So for those that don’t know, the fabled Warcraft Universe is being transformed into a Hollywood movie with a release set for sometime in 2015. For the most part, that’s pretty much all anyone has known for quite sometime, however during BlizzCon 2013’s Warcraft Movie presentation, a heck of a lot more information was released regarding the setting and more.
Director Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) first read the script when it was a very Human and Alliance centric story, which for anyone who knows and loves the Warcraft Universe knows this wouldn’t work. He states “It’s about both sides. It’s going to be Red and Blue” and wants the audience to feel for the Orc heroes just as much as they do the Human ones. Bill Westenhofer, Academy award-winning special effects supervisor, is also a huge fan of the series, having played since the original 2004 Alpha Test he has spoke of the Orcs as being real human actors in makeup – not CGI. During the panel Q&A, he compared the tone of the film to Gladiator, also commenting on props that “The swords that are being built are the biggest swords a human being can wield.” Which, for anyone who has played a Warcraft game should know will fit into the universe very very well. Other notable names in the production are Mayes Rubeo, costume designer for Apocalypto and Avatar, who will be handling costumes and Simon Duggan of I, Robot and The Great Gatsby handling cinematography.
So where exactly in Azeroth are we going? Well, the panel also released some Concept Art which you can check out below:
Draenor. Home of the Orcs.
Dalaran, floating city of Magic.
Ironforge, City of Dwarves.
Stormwind City, Seat of the Alliance.
From the comments made during the Q&A, it seems as though the movie will be focused largely in the Eastern Kingdoms of Azeroth. That being said, they’re not just looking at the cities of Azeroth for inspiration, they’re also looking at trees, leaves, rocks etc with Westenhofer regularly logging into his character to grab reference shots.
So with all this talk of location/setting, what is the story? Well, no actors have been officially announced yet other than Director Duncan Jones stating “Yup!” when queries if a cast had been picked out. But some character names have been announced. It will be the story of Anduin Lothar versus Durotan who were Human and Orc heroes from the original RTS games, or for those that know the Lore, set during the Second War. The film being described by Jones as an ‘Origin Story’ touching on the first contact of Lothar and Durotan. Jones also said that whilst he couldn’t reveal further details about Warcraft‘s cast of characters, he did state that for fans who know their lore, the film offers “the opportunity for some very strong female characters.”
With all of that new information, I guess we just need to wait and see what other information will be revealed as well. At least we have a point in time where the movie will be set, a point which sounds like it could very, VERY much work out well for an origin story of sorts. Whilst it’s not the pure origin story, it is a great part in time to show both the Horde and Alliance as neutral factions (well as neutral as they can be) and not the typical Good vs Evil mentality, but more showing a struggle that has heroes on both sides of the track. The movie begins filming in Vancouver early next year.
Information sourced from Polygon.