Though a lengthy post-production process remains, principal photography on Warcraft is complete, and director Duncan Jones (Moon) has been discussing the project with Chinese movie news website Mtime. ManMadeMovies published a translation, revealing the long-term hopes Jones has for the game adaptation.
“Peter Jackson did a magnificent job of ‘setting the table’ for Tolkien’s universe with his first Lord Of The Rings film. I know that my job in this first film is to establish certain characters, places and culture while telling a story that a broad audience can be excited by. Hopefully, if I have done my job right, people will want to know and see more! There is certainly plenty more to tell… I would love to be part of that process of expanding on the lore that makes up Warcraft, but it will depend on what you, the audience, think of our first film.”
Part of the reason for establishing those characters in a certain way is to make the film accessible to audiences beyond fans of the video game. Duncan Jones explained his strategy for making Warcraft an inclusive story in terms of audience.
“From the moment I first talked to Blizzard, the plan was to start our film with the first time Orcs met Humans. First contact! I think that for a world with so much newness to explain, this was a wise choice – especially when so many people in our audience may not know anything about Warcraft… it was important that some of our characters would be seeing the world fresh as well, and that the audience could see the situation through their eyes.”
That audience still has over a year to wait, however, and Duncan Jones is now deeply embroiled in the task of getting the finished film ready to screen.
“We are coming to the very end of 2014, and the film has been shot and we are finishing the editing. There are so many complicated special effects in the movie that it will take a while longer before the film will be complete. The special effects will be very impressive though. They are being done by ILM, who are best known for their work on the Star Wars movies.”
Warcraft, starring Travis Fimmel (Vikings), Paula Patton (About Last Night), Toby Kebbell (Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes), Ben Foster (Kill Your Darlings), Dominic Cooper (Agent Carter), Daniel Wu (That Demon Within) and Clancy Brown (Archer), is scheduled for release on March 11th 2016. That release date sets it two weeks ahead of Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice – effectively book-ending that month with highly anticipated, big-budget tent-pole movies. The race is on to see which project delivers a trailer first.