[X] My Assistant

[Grave]

While the crowd was still reeling with the news of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion and the introduction of the updated Terran race for Starcraft II, Blizzard finished their one-two combo with the announcement that the live-action Warcraft movie is tentatively scheduled for release in 2009. Due to Blizzard's knack for shunning schedules, we're hoping this film will see the light of day before 2020.

During the panel discussion, Creative Director Chris Metzen and Chief Operating Officer Paul Samms introduced Jon Jashni and Thomas Tull, of Legendary Films, the company behind 300 and Batman Begins. Blizzard and Legendary have begun pre-production on the Warcraft movie, admitting that it is early days yet.

Metzen said that Blizzard had been looking for a production company to help create a movie from one of Blizzard's many franchises for over five years, but kept running into studio executives who felt a fantasy movie wouldn't attract moviegoers.

"Does anybody think fantasy movies work well?" Metzen asked the crowd, to roaring approval.

As for fans that fear that Hollywood will sacrifice the lore and canon of the Warcraft universe for a quick buck, both Metzen and Tull were quick to reassure them.

"This is not a video game movie, it's just based upon, inspired by, the World of Warcraft," said Tull.

The story will happen roughly one year before the action starts in World of Warcraft, and will focus on Azeroth through the alliance's eyes. Metzen was firm that the lore and continuity will not be changed so much as merged - main plots from the history of the world will be brought into one story. Familiar faces such as Thrall, Bolvar Fordragon and Jaina Proudmoore will be featured, as well as a new hero that Metzen remained tightlipped about.

Metzen assured the crowd that the look of the film will reflect the WoW universe as much as possible, and that careful attention was being paid to the armor sets, items, and the world art kit in its entirety so that the movie will retain the World of Warcraft ambiance.

The movie will be live-action and has been approved for upwards of a $100 million dollar budget, and though no names have been attached to the project, Thomas Tull, chairman and CEO of Legendary, says he has been fielding calls from actors and directors already interested in the film.

However, Metzen did say "I don't think we've contacted Chuck Norris yet."

~Source

Blizzard and its filmic partner Legendary Pictures today revealed a few more details of their upcoming live-action movie based on the Warcraft franchise.

Legendary Pictures' Thomas Tull described the movie as "big," with a budget of over $100 million. "We're not gonna make some cheesy little.. I don't even know what a good example is," he said. Shouts of "Doom" erupted from the crowd. "I'm not gonna give any examples," Tull said after a laugh.

"We're shooting for 2009," Tull added, before handing the stage over to Blizzard creative director Chris Metzen, who immediately began to outline the direction of the project.

"Honestly, the story that we're running with at this point, we wanted it to be relevant to the experience of WoW players," Metzen said. "Not necessarily buried in thousands of years of continuity. We wanted it to be, well, recent. The story takes place about a year before WoW begins. You're likely to see a lot of races you've played, the lands you know. The story really is a number of main plot points kind of rolled into a really strong two, two and a half hour tale."

In terms of specifics, Metzen revealed that there will be a new central hero character, that he described as "pretty bad ass."

"Ultimately we're approaching it like a movie like X-Men, with a lot of important beats... It's a sequence of events that is really exciting. It's kind of a re-imagining of recent plot points. Thematically it's about cultures and conflict. In this world, why does the violence never end?"

When asked whether the film will truly follow a Lord of the Rings model in its story, Metzen replied: "It's actually not like the great adventure. It's not so much a quest movie. It's more of a war movie. Well, okay, it's absolutely a war movie. Cultures grinding up to a horrible moment where it just all spills over and gets out of control. Less of an adventure party quest-type situation. More of an armies building to an inevitable conclusion type situation."

As far as the story goes, Metzen replied to a question by stating that the movie will be told from the Alliance's perspective. "Principally it's told from the Alliance perspective." Boos and cheers followed. "My heart lies with the horde. Thrall is a pretty interesting character."

Metzen commented that in a blockbuster production has to take certain things into consideration, until a fan shouted out "SHREK!" as an example of a movie told from an orc-like hero's eyes. Metzen was temporarily speechless. Finally Metzen commented, "Yeah, Shrek's a pretty good example--for a kid's movie. For a kid's comedy. Ohh!"

In a discussion around direction and casting, the creative heads let it be known that no decisions had been made at this point. Tull pointed out that the movie probably would not need recognizable actors in order to be successful, pointing to his company's recent film Superman Returns as an example.

To illustrate this point, Tull recounted a story where he and Superman star Brandon Routh were flying on a plane together. As Tull was sealing the Warcraft deal over the phone, Routh asked, "Wait a minute, you know the Warcraft guys? Can you get me a tour of the Warcraft thing?"

For those worried about green blood and toned-down content, Tull reassured the fans that the movie won't be rated PG. Shouts of "RRRRRRRR!" echoed throughout the hall, until Tull finally elaborated on the subject, hinting that PG-13 is a likely compromise.

"I can tell you that this is the one thing about running a studio and making these things that's hard," he said. "You want to not compromise and have the right level of intensity. The story and the director's vision is what's ultimately gonna dictate that. Personally one of my favorite movies of all time is Lord of the Rings, which has a PG-13 rating."

Just as fans were standing to leave their seats, Tull unveiled a surprise: the first concept art from pre-production, depicting the elven home of Teldrassil.

~Source

At BlizzCon today, representatives from Blizzard and Legendary Pictures hosted a panel on the upcoming WarCraft film adaptation, giving attendees an update on the film's progress and addressing fan concerns with a follow-up Q&A session. On hand were Paul Sams and Chris Metzen Blizzard Entertainment and, from Legendary Pictures, CEO Thomas Tull and Chief Creative Officer Jon Jashni. In addition to confirming that the Warcraft movie will be a live action film, with a yet to be determined level of computer generated environments and effects, Jashni told the crowd they're still working toward a 2009 release date.

Sams, Metzen and Jashni made it a regular point to express their wishes to "not... create another video game movie" but to "create an epic." And while some fans may have taken pause at Jashni's reasoning that "we can't just make a movie for the 9 million World of Warcraft subscribers", it was clear that all four were passionate about bringing the mythology of Warcraft to the big screen as faithfully as possible.

The panel invoked the name of Legendary Pictures' recent hits Batman Begins and 300 as indicative of the quality of the $100 million-plus feature film. They also dropped names like Braveheart and the Lord of the Rings trilogy when discussing their vision for the Warcraft movie's action scenes.

For how intense those scenes will be, and what rating they're shooting for, Metzen said "It's hard for us to predict what happens. You want to not compromise and you want to have the intensity." Addressing concerns over a Nerfed fantasy war movie, he explained, "The story and the director's vision will ultimately decide that. We're definitely not going to make a G or a PG version of this. It's not PillowfightCraft."

Warcraft is still in the scripting process, but Metzen reported that they have something that they're happy with. The plot was kept under wraps but Metzen told the crowd it would take place about a year before the events of World of Warcraft.

The storyline is "principally told from the Alliance perspective." After revealing that detail, and waiting for the Horde aligned players to finish their booing, Metzen explained "While my heart lies with the Horde and Thrall's an interesting character, from a movie making standpoint, a blockbuster movie its a little rough to try and tell it from the perspective of this green looking dude."

"What about Shrek?!" a Blizzconner yelled. A busted Metzen quipped "Shrek's a good example. For a kids comedy."

According to Jashni, no director has been attached. "We are starting those conversations. We're going to be looking for someone of [300 director Zak Snyder or Batman Begins director Chris Nolan's] caliber," said Metzen. They snickered at a crowd member's suggestion for Uwe Boll, commenting only on the infamous director's recent boxing match.

With no director comes no casting news. That process hasn't been started yet, but when asked about whether they'd be looking for "big name Hollywood actors" or "fresher faces", Jashni played coy, only saying that "because there's a lot of interest in Warcraft, we've gotten a lot of interesting phone calls."

Following another fan suggestion, Metzen says they haven't yet contacted Chuck Norris for a role or cameo.

Jashni then recounted a story that involved Superman Returns star Brandon Routh accosting him upon hearing of his involvement with Blizzard, with Routh asking "Do you know the Warcraft guys?! Can you get me a tour of [their office]?"

By the end of the panel, we hadn't learned much in the way of concrete details, as much of the film is simply too early in production to talk about. As a sort of apology for being so vague, panel speakers showed one of the first pieces of concept artwork for the film.

~Source

[Big Bidoof]

Fuck. No. kthx

Seriously, no. Just no. plz nonononononononononononono

[MCRrock3r]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

[Grave]

I'm just interested in the $100 million budget. o:

[Lester Burnham]

What next? Runescape: The Movie?

[Guest_Dark Knight_*]

The first five movies in this series will just be some underpowered character running around killing rats to level up, so that the sixth movie can have some halfway decent action.

[AaronJ]

Won't be seeing Edwin VanCleef for 4 or 5 years huh? lol sad...

[True Blue Singap...]

WOW.