The team behind the upcoming Warcraft movie had a panel at BlizzCon 2013 today, and revealed some interesting details about the movie.
Blizzard's Rob Pardo, Chris Metzen and Nick Carpenter, as well as director Duncan Jones and visual effects guy Bill Westenhofer were all a part of the panel and gave us our first look at some of the concept art. The locations shown in the concept art included major city hubs in World of Warcraft, including Draenor, Dalaran, Stormwind, and Ironforge.
Images From IGN
According to the panel, the plot will be an "origin story" about the first contact between humans and Orcs. Originally, the story was set to be focused on just the Alliance side of things, but now it is going to focus on telling both sides of the story, both Alliance and Horde.
"To tell a story where you're really, honestly telling it from both sides -- especially a war film -- is unusual. The fact that we've been able to get an opportunity to do that is, on a story level, breaking a few barriers. I don't think you're going to see a lot of films with this structure," said Jones.
"You have to be as empathetic for Orc heroes and their situation and why they're doing what they're doing as you are about anyone," Jones said.
Metzen explained that the film is going to re-tell a famous story but "tighten" up some of the plot holes, and will include Lothar and Durotan from Warcraft 2.
As far as visual effects, Industrial Light & Magic (the team behind The Avengers) will be the team working on the Warcraft film, and they have a unique challenge ahead of them: making Orcs look as emotive as humna characters. The film will be a hybrid of live-action and CGI.
The Warcraft movie will likely be PG-13, according to Jones, using The Dark Knight as an example for being a PG-13 film that pushed the boundaries of PG-13.
When Jones was asked if he has actors chosen for the film, he replied, "Yup. Sure do," and then continued on to tease a very strong female lead role. So far, the only actor to be confirmed for a role is Vikings actor Travis Fimmel, with some others only being rumored.
Warcraft will begin production in early 2014, and the film is slated for release in December 2015.
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