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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."

19 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Of course... by Admiral+Justin · · Score: 2, Informative

    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)

    --
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  2. It won't be a Warcraft movie by DoctaWatson · · Score: 5, Funny

    If it doesn't have a half dozen naked gnomes dancing in front of an auction house.

  3. That is awesome... by JoeLinux · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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...

  4. Lost In Translation by ThePuceGuardian · · Score: 5, Funny
    "We're not trying to take what we've done and...try to make a literal translation to the big screen.

    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..

    1. Re:Lost In Translation by crerwin · · Score: 5, Funny

      And once it starts playing, it is 4 hours long and there's a 90% chance that at the end it turns out it wasn't the correct movie and you have to come back and do more "theater runs" until the right one plays. Of course if you don't have time for all of this, they don't care :p

    2. Re:Lost In Translation by arcanumas · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I am sure the DVD will also feature leet-speak subtitles for the WOW fans :)

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    3. Re:Lost In Translation by snuf23 · · Score: 4, Funny

      ... and the movie wouldn't start unless there were 40 people in the seats..

      Which means the theater lobby will be full of people shouting "LFG WoW Movie run!"
      Once the theater is full the movie is likely to only run at about 5 frames per second.

      --
      Sometimes my arms bend back.
    4. Re:Lost In Translation by xutopia · · Score: 4, Funny

      Each time you get sent back to the back of the line it grows bigger each time. And when the movie starts the power goes out and someone yells "Leeroy!!! NOT AGAIN!!!"

  5. Re:Already covered. by Supurcell · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Except Tron was a movie first and a video game later. It did not have to live up to anybody's expectations. It was a blank slate. Millions of people have played the Warcraft Series and many of them have something different that they really love, that probably wont be captured in the live-action movie version.

    The style of Warcraft, and all other Blizzard games, is a big thing for me. The opening cinematic for World of Warcraft is damn near to photo-realistic and still captures their over-the-top style. I'm sure that there will be plenty of CGI orcs, trolls, etc. in the movie, so why not go all out and really wow us by giving the fans what we've wanted for years?

    I hope they still make a great movie despite their choices, and that this wont just be a quick cash-in.

  6. Right people... by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    A lot of it comes down to picking the right people.

    That leaves Uwe Boll out of the picture...

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  7. Heresy! by Guppy06 · · Score: 2, Funny

    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!

  8. Egad, man... by The-Bus · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "A lot of the other video game movies that have come out before this haven't had the budgets..."


    (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.

  9. Step One by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Step One by PFI_Optix · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If you weren't posting AC (and I had mod points), I'd mod you up.

      We don't expect our games to be realistic. Sure, we whine about them lacking realism both in appearance and mechanics, but in reality we all understand that we can't do everything in a game that we can do in real life. Like fire around a corner without exposing half our body in most FPS. But when we watch a movie, we expect to see as close to realism as we can get--without the tedium of real life. What is perfectly acceptable in a game is intolerable in a movie.

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    2. Re:Step One by patio11 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I love WoW, have wasted an unhealthy amount of my life in it, and think the "lore" (backstory) sucks. Its like every fantasy universe you've ever heard of, a pastiche of cliches which have been done better elsewhere (Quick sampling: missing king, corrupt advisor perverting kingdom to her own ends, about nobody with a personality which is more than a character archetype, etc etc. ). The thing that makes Warcraft and WoW exceptional is the gameplay set in that comfortably familiar fantasy universe. I don't see that translating well to the video screen: those of us who played it might get a kick out of "Hey, I saved that guy's farm once!" but everyone else will be like "Hmm, horde of undead beasties summoned up, threatening whole world, nations of world too busy with petty infighting to see the true threat... where have I heard this story before..."

  10. Re:Hrm... by sgant · · Score: 2, Informative

    But he's not directing it. And PJ is working on a MUCH smaller movie now with "The Lovely Bones"...not that being the executive producer on Halo isn't a big job, I don't blame him for taking a smaller film to direct after LOTR and Kong.

    But, having said that, they still haven't found a director for Halo so who knows, he may just take it over himself which would be quite interesting.

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    "Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
  11. Re:WOW! a movie!!! by irablum · · Score: 2, Funny

    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.

  12. Doom? Seemed ok to me. by Evil+Pete · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

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    Bitter and proud of it.
  13. Re:Already covered. by Ohreally_factor · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I hope they still make a great movie despite their choices, and that this wont just be a quick cash-in.

    If wishes were horses, we'd all be eating steak.

    Seriously, how can this be anything other than an attempt to cash in on the game?

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