Slashdot Mirror
Warcraft Movie In The Works?
The New York Times is reporting that World of Warcraft maker Blizzard plans to make a big-screen adaptation of its very popular gameworld. From the article: "Many details of the film deal remained unsettled or undisclosed on Monday, including the choice of director, cast, the planned release date and the exact budget (rarely a firm number in the movie business anyway). But Blizzard and Legendary appeared united in wanting the project to be a major departure from Hollywood's undistinguished record in turning games into films. 'We try to make big, epic, immersive games at Blizzard, and we have a track record of making some of the best games in the world,'" Paul Sams, Blizzard's chief operating officer, said in an interview. 'Similarly, our goal is to make one of the best films in the world. With Legendary, they have a creative and management team that is so attuned with us it was like we were separated at birth. We want to make a movie that will not only appeal to our existing fans, but will also bring in people that have never heard of Warcraft before.'"
How is this news? Blizard have been working on this project in secrecy for quite some time - there's even a clip up at google video of short segment of the work.
;-)
The animation is fantastic - far above what I thought modern PCs were capable of producing
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
...just as long as it isn't directed by Uwe Boll.
The big, full-cast musical finale will be the runaway hit, "The Internet is for Porn".
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
If you've seen the CGI movies to any of Blizzard's games, you know that their ability to create 3D animation is astounding. Not only that, but it seems to only improve with time. I honestly believe they could be the 'Pixar' of mature content films.
0 618960777)
Why would they go for live action if they're so talented at this?
(Though it isn't my favorite, this is their introduction to Diablo II: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=869465555
"Joy is contagious," he said, peering into the microscope.
While I know this project has been in the works for awhile, I am wondering, though, if it will actually do any good at the box office. I would go see it, because I would personally expect it to be good, but the world of warcraft is huge, there is so much of it I would want to see, and characters from the game I would want to see acted out that I do not think they would be able to appeal to all gamers who enjoy the world. But that is just me. I would be happy with anything I suppose.
-- Josh
"Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me!" - Pete Conrad
In related news, Blizzard has announced that tickets to the show will only be available in 'raid' and 'mini-raid' packages of 40 and 20 tickets respectively. Fans going alone will only see the first 30 minutes of the movie.
Frankly, even if the broader constructs of WoW are "Tolkeinesque," I look forward to anything that even trys to be as good as the LOTR films were.
Lowes is about to become the ultimate RP server.
...But I digress. TREMBLE PUNY HUMANS!ONE DAY MY SPECIES WILL DESTROY YOU ALL!
I just hope they can get the guy who did all the voice overs in WCII to do some work on the movie.
"Don't you have a kingdom to run"? -Footman
"Stop rocking the boat! you're making me seasick *puking sound*" -Elven destroyer
"Yeeessss Massssterr" - Death Knight
"I'm the smart one! No, I'M the smart one!" - Ogre mage
The inverse of that statement is just as true.
Is that one of those things like the lame "Age of Aquarius" thing at the end of "The 40 Year Old Virgin"? WTF was that all about? The movie itself was hilarious, then it slams to a stop with a irrelevant ending where the whole cast starts dancing and singing some lame song. Some kind of self-referential movie producer humor that's only funny to other movie producers? Or what the hell was that for anyway? I wasted my time watching the whole thing waiting for some killer punch line to the end of it, but no, the credits roll, the movies over, fuck it, go home.
I dunno, I rather enjoyed the Resident Evil movies.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Well, with any epic action film like this there has to be a male female connection, and speculation on if its going to be cross race or cross faction? Tauren & Gnome? Where is the love going to be in this movie?
Will it be a pr0n movie with naked night elves ?
As long as they find a way to sneak in a line by a dopey sounding guy saying "Ready to Serve", I'll be happy.
The WarCraft series had quite a bit of personality prior to going MMORPG, and (although I haven't had a chance to play it) I would assume they have quite a large base of backstory to draw from in the World of WarCraft game.
Sounds interesting...
MTW
Stand in line for 90 minutes waiting for your ticket to be validated.
Then when you get into the theatre just as the action hots up random people are ejected forcefully and then forced to stand back in line outside.
Of course they want it to be big, they always do. Its not like it will be the first movie to hit the spot.
They are standing on the shoulders of such greats as Street Fighter, Tomb Raider, Pokemon and Doom..
liqbase
Naturally this movie is a hunter only item. If any one else tries to see it then they should be labled a ninja and booted from the theater.
I really liked the part where all the guys with the dragon loot caught the guy fresh off the farm and killed him. Then camped him for four hours. That was hillarious! Much better than when it happens to me in game.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
"Many details of the film deal remained unsettled or undisclosed on Monday, including the choice of director..."
My vote is for Uwe Boll.
Tat Tvam Asi
to see a sheep just explode randomly in the background of the movie.. I swear I wasted so much of my life being amused by that.
This is the obvious next step for Blizzard. Forget StarCraft II or even putting Ghost back into production. No one wants those; they want another crappy movie based on a video game.
It will be the best movie ever made... when it's finished 20 years from now. And tickets will cost $50. How is that Ghost project going again?
Blizzard, spend your money on infastructure upgrades first. This is a little more important to us, your subscribers of WoW.
Horde still suck.
- Just my $0.02, take with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary.
I'm interested, but I don't have a lot of time to go out to the movies these days. Can I pay someone in China to go see it for me?
While the gaming industry is getting more similar to the movie industry there are still differences that have been the bane of most game-based movies. I will optimistically have faith that Blizzard can navigate these pitfalls.
You only need to look at the stories and mini-movies in their games from the last five years: Diablo II chapter movie sequences are a good example. Ghost's story in Starcraft and the Undead Prince in Warcraft III are others.
I'd think they would have better luck making a Diablo movie first. I think the story is simpler, has more chances for pulling the audience in and obviously lots of opportunities for special effects and unique scenery. (Imagine a male barbarian, female paladin and male mage travel together.... oh wait, that's Conan. ;-)
Starcraft, too, would make a good movie.
The real questions that occur to me are:
-What time will they choose? (WC III, WoW, before?) Maybe there will just be lots of history explanation and flashbacks.
-What storylines will they follow? There are so many in WoW, but what is the "central" plot line?
-From which point of view will the movie be? I can guess Alliance, but it would be interesting if they did a second movie from the Horde perspective.
-Live action plus CGI special effects, or full digital animation? They'd get more general masses with live action, but they'd have the hardcore following of gamers and anime fans with full digital.
Regardless I think this will be worth seeing, and again, I trust that Blizzard will do a quality job. Let's hope the director and producer(s) they get listen to them.
Bungie's ham-fisted. Just listen to the voice acting on, say, Warcraft II, and tell me it wasn't painful. No way can that stand up to an hour and a half at theater volumes. I could hardly stand it for thirty seconds at a time in the game, just to hear the goals for that map.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
.. they do something about the ridiculous shoulderpads.
Blizzard has enough lore behind Azeroth at this point to rival Lord of the Rings - I think they could create a fantastic movie of it. I agree that they should use CGI for it though - they have some of the best drawn and most intriguing intro's to their games of any I've played.
You can get 15 minutes of fame, but you can go down in history for infamy.
The Alone in the Dark film will be released on DVD today in the US.
Video game films obviously have a bright future.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Internet is for porn.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
They should get some advice from raiding guilds =)
I'm wondering if Blizzard might set the movie during the current WoW timeframe and create an opportunity for a reverse Tie In. I have seen SWG and MxO fail dismally, despite the iconic status of the characters which exist in their respective franchises; however, Blizzard could offer a new level of interactive content.
Naturally, it would be easy to have players re-enact certain quests or events that occur in the movie, but Blizzard could also introduce content within the movie and have players explore it interactively within WoW. In addition, certain elements could be decided by in-game events and the eventual out come could be fleshed out in the film.
Personally I've always found the Blizzard cut scenes to be well done and extremely engaging. I'm more than willing to explore what they have to offer in terms of feature length content.
Respect It.
I can see it now. The film will only have sprocket holes every 20th frame or so. It will freeze up as it jumps on the sprockets of the projectors then rapidly spool back to the takeup reel. All the spells and attacks that were frozen onscreen will be cast in 1/24th of a second. Blizzard will blame it on the serice provider and say their film is "Working as intended, no fault found."
Then the 13 year old next to you ninja loots your popcorn.
Just because I rock, doesn't mean I'm made of stone...
We want to make a movie that will not only appeal to our existing fans, but will also bring in people that have never heard of Warcraft before.
And that is why it is going to suck.
You're missing the IMPORTANT part of the document!!!
:D /me is staying glued to her computer.
"Later this week, Blizzard is expected to announce details about an expansion pack for World of Warcraft, called the Burning Crusade."
WOOOT! MORE INFO ABOUT THE WISPS!!
~Star~
60 Priest
Kel'Thuzad
"There is a reason Linux is free"
~me~
They gotta have something to spend their millions of dollars on. They take in 50-90 million dollars a month. Their servers can't cost more than a million to run. Staff? Another million. You do the math.
I dunno if going the Hollywood live-action route is a good idea at all. They have 5M+ subscribers, do they really need to expand their audience? Nevermind relating to the other posts about whether or not their servers can handle expanding their market..
How about they just make another DVD of their own CGI? It's more of what we want to see than who they'll likely for actors, directors, locations, etc., and they could put in the voices that we're already familiar with.
Less risky too, since a flop in the box office could kill those hopes of expanding the market.
Yes, we understand these tags always apply: fud, dupe, typo, slashdotted, topic name
Previews... Authenicating... Handshaking... Connected... Title Credits... 10 minutes into the movie, DISCONNECTED 30 seconds later everyone will recieve a "World Server is Down" message 1 hour later a blue post will appear on the WoW forums stating that "This was inconvient timing, and that everyone with recieve an hour and a half credit to there accounts" "Resurrect Now?"
"... fade into snowy wooded glade, midafternoon. Lots of conieforus trees, bunnies hopping around, mountains in background, stone veranda visible on mountains. Focus on two wagons, with sevral dwarves standing by them. The main protagonist Urmomishot approaches the dwarves. Dwarf1: ! Dwarf2: ! Dwarf3: ! Urmomishot approaches Dwarf1 Dwarf1: Those hundreds of troggs over there have been giving me grief, please go kill 10 of them. Urmomishot approaches Dwarf2 Dwarf2: I have to deliver a package 30 metres down the road, but I'm lazy. Do it for me. Urmomishot approaches Dwarf3 Dwarf3: I need 15 pieces of wolfhide to make you a shirt you don't need. Go get me the hide. A gnome runs up. Gnome: Hey can u spar soem copr? kthxbye ..."
There's one other significant thing about Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. It just plain sucked. The plot was a rehash of a rehash of a rehash without a single original aspect. Oh look, hacknied and completely unoriginal characters who act in steriotypical ways! What a great concept for a movie!
The CG was the best thing about FF:TSW, and it really wasn't as great as what we can do now. But don't say that the Final Fantasy movie failed because it was CG, it failed because as a movie it was grade B crap.
"Mission Accomplished" -- George W. Bush May 1, 2003
I'd prefer it if they didn't focus on the war much, but rather used it as a background instead of trying to follow the whole war from start to finish. Someone else mentioned that the Jaina Proudmoore vs. her father storyline could be interesting. The fall and subsiquent redemption of Grom Hellscream might also be nice. Naturally they could just follow the fall of Arthus as outlined in the game, but for some reason that doesn't sound as interesting to me, don't know why.
"Mission Accomplished" -- George W. Bush May 1, 2003
WoW has an early quest where you get to beat up lazy orc peons who respond in typical lazy orc peon fashion, quite fun.
http://www.blizzard.com/press/060509.shtml
IRVINE, Calif. -- May 9, 2006 -- Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. and Legendary Pictures today announced that they have entered into an agreement to develop a live-action film based on Blizzard Entertainment®'s award-winning Warcraft® universe. Based on the terms of the agreement, Legendary Pictures has acquired the movie rights for the best-selling game universe, and both companies are now focused on translating the high-quality Warcraft entertainment experience to the big screen.
http://www.current.tv/studio/media/211
I can see the movie reviews now:
The visuals are beautiful (I especially enjoyed the scenery of the land called Mulgore), and the soundtrack is filled with catchy tunes. But I couldn't understand half of the dialogue. What does 'kk' mean? And what about the mysterious words 'WTS [Warden Staff],' 'LFG UBRS need lock/mage/healer!!!!', and '60 flaged rouge @ XR', not to mention 'WTFPWNLOL'?
Press release.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
If they include a Leeroy Jenkins move in it, it could turn into a brilliant horror movie. ;-)
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
And you, friend, lose just loads of reading comprehension points.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
WTS PALADIN ITEM ON ORG BANK
(seriously though, gave me a good laugh. You'd have my mod point if I had any, and you weren't already fixed for them)
This is my sig. It's prescription, I swear. I need it for reading things... on the other side of things