With his debut feature Moon< director Duncan Jones really only had Sam Rockwell to worry about as far as actors went. He moved onto about four or five major players for 2011’s Source Code, and will undoubtedly be dealing with a lot more for his next film, Warcraft, the potentially epic adaptation of the insanely popular game franchise. The film’s cast has grown by two today, as Hong Kong actor Daniel Wu (The Man With the Iron Fists) and veteran supporting actor Clancy Brown (The Green Mile) have both signed onto the Universal and Legendary Pictures production.
The two actors join the previously announced Ben Foster (Kill Your Darlings), Travis Fimmel (Vikings), Robert Kazinsky (True Blood), Toby Kebbell (Wrath of the Titans) and Paula Patton (2 Guns). While there is unquestionably a high level of talent present within this group, it’s not exactly your typical tentpole cast and doesn’t seem to have quite the star power that draw in neutral audiences who aren’t interested in the source material.
It doesn’t help that we don’t really know what this movie is even going to be about. We know that there are going to be a lot of magic and spells, plus a healthy dose of Orcs to keep things ugly and interesting. Otherwise, all we have to go on are rumors that involve a hero and his mentor trying to save a city from a rash of crimes. There are also a King and his lady and others involved, but speculation about how all of these characters might fit together isn’t worth very much at this point.
Wu, a popular leading man in China for many years, recently starred in Stephen Fung’s dual action adventures Tai Chi Hero and Tai Chi Zero. He recently made himself familiar with sci-fi audiences in Sebastián Cordero’s indie docu-thriller Europa Report. I think it’s safe to say his career will see a lot more English roles if Warcraft manages to reach expectations.
Brown, who has made quite a lucrative career for himself doing voicework for animated series, most recently starred in Don Coscarelli’s bizzaro adaptation of the David Wong novel John Dies at the End, the guitarist Slash-produced horror Nothing Left to Fear, and the southern drama Homefront. He’s completely out of this world in the highly blasphemous horror comedy Hellbenders, as you can see in the clip below.
According to THR, Warcraft is set to go into production in Vancouver starting in January, with a release date set for March 11, 2016. Do you guys think there are enough stars in this movie to make it a box office success?
