14 DAY TRIAL // The upcoming World of Warcraft movie has been talked about for so long that at one point nobody ever believed it would actually be made.
But thankfully, things picked up speed and the news regarding Legendary Pictures’ creation kept pouring, much to the delight of fans. Although video game tie-in movies news usually use the phrasing “much to the everyone’s chagrin,” there have been enough decent fantasy movies released over the last couple of years for there to be hope regarding the upcoming WoW film.
That being the case, the following piece of news will augur well: the movie just finished shooting today.
The announcement came from Duncan Jones, a well-known movie director whose most prominent directed titles are Moon and Souce Code. Oh, and starting now, World of Warcraft.
The movie aims to present the fantasy universe’s origin story, focusing on the beginning of the conflict between orcs and humans.
The project’s was apparently haunted by its many years spent in production, as its release date was pushed back from December 18, 2015, to March 11, 2016, which only seems like a couple of days in comparison to all the time spent waiting so far.
Truth be told, when the possibility of a World of Warcraft movie first surfaced on the Internet, Blizzard’s massively multiplayer online role playing game was about the hottest thing in gaming.
By the time the movie will be out, most of the people who still remember the original story will be long dead, and unless the producers somehow figure how to tie in some “match three” mythos into the orcs’ rich history of shamanism, the movie will hardly feel relevant to anyone.
Just kidding, hopefully the movie will be great and will do the entire Warcraft universe justice. There certainly is hope for this one, especially when taking into account Duncan Jones’ filmography and the fact that both he and the movie’s special effects supervisor have actually played the game long before joining the movie crew.
The movie industry has also evolved a lot since the awkward days of Dungeons & Dragons, realizing that offering a good story crafted by people who know what they’re talking about trumps presenting a laughably bad one with ham-fisted attempts at re-creating what those silly kids with many-faceted dice and no friends fantasize about. And torturing Jeremy Irons on top of that.
The panel introducing the movie at last year’s Blizzcon advertised the World of Warcraft film as being a sort of Avatar meets Game of Thrones affair, and “something closer to Gladiator than something like the Chronicles of Narnia films.” Which sounds like potentially the best fantasy movie ever made.