World of WarCraft Goes to the Big Screen

At this point, it's become plain what both companies want and where they are going with the tale. In the process of creating the story, Blizzard has come up with a completely new hero, which they describe as being "badass." Sadly, other than that rather vague description, they refused to reveal any further details, although they appeared to be pretty excited about the prospect of introducing a brand new character to the universe (again, another piece of information coming from BlizzCon). In answering many inquiries related to the all-too familiar character of Arthas Menethil, Chris Metzen clarified that Arthas won't be the focus of the movie storyline. As for the type of plot you can expect, Blizzard revealed that "It's actually not like the great adventure. It's not so much a quest movie. It's more of a war movie. Well, okay, it's absolutely a war movie. Cultures grinding up to a horrible moment where it just all spills over and gets out of control. Less of an adventure party quest-type situation and more of an armies building to an inevitable conclusion type situation."

Returning to the "live action" aspect of the project, at this stage you should know that the creative team are toiling away to nail the script itself, while Legendary still hasn't decided on which director will be heading the production. The same thing goes for the cast. Like it was pointed out, while making these decisions it's vital to have the director present. One topic did come up during the Blizzon Movie Panel Discussion and it was related to the caliber of actors that may be considered for certain roles. Legendary seems to be very clear on this, saying that they definitely do not intend to employ big-name actors or actresses just for the sake of it. In fact, most of their previous work already showed that the studio is very meticulous in singling out the right faces for crucial roles. Choices that were made in their earlier flicks worked brilliantly. Batman Begins and 300 are good examples of that. We're also hoping that, with the help of the right person sitting in the director's chair, the studio will hopefully continue its tradition of hiring the appropriate cast.

Apart from joining forces with Blizzard to make a movie based upon the World of Warcraft universe, Legendary has other promising movies already in production - like The Dark Knight (the sequel to Batman Begins) and Superman: The Man of Steel. The company's official web site reveals that they are also planning a remake of the Hollywood movie Clash of the Titans, which is certainly going to appeal to fans of classic Greek mythology. So, it's safe to say they will be busy within the next several years.

The movie World of Warcraft (that's currently the title displayed on Legendary's official web site) is in early development stage, with story-boards being actively churned out and basic character concepts still scrupulously studied so as to pinpoint the right kind of atmosphere for a movie that's about to bring one of the most popular game franchises to cinemas worldwide. Because various ideas are still being considered, at this time the movie studio doesn't have any media to show, other than preliminary artwork - or rather, a teaser image of Teldrassil, the massive world tree, growing north of Kalimdor (we've included a snapshot of this image, which was taken at BlizzCon 2007). For now, the only thing we know is that Teldrassil is likely to become one of the locations in the movie.

As for other specifics, the subject was broached that we could be looking at a movie running about 2 to 2.5 hours. We also now that PG-13 might be a possible rating for this one. Although nothing was uncovered specifically, it's been clarified that the movie won't be PG. In other words, it's fair to assume we'll witness as much gore as seen in Peter Jackson's LotR movies.

All told, we've just been thrown a few measly crumbs of evidence that a Warcraft movie is finally starting to take shape after so many years of gossiping and speculation. Both Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures seem to be taking every precaution to please cinema-goers as well as the ever-growing WoW community.

In relation to the story, comparisons were made to movies like X-Men and Batman Begins, just in terms of the layout and shape. As for the overall style and general ambience of the film, titles like Gladiator, 300 and Braveheart were tossed around to indicate the spirit of the future big-screen version of the World of Warcraft.

We're bound to have a more precise idea of what kind of movie to expect as soon as the film studio gets hold of a director. Mind you, the script needs to be finalized and many characters are probably still in-the-making. If all goes well, this project is likely to turn into one of the most profitable ventures ever to grace American cinema.