The World of Warcraft movie, which was unofficially confirmed back in January, has now totally, officially been announced. At today's Comic-Con panel Warner Bros. screened test footage from the film, which will be directed by Moon and Source Code's Duncan Jones.
Described by those in the room as a faithful adaptation of the video game world, the movie-- called Warcraft in the teaser-- is set to start production early next year. The footage showed off footage of a warrior wielding a sword and shield who faces down an orc. "Like if someone thought, 'What if Leone made a sword and sorcery movie on a blasted alien planet?" tweeted Russ Fischer. Here's how Eric describes what he saw from inside Hall H:
A warrior is roaming an empty desert with a shield on his back. The greenish sky is covered by dark clouds and lightning. He sees a pile of armor on the ground and kneels down to pick up a shield. He then takes his sword and begins to beat it against the shield, as though calling someone out. We then see a green beast from behind holding a giant hammer. The two circle each other and then both charge. As they are about to collide the title appears: Warcraft.
When the Warcraft movie news broke in January we turned to the nearest WoW fan we could find and asked him about the prospect of turning a sprawling video game world like that into a single film. Given that people who play the game identify as either the Alliance or Horde, and that there's no clear-cut story already set within the universe, he sees some major challenges in encapsulating the world without alienating the game's long-term fans:
To me what makes WoW interesting is the lore, is the history. If you're not going to really utilize that in a movie adaptation, I don't see the point. Christ, I've been playing Warcraft games since fifth grade, so that's what—twenty years? I don't know how you encompass this expansive world in a single film. But there's a lot of different time periods within the span of these games. Maybe it'd work if they set it during one of the first wars. I just don't know. Tolkien also had a whole world that he established with his works, but again it had a clean story with established good guys and bad guys. WoW doesn't necessarily work that way.
It's worth noting that Hollywood has been trying to make a Warcraft movie since 2006. The project has been through stops and starts, at one point Steven Spielberg was even rumored to be directing it. Later Sam Raimi took over only to drop the project back in 2012. This time, though, it's the real deal. Meanwhile Duncan Jones is no Steven Spielberg (yet), but he's an up and coming director of obvious talent with strong ties to the geek community which is most likely to turn up to see a Warcraft movie. He's directed two critically acclaimed sci-fi movies, thus far, in the independently produced Moon and the 2011 blockbuster Source Code. Check out a two samples of his work embedded below...
Official Trailer For Moon
Official Trailer For Source Code
What do you guys think? Do the positive reports about the Warcraft movie's Comic-Con footage convince you one way or another? Hop into the comments and let us know, and stay tuned for much more from this epic day of news in Hall H. If the World of Warcraft test footage itself makes its way online in any legal way-- we're not hopeful, but you never know-- we'll have it for you here as well. Director Jones tweeted a tease about a "gift" for his followers, but we're not going to get our hopes up for footage for the moment.
