was being spent on the movie, Metzen replied, "I wouldn't say "considerable" at all just yet. We've been through a number of story meetings, and we're still kind of getting it together with Raimi and his team and jamming on themes that we want to chase." Sadly, the interview didn't reveal many specifics, but Metzen responded favorably when asked if he was concerned about dissappointing Warcraft fans: "Nobody wants to screw it up: we all want to hit it hard and have it be something that is as resonant and canonical as it can be. But given what Warcraft is, with all these moving parts, we're going to have to take some liberties here and there. I'm under no illusions about that fact ... " It's hard to draw any new or concrete conclusions from the interview, but it's good to see that the movie is still being talked about. WoW.com will keep you updated as we learn more.
Raimi tackling another movie before Warcraft
You remember the Warcraft movie, right? A couple weeks ago, we learned that Spiderman 4 had melted down, and director Sam Raimi, and the entire cast, are being swapped out while the Marvel Empire reboots the franchise. The link here is that Mr. Raimi is also the one who's directing the Warcraft film for Legendary Pictures. The Spiderman fiasco drew rumors that Warcraft was coming that much sooner, since Raimi was now free to work on it. However, news appeared yesterday that his next project is The Shadow, so it looks like we're going to have to be patient a little longer. But hey, we're Blizzard fans, right? We can be patient. And honestly, I'm still not convinced that a live-action Warcraft movie is a good idea. I mean, I like a lot of Raimi's work, and Legendary Pictures has made some great films, but... I dunno. We'll see.
What we know about the Warcraft movie
Last week, we reported that the Warcraft movie may be on its way. Previously there had been speculation that the film's development would be pushed back, since director Sam Raimi was tied up by problems with Spider-Man 4. Raimi then unexpectedly walked away from Spider-Man 4, citing creative reasons, and it suddenly looked hopeful that he might soon be turning his attention to the Warcraft film. So now, in preparation for more news on the film, we will be bringing you up to date on what we currently know about the Warcraft movie.
WoW Insider Show Episode 125 with Project Lore
Despite the fairly slow news week, we had a good WoW Insider Show podcast this Saturday, with Project Lore writers Tim "Heartbourne" Tusing and Jimmy "DJTyrant" Blocksom stopping by to offer their unique perspective on reader emails, the week's top stories, and having too little to talk about, for once. We discussed Sam Raimi's newfound freedom to work on the Warcraft movie, the Blizzard dev chat on Twitter, why tauren paladins really aren't that broken, and a myriad of other topics. As always, you can email theshow@wow.com to have your email answered on the air, and if you have any guests you'd like to see on the show (or you'd like to be a guest yourself!) you can get a hold of us the same way. Get the podcast: [iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes. [RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly. Listen here on the page:
