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More Details on The Warcraft Movie
Gamespot had a talk with Paul Sams, Blizzard COO, and dug up some additional details on the Warcraft film. From the article: "We're not trying to take what we've done and...try to make a literal translation to the big screen. What we want to do is to make a great movie that happens to be set in a video game universe. That's a differentiator, and a key differentiator. A lot of it comes down to picking the right people. A lot of the other video game movies that have come out before this haven't had the budgets, the right people, and haven't had the right mindset. We and Legendary want to make a great film, an event picture, big-budget picture, that is a great stand-alone, fantasy-based movie that is good for you regardless of whether you're familiar with the Warcraft universe."
"What we want to do is to make a great movie that happens to be set in a video game universe."
I think Tron already has this covered.
The movie, we hope, will be more meaningful than 2 hours of blood elf dancing.
Or, of course, at least more meaningful than the Mario Bros. Movie. (if you notice your friend attempting to watch this film, please insert baseball bat into the front of the screen, as this is the only way to protect them)
You will be baked, and there will be cake.
If it doesn't have a half dozen naked gnomes dancing in front of an auction house.
...as good as the Dungeons and Dragons movie?
It's amazing how much people like it when you either stay true to the source material (LoTR, Punisher, Spiderman, etc.), or declare that "this is new, don't compare" (Battlestar Galactica, etc.).
I'm wondering though how they are going to be able to tell a story in a universe that has such a well-established time-line, story and characters. Will it be like "Signs", in which the main story is off playing elsewhere, while our characters are involved with their own struggles?
For that matter, WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING WITH THE METROID MOVIE? I mean, I'm glad Woo is off of it...I don't think I'd like to see white doves flying off while Samus fires in slow-motion.
However, seeing metroid attacking white doves would kick ass....hmm....what a quandry...
Good thing, too. Otherwise you'd stand in line outside the theatre for 2 hours - only to be randomly sent back outside to stand in line some more once you were seated.
... and the movie wouldn't start unless there were 40 people in the seats..
one of the best examples I can think of where a game turned movie like this was the Final Fantasy movie [not advent children]. personally i think the movie would have been a lot better if they did it live action with a decent budget. the lifelessness of the cgi killed it for me. it was pretty, but lifeless.
...all cock-blockery aside...
A lot of it comes down to picking the right people.
That leaves Uwe Boll out of the picture...
Trolling is a art,
... I wonder if Peter Jackson is available. At least he did a fairly decent job with the LOTR movies. I'm sure he wouldn't butcher the WoW universe too bad. Of course if the writing and plot blow that won't help things at all.
"Armed forces abroad are of little value unless there is prudent counsel at home" - Cicero
Who will play the "Authenticating" screen? I see a Clint Howard, Brian Doyle-Murray type.
So what they're saying is that they are going to blow all their money on big name actors with no talent, and spend $20 on a script, and everyone will love it.
Any move that calls itself "WarCraft" that doesn't feature exploding sheep is no better than a "Doom" movie that doesn't involve space marines killing demons from Hell on Mars!
(Note: All numbers adjusted for inflation).
Ahh, yes, lack of money. Let's look at some video game movie budgets. Resident Evil: Apocalypse was $44MM. The recent Silent Hill was $50MM. The charming Super Mario Bros. was about $57MM. Oh, and we all liked that Doom movie: it cost $70MM. And who could forget Tomb Raider at a whopping $87MM.
Now, I've sat through most of these movies. At no point did I look into the screen and say... "Wow, if they only had more money, this would've been so much better."
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
You don't base the movie on the game. If you do, you're already sunk because then the whole driving force becomes making the movie into a random smorgasboard of "bits" (gotta have character types X Y and Z, scenes with terrain types P D and Q, etc.) No. If you want to try for a serious fantasy movie you have to treat the game as something reflecting a 'reality' in game terms. You then base your movie on that imaginary universe. Make a movie that reflects that same reality in movie terms. Then you at least have a chance. You need a strongly imagined universe for this to work, but it just might work here. The warcraft background is reasonably well detailed. It's still one hell of a "might" though. I wish them luck.
I hope they get Danny DeVito to play my Gnome Warrior. And think of Jennifer Connolly as a Night Elf Mage.
Ira
Great! We'll see you there then!
I was hoping they'd be Night Elves!
... * :) <3'
* Pictures Ironforge
ElfSlutGrrl21 chats '<3 spare a few silvers, hon?
/dance
I hope they get the peons right. In Warcraft 2, I put a peon on an large island to harvest trees overnight, and the whole island was naked of trees when I resume playing game the next morning. Not exactly environmentally friendly but I had enough trees to build war fleet. :)
I don't want to be dismissive, but this reads like the sort of Popularity = Box Office thinking that's gotten so many good people into so much trouble. Blizzard has been very industrious over the last decade, but Warcraft is still basically an homage to "The Lord of the Rings." What can this team hope to accomplish that Peter Jackson's hasn't already, and at what's almost guaranteed to be a lower per-minute budget? The most successful videogame movie so far is probably "Mortal Kombat," an unimpressive high water mark that gets by on simple cut-to-the-action unpretentiousness. Maybe that is the way to go: one hour of buildup and one hour of reasonably well blocked battle sequences. The trouble is, no matter how well it's done, it's still just an homage going up against its original.
Probably.
Give me good ratings or I will close down the internet.
I am a long time fan of Tolkien, but I don't think that PJ's job on LOTR was that great. I mean, if you liked the movie, it is probably because (1) the story, (2) the acting, or (3) the special effects. The director has little to do with the actual content of these, except in sequencing and editing, which I thought were bad. All the drawn out scenes, and slow motion, and camera movement, just made me bored. King Kong was the same way, great acting, great special effects, but drawn out scenes and camera movement that just made me lose interest from time to time. I think PJ should just retire, I'm sick of his dramatics.
Night Elf Mage? You haven't played much WoW at all, have you?
We can't leave out Marlon Wayans. He would make the perfect human rogue.
ugh. I meant druid. night elf druid. bleh. Not played much WOW. damnit, I'm tired and working. My Gnome Warrior hit 59 last night. so there.
Actually I liked the Doom movie quite a lot. I took my sons to see it because "yeah it'll probably be bad but I juast have to see it". We were all very pleasantly surprised, thought it was great I recently hired the movie out as an over-nighter and it was still pretty good. Don't know why people complain about it.
As for "Resident Evil". Puke. I couldn't watch it for more than 5 minutes. Super Mario I liked, but mostly because it was just so pleasantly bizarre ... hilarious weirdness.
Bitter and proud of it.
do the sheep explode or what.
I liked that movie!!
n/t
Although I acknowledge that Blizzard did draw some ideas from Lord of the Rings, I don't think it's the direct correspondence you make it out to be. WarCraft lore is distinctive in itself. Just because they both have elves, orcs, and humans doesn't mean the WarCraft movie won't have anything new to offer.
There are a lot of compelling stories that take place in the WarCraft universe - the destruction of the Well of Eternity, the opening of the Dark Portal, and the death of Archimonde, to name a few. None of these have parallels in Lord of the Rings that I can recall.
Then you have to make popcorn at the concessions stand, over and over again. Tons of it. Until you get a "Movie Viewer" skill level of 50. You could always just go out and pay a guy on Ebay to come and get a seat for you too.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning