It has been six months since the official announcement of the first Warcraft movie, and although some specifics are a little scarce, we now know quite a bit about the outline of the movie and what we might expect when it is finally released.
Fanfare - The movie is being directed by Sam Raimi. His resume includes the first three Spiderman movies (he is rumoured to have walked out on the fourth) Scream and (if you are old enough to remember) the excellent Evil Dead. This inital announcement shows that this is no mini-budget tie-in or rip off. This is being seen as a major movie release with serious production and directorial values.
The writer is Robert Rodat. He wrote Saving Private Ryan. Apparently, the story goes that he was "inspired" to write the Ryan screenplay when he realised his son's birthday was 6th June (D-Day). Let's hope nothing of importance happens on Ester Sunday during the writing of Warcraft, or we could have bunnies and chocolate eggs everywhere.
New Zealand is being cited as the most likely venue for the outdoor filming. This makes some sense, there is enough of New Zealand to go around, and the aspects certainly evoke an "Azerothian" feel to me.
The earliest possible release is late 2011. That's almost two years time. It is far more likely however that the film will be out in 2012. Why? Because this reviewer feels that whatever the expansion after Cataclysm is, it will be out in late 2012. My betting the two will be released together, and there will be a synergy between them. Expect Lore to be advanced and concepts inter-changed between the film and whatever the fourth expansion turns out to be.
With the director and writer in place we can expect an action based movie to be the result. LotR was a quest movie with action in it. Warcraft will be an action movie with some quest and plot advancement in it. That's speculation for now, but with the pedigree of the writer and director (not to mention the production company) it seems far more likely that we will see a lot of hack and slash (and whizz and puff for the magic users out there)
Some things are still very uncertain though. There is currently no view on who will star in the movie. Certain names have been put forward in the last six weeks, then quickly denied., It's unlikely that anyone has signed up for it yet, but expect a few major stars, some beefcake and some attractive ladies (I don't think I'm risking being wrong with this prediction).
The production company is Legendary Pictures of "300" and "Batman Begins". Again, fantastic news for those of us waiting for a real action movie with top notch production values. I'm just thankful that Michael Bay has nothing to do with it any more. A man that can turn any specific title into "generic mush" with his direction should be kept well away from this movie. With it now being clear that this man is no longer part of the Warcraft movie we can breath easily knowing that it's unlikely that our much beloved game will be turned into "ABC action movie on rails - with no regard to existing plot or Lore - made to showcase my special effects team Part 4" like most of Bay's output seems to be. Rant off.
We are back up and running now, and will continue to bring you the news on this movie, and anything else Warcraft as it happens.
Fanfare - The movie is being directed by Sam Raimi. His resume includes the first three Spiderman movies (he is rumoured to have walked out on the fourth) Scream and (if you are old enough to remember) the excellent Evil Dead. This inital announcement shows that this is no mini-budget tie-in or rip off. This is being seen as a major movie release with serious production and directorial values.
The writer is Robert Rodat. He wrote Saving Private Ryan. Apparently, the story goes that he was "inspired" to write the Ryan screenplay when he realised his son's birthday was 6th June (D-Day). Let's hope nothing of importance happens on Ester Sunday during the writing of Warcraft, or we could have bunnies and chocolate eggs everywhere.
New Zealand is being cited as the most likely venue for the outdoor filming. This makes some sense, there is enough of New Zealand to go around, and the aspects certainly evoke an "Azerothian" feel to me.
The earliest possible release is late 2011. That's almost two years time. It is far more likely however that the film will be out in 2012. Why? Because this reviewer feels that whatever the expansion after Cataclysm is, it will be out in late 2012. My betting the two will be released together, and there will be a synergy between them. Expect Lore to be advanced and concepts inter-changed between the film and whatever the fourth expansion turns out to be.
With the director and writer in place we can expect an action based movie to be the result. LotR was a quest movie with action in it. Warcraft will be an action movie with some quest and plot advancement in it. That's speculation for now, but with the pedigree of the writer and director (not to mention the production company) it seems far more likely that we will see a lot of hack and slash (and whizz and puff for the magic users out there)
Some things are still very uncertain though. There is currently no view on who will star in the movie. Certain names have been put forward in the last six weeks, then quickly denied., It's unlikely that anyone has signed up for it yet, but expect a few major stars, some beefcake and some attractive ladies (I don't think I'm risking being wrong with this prediction).
The production company is Legendary Pictures of "300" and "Batman Begins". Again, fantastic news for those of us waiting for a real action movie with top notch production values. I'm just thankful that Michael Bay has nothing to do with it any more. A man that can turn any specific title into "generic mush" with his direction should be kept well away from this movie. With it now being clear that this man is no longer part of the Warcraft movie we can breath easily knowing that it's unlikely that our much beloved game will be turned into "ABC action movie on rails - with no regard to existing plot or Lore - made to showcase my special effects team Part 4" like most of Bay's output seems to be. Rant off.
We are back up and running now, and will continue to bring you the news on this movie, and anything else Warcraft as it happens.
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