14 DAY TRIAL // Ben Foster, an actor best known for his appearances in movies like 3:10 to Yuma and Lone Survivor, has announced that he will play the role of Medivh the Mage in the World of Warcraft movie and has offered some details on what fans of the MMO will be able to get from the coming film.
He tells IGN that, "He's a mage, which is essentially a sorcerer. He came up in a time protecting an area, and the way he protected this area was through magic. As peace returned to this land he took a break. He hung up his staff, so to speak, or let his guns get dusty. We meet him as his friends are returning asking for his help in a battle."
Ben Foster says that director Duncan Jones has taken care to explore both sides of the conflict that sits at the heart of the World of Warcraft universe, trying to show elements that the video game world has not captured.
The actor also believes that the movie will benefit greatly from the work done by ILM, the visual effects studio that is tasked with bringing the world of the franchise to life.
He adds, "The way that they're pushing motion-capture - I just saw some of the test footage - it's unlike anything I've ever seen. It's performance-capture. It pushes it to the next level. It's going to be one helluva 3D event."
Ben Foster says that Medivh is not motion captured, but that many of the creatures seen in the World of Warcraft movie are created entirely from scratch and designed to be visually stunning.
The film is set to be delivered on March 11, 2016 and until then, Duncan Jones and his team will edit the movie and add the various special effects required.
This year, fans of the MMO World of Warcraft will be able to explore new areas of the game world in the coming Warlords of Draenor expansion, which will feature the Outland and will also introduce a wide variety of new content that will be useful for guilds.
The Blizzard-made title is at the moment the most successful subscription-based MMO on the market, despite the fact that it has been constantly losing players for a number of years.
Rumors are suggesting that the development team is planning to deliver another expansion before switching to a more popular free-to-play business model.