While Comic Con has certainly been a battle between Marvel and DC properties, with Legendary Pictures scoring some sweet Godzilla hype as well, filmmaker Duncan Jones (Moon) had an Ace up his sleeve for Con attendees who have chomping at the bit to see footage from his upcoming Warcraft movie. It’s been years since the project was announced, but this year’s San Diego Comic Con has finally shed some light on the heralded property, as Jones released the first action-packed teaser trailer – and people seemed to dig it.
While we don’t have the actual video of the teaser trailer, /Film has posted a description of the fantasy world Jones has created in detail:
We start with a room full of Alliance weapons. Swords, shields and more. “I’ve spent more time protecting my king than my own son,” a character says in voiceover. Lots of men in Armor and some banners. “Does that make me loyal or a fool?” These are the Alliance humans. We cut to a green sky. Now we see the Horde orcs. They looked like if Shrek was real, but much scarier and realistic. Lord of the Rings quality. “I’ve lead thousands of warriors into battle. Does that make me a leader or a coward” The trailer then cuts between scenes of men preparing for battle, the orcs preparing for battle, and the two main voices echoing their similar philosophies. The orc home is an epic mountain space. Then the question, “Is war the only answer?” And then it begins. Battles. Flying. Swords. Hammers. An alliance griffin diving down into a battle. A man jumps on the back of the orc and stabs him in the chest. Then the logo above.
In addition to the humans vs. orcs bloodbath going on (described as Lord Of The Rings meets Avatar), the title card has been released as well, so if watching words appear on a screen is your kind of thing, here’s a video of that!
To me, Moon is a brilliant sci-fi revelation featuring one of Sam Rockwell’s most daring roles, and Source Code is a breath of fresh air in a stale mainstream movie system, so the fact that Jones hasn’t released a film in three years – and won’t be for two more – really has me craving Warcraft. I’m rather OK with Jones taking his time though, because that means actual care and proper attention are being paid to the open-world nature of such a massive game, requiring a focused script that also delivers an epic scope. Humans, orcs, trails, and tribulations await what we assume is one man’s epic quest, but I still have a question – will we get any Pandarens?!
With a March 11th, 2016 release date and a cast including Ben Foster, Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Toby Kebbell, Dominic Cooper and Clancy Brown, the next two or so years are going to be filled with nothing but anticipation. Can Warcraft be the movie that changes a current cold streak of awful video game movie adaptations? In the hands of Duncan Jones, there’s a pretty good chance. Don’t you agree?