Duncan Jones' Warcraft - Part 1

[Thread Manager]

This is a continuation thread, the old thread is [split]461955[/split]

 

[Galactus]

World of Warcraft to the Big Screen
Source: Variety May 9, 2006


Warner Bros.-based Legendary Pictures has picked up film rights to adapt the popular fantasy video game franchise World of Warcraft and will develop the project with game publisher Blizzard Entertainment, which is owned by Vivendi.

While the "Warcraft" franchise has been around for more than a decade, the most recent iteration, the megahit online title "World of Warcraft," has transformed the video game industry.

Unlike most games, where players pay $50 once and play until they're done, more than 6 million people around the world pay $14.99 per month to participate in the multiplayer game.

Legendary put up half the money for Warners' Batman Begins and the upcoming Superman Returns.

 

[titansupes]

It is a made up thing to say that every film looks gritty and realistic. It's just a flat out made up complaint.

Absolutely right.

 

[SerialPeacemake]

What do you do in the game?

Which one ? Those two are in completely different genres altogether,one is real time strategy(RTS) and the other is a massively multiplayer online role-playing games(MMORPG).You're basially doing the opposite of what you're doing in each game.

 

[Silvermoon]

Since we're in a new thread... just reposting some of the recent media released:

Poster:

15 second Tease for the Trailer:

https://youtu.be/iRvwoDN0DXo


Screenshots from Tease (http://silver-wolf581.tumblr.com/post/132486741286/warcraft-teaser-tease-x):

 

[Silvermoon]

And gifs...

 

[Drz]

I hate the design of the "orc" in the poster. So much. That doesn't even look like anything resembling an orc, it just looks like a man with a fake huge tooth sticking out. I would've expected the people making a big-budget movie to at least make the orcs look more like non-human (talking) monsters, and less like human actor stand-ins. WTF were they thinking?

This is an orc, not that sorry excuse for one in the movie poster:

You have to remember that they don't want to show the Orcs as evil monsters anymore, hence why he has human eyes and everything.

 

[Silvermoon]

You have to remember that they don't want to show the Orcs as evil monsters anymore, hence why he has human eyes and everything.

I think, also, the fact that they desaturated most of the poster so that the colored face paint stood out more - plus only seeing half the face - may be affecting how 'orcish' that character looks. Other images that recently surfaced:

I'm quite happy with how the orcs look (and the thing also to remember is that they're starting this movie before the orcs have been 'tainted' (which resulted in their skin turning from brown to green - if I remember my lore correctly - but admit I could be mistaken)).

 

[StarLord]

Director Duncan Jones: Warcraft isn't only for hardcore fans

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: It seems like you’re having quite a day on the Internet.
It’s been fun. We’ve been working on this thing for such a long time, and finally, finally, we’re getting a chance to show people things. It’s edifying that the people we made this for are liking it so far.

So the obsessive screenshots I’m seeing, is that a surprise to you at this point?
I kind of expected it [laughs]. I must admit that it’s a lot of fun to see people who are into Warcraft and are aware of it starting to identify things and pick out Easter eggs and recognize a world that, for a lot of them, they’ve been spending a lot of time in themselves. I think there is a unique enjoyment that those fans will get out of the films, beyond what I believe is a really solid, enjoyable fantasy film in its own right.

How does the extra scrutiny from the fans make you feel?
There have definitely been phases where it’s been nerve-racking to make sure that we do them justice and don’t have any clangers or make major mistakes. We’ve always been fortunate. I’ve been working very closely with Blizzard, who obviously know the game inside out, and a number of my key crew members and myself were long-time players. We felt good that we’d be coming from the right place.

What were the conversations about how faithful this film should be to the games?
I am someone who played Warcraft, but at the same time, I consider myself a filmmaker first. I think one of the reasons why it’s taken so long for this film to come together the way it has is that there were a lot of priorities and a lot of concerns about what this film needed to be and how it absolutely had to be something that you could approach and watch if you didn’t know anything about Warcraft. That was really that tricky line to walk, making sure that the fans would really feel that it’s their world and at the same time introduce it in a way to people who know nothing about it. That’s why it took such a long time. Peter Jackson went through this with The Fellowship of the Ring. There was always going to be a hardcore fanbase for Tolkien that was going to take him to task if he didn’t address things in a way that stayed true to the spirit of Tolkien’s work. Obviously, we don’t have the amount of history that Tolkien does. It’s a different fanbase, somewhat overlapping. We have the same passion amongst our fans, so it was a similar job.

Just as Tolkien inspired fantasy literature, modern fantasy films have all followed in the wake of Jackson’s films. How did those affect your process?
It’s interesting. I think there are different schools of fantasy from different parts of the world. Tolkien and, to a certain extent, Warcraft have a similar genetic starting place through European myth and folklore. I also think Warcraft has had the opportunity because it’s come together in a much smaller world, as far as our communication amongst cultures these days. It has included an awful lot more in it.

What’s the difference between presenting at BlizzCon and Comic-Con?
It’s very different because they’re absolutely audiences looking for different things. I think the BlizzCon crowd is absolutely what we would call our hardcore crowd. Those are the people who know the world and the stories and are looking for a reflection of things they’ve experienced being in that world themselves. It’s like whenever I see a film that has London in it, I want to feel like that’s the London I know and not some made-up thing made in Montreal or something. Comic-Con is very different. It is a comics convention at its heart, so I think there’s always going to be a particular soft spot for films rooted in comic books. I don’t really know, but I kind of get a sense that there’s a bit of a rivalry there between videogames as potentially being the new up-and-comers as content for films, and comic books, which are obviously at their high point right now. There’s an interesting rivalry there, I think.

What’s your feeling about fans picking out Warcraft and Assassin’s Creed as the two films that could break the videogame movie curse?
There are a couple of things. One thing I would say is that that stigma used to be attached to comic book movies too. It took a generation of filmmakers who loved and were raised on comic books to make movies that you actually cared about and felt something for. I think that’s absolutely the same with what’s going on with videogame movies. I am absolutely of the videogames generation, starting on the Atari and Commodore 64 and the Amiga. I’m a gamer at heart and always have been. I’m also a filmmaker. I think my sensibilities about storytelling and character just automatically come into play when I’m trying to work on any kind of narrative. For me, it doesn’t really matter what the source of the narrative is. I will be looking for ways to make it into an intriguing story with empathetic characters.

What were the big challenges in putting together this first trailer?
We’ve got an awful lot of introducing to do, both in this movie and inviting audiences in to come see this movie. There’s an entirely new world, new characters. This is beyond the Warcraft faithful, who know what it is that we’re talking about. Also, what kind of subject matter is it? What kind of fantasy is it? There will be different pieces that we have to address over the seven months until our film comes out. Right now, we just want to give everyone a sense of the breadth of the world, the kind of action that’s involved, and a sense of the energy of the movie. As we go along, I’m sure we’ll be introducing people to the broader spectrum of what this big, big film is.

Are you done-done with film?
I am done-done. I’m hoping and looking forward to potentially working on an indie sci-fi thing of my own quite soon. We’re ready to roll. We were really excited by the move to the date in June that we’re on now because it’s the same day that Jurassic World came out. From my perspective, I think that’s a good sense of Universal’s faith in us. Originally, we were on this December date, and then Star Wars came and sat on it. If you know me online, you know that Rian [Johnson] and I have a very good-humored rivalry about his Star Wars movies what I’m doing with Warcraft. I’m pretty much done, and I’m excited to potentially squeeze in another indie before I come back for more.

Do you just watch Warcraft on your phone because you can?
Right now, I feel really bad for my wife because I keep on playing the teaser trailer and seeing what people are saying about it. It’s absolutely self-destructive behavior, but I think today I’m just going to give myself the day off to do that kind of thing. We’ve been waiting nearly three years now to see what people think of what we’ve been doing. I’ve just been enjoying the excitement.

 

[Consona]

What do you do in the game?

- In real time strategy games, you are a commander of your forces, you build your base and expansions, you gather the resources, gold from mines and lumber from forests, you build units and heroes (in WCIII) and than you fight...
You can play campaign, which is a story mode, or you can just fight AI or players on multiplayer maps.

Here are some videos to help you understand what's going on:
WarCraft III Frozen Throne multiplayer: Orc vs Night Elf
WarCraft 2 multiplayer: Human vs Orc
Here is campaign (but the resolution is 1920x1080 so it looks a little bit weird)
WarCraft III Reign of Chaos: Human Campaign #1 - The Defense of Strahnbrad

- In World of WarCraft, you are just a guy in the world, you choose your race, like a Human, Orc, Tauren, Night Elf, etc., than your class: Warrior, Mage, Warlock, Rogue, for example, and then you do quests, kill creatures, travel, craft, etc...
Let's Play WoW (Blood Elf Mage)

 

[jokesonm3]

Anyone here brought a Blizzcon Virtual Ticket yet or is actually going to Blizzcon?

 

[Rowsdower!]

I find it funny that I have friends bashing the CGI in this movie, yet they love Del Toro's last two films.

 

[Napoleon]

^Not to mention people fawn over the current wave of superhero films.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

"It is a made up thing to say that every film looks gritty and realistic. It's just a flat out made up complaint"

Did somebody say that?

 

[Rowsdower!]

^Not to mention people fawn over the current wave of superhero films.

Yeah, I mean, generally I think most of the recent superhero films look pretty good but even they have their spotty moments. A lot of the CGI in Ant-Man looked really fake to me, for example.

 

[terry78]

When it comes to CG in fantasy properties you have to have a little suspension of belief, as we don't know how it would look in real life. Now when they use CG for real world things and it looks bad, that is lazy.

 

[Rowsdower!]

Pretty much how I feel. I mean, I hope that this movie doesn't just look like a video game cinematic. But I can accept if things don't look 100% real in shots as long as there's no Legolas-running-on-falling-Super-Mario-blocks scene.

 

[Octoberist]

Yeah, the only thing that really bothered me was the wolf attack shot. It reminds me of the Hobbit's lesser CGI scenes. Maybe it's not fair because it's in motion and blurry but it didn't have any weight.

Hopefully they can polish that, along with some of the weird green screen compositions.

 

[TheDarkCreed86]

I like how the director says he'll do an indie film before jumping right back into warcraft Me personally, I would love to see Warcraft 2, that is where i first got into the world and its the game that started to true horde vs alliance war.

 

[TheDarkCreed86]

Ooh and I really hope part 3 will be Beyond the Dark Portal....

 

[Whiskey Tango]

Yeah, I mean, generally I think most of the recent superhero films look pretty good but even they have their spotty moments. A lot of the CGI in Ant-Man looked really fake to me, for example.

It looks fake sometimes because it isn't real. Special effects have required audience buy-in since the very beginning of film. CGI doesn't change that.

Although one is reminded of how good CGI can be when it isn't trying to model living things. Like that Youtube vid that shows all the rendered skylines and scenery on tv shows that goes entirely unnoticed by most of us.

Yeah, the only thing that really bothered me was the wolf attack shot. It reminds me of the Hobbit's lesser CGI scenes. Maybe it's not fair because it's in motion and blurry but it didn't have any weight.

Hopefully they can polish that, along with some of the weird green screen compositions.

The weight thing is the worst. No one complains about popcorn hobbits more than I. Rendered people jumping and moving in general nearly always looks awful to me.

If this film has a lot of that then I will certainly type angry things at it. But I'm not really seeing much of it in this short teaser on my tiny phone screen. Nor am I seeing an abundance of teal and orange but w/e.

I'm wondering if some of the people complaining about the CGI aren't just unnerved by the character designs or the general Warcrafty aesthetic instead?

 

[Octoberist]

It looks fake sometimes because it isn't real. Special effects have required audience buy-in since the very beginning of film. CGI doesn't change that.

Although one is reminded of how good CGI can be when it isn't trying to model living things. Like that Youtube vid that shows all the rendered skylines and scenery on tv shows that goes entirely unnoticed by most of us.



The weight thing is the worst. No one complains about popcorn hobbits more than I. Rendered people jumping and moving in general nearly always looks awful to me.

If this film has a lot of that then I will certainly type angry things at it. But I'm not really seeing much of it in this short teaser on my tiny phone screen. Nor am I seeing an abundance of teal and orange but w/e.

I'm wondering if some of the people complaining about the CGI aren't just unnerved by the character designs or the general Warcrafty aesthetic instead?

The one thing I liked about the first Amazing Spider-Man was that Marc Webb wanted the CG Spidey to have weight as he swings. So his body has a jerkiness to his movements. Like as he swings he has to struggle to move his body forward in the direction he wants to go.

Then they ditched that in Amazing Spidey 2 and that was a mistake.

 

[terry78]

The ****ing CG Yogi Bear from 2010 looked more plausible than that orc wolf.

 

[Marvolo]

The one thing I liked about the first Amazing Spider-Man was that Marc Webb wanted the CG Spidey to have weight as he swings. So his body has a jerkiness to his movements. Like as he swings he has to struggle to move his body forward in the direction he wants to go.

Then they ditched that in Amazing Spidey 2 and that was a mistake.

The web swinging in ASM1 was awful. I was glad they improved it for ASM2.

 

[Solidus]

Well as a long time WarCraft fan (WarCraft II is still one of my favorite games of all time) I'm excited, and after seeing the footage, I'm really excited. I love Jones so I cannot wait to see what he brings. We may finally get the first good video game adaptation.