Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments
Search

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Slashdot Log In

Log In

Create Account  |  Retrieve Password

Warcraft Movie In The Works?

Posted by Zonk on Tue May 09, 2006 08:32 AM
from the very-big-zug-zug dept.
Media Movies Entertainment Games
The New York Times is reporting that World of Warcraft maker Blizzard plans to make a big-screen adaptation of its very popular gameworld. From the article: "Many details of the film deal remained unsettled or undisclosed on Monday, including the choice of director, cast, the planned release date and the exact budget (rarely a firm number in the movie business anyway). But Blizzard and Legendary appeared united in wanting the project to be a major departure from Hollywood's undistinguished record in turning games into films. 'We try to make big, epic, immersive games at Blizzard, and we have a track record of making some of the best games in the world,'" Paul Sams, Blizzard's chief operating officer, said in an interview. 'Similarly, our goal is to make one of the best films in the world. With Legendary, they have a creative and management team that is so attuned with us it was like we were separated at birth. We want to make a movie that will not only appeal to our existing fans, but will also bring in people that have never heard of Warcraft before.'"
+ -
story

Related Stories

[+] Diablo Movie Now in the Works? 101 comments
To go along with the still fairly-mysterious World of Warcraft movie, via CVG comes the word at Blizzplanet that a movie based on Blizzard's Diablo games may be in the works. "Few weeks ago, a rumor circulated the net that Gary Whitta would be working with Legendary Pictures to develop a Diablo film. The participation of Gary Whitta hasn't been confirmed, but surprise-surprise. Legendary Pictures website is listing DIABLO under the 'In Development' section. No press release has been made available. The news section has been replaced by a 'Legendary 2.0 is coming soon' notice. A week ago, the news section over at Legendary Pictures website had not been updated since Q3 2006. Stay tuned for any updates. A press release could be posted by them in a few days. Diablo is coming to the big screen!"
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

Warcraft Movie In The Works? 50 Comments More /

 Full
 Abbreviated
 Hidden
More
Loading... please wait.
  • How is this news? Blizard have been working on this project in secrecy for quite some time - there's even a clip [google.com] up at google video of short segment of the work.

    The animation is fantastic - far above what I thought modern PCs were capable of producing ;-)

  • I'm all game... (Score:4, Funny)

    by cheese-cube (910830) <cheese.cube@gmail.com> on Tuesday May 09 2006, @08:38AM (#15292566) Homepage
    ...just as long as it isn't directed by Uwe Boll.

  • Why not do it themselves? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by tapo (855172) on Tuesday May 09 2006, @08:39AM (#15292581) Homepage
    If you've seen the CGI movies to any of Blizzard's games, you know that their ability to create 3D animation is astounding. Not only that, but it seems to only improve with time. I honestly believe they could be the 'Pixar' of mature content films.

    Why would they go for live action if they're so talented at this?

    (Though it isn't my favorite, this is their introduction to Diablo II: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8694655550 618960777 [google.com])

    • Re:Why not do it themselves? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Rob T Firefly (844560) on Tuesday May 09 2006, @08:54AM (#15292700) Homepage Journal
      The reception of "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" comes to mind. I liked that movie, but it performed so miserably that Square all but closed its Square Pictures division as a result. It's probably not a risk Blizzard wants to saddle itself with, when they can just throw it to someone who knows the film business yet keep enough creative control where the brand name isn't cheapened by a disaster of U** B*ll proportions.
      • Don't forget that Blizzard is owned by Vivendi/Universal, who knows a thing or two about producing movies.
      • There's one other significant thing about Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. It just plain sucked. The plot was a rehash of a rehash of a rehash without a single original aspect. Oh look, hacknied and completely unoriginal characters who act in steriotypical ways! What a great concept for a movie!

        The CG was the best thing about FF:TSW, and it really wasn't as great as what we can do now. But don't say that the Final Fantasy movie failed because it was CG, it failed because as a movie it was grade B cra
    • "If you've seen the CGI movies to any of Blizzard's games, you know that their ability to create 3D animation is astounding. Not only that, but it seems to only improve with time. I honestly believe they could be the 'Pixar' of mature content films."

      Given Blizzard's track record for censorship, that is the funniest thing I've heard stated about Warcraft in weeks.
    • The original Myth bridge sequences, in simple stylized animated style, were elegant and well-made, and had a real cinematic feel. Their level narratives were wonderfully paced, and the soundtracks to the Myth games were good enough to be sold separately.

      Bungie's ham-fisted. Just listen to the voice acting on, say, Warcraft II, and tell me it wasn't painful. No way can that stand up to an hour and a half at theater volumes. I could hardly stand it for thirty seconds at a time in the game, just to hear the

    • You have to remember that Blizzard, or any game company, only have to make CG sequences that are a few minutes long (I dont know how long, but I bet it's less than 25 minutes). They don't have the time to put into crafting a long cinema, then rendering it. I believe that most of the reason that Pixar's animation of the same calibre, besides for the 'CG' look and feel that they want their movies to have, is that they are trying to make a 120-160 minute movie. You have to put in much more time into even ju

  • In related news... (Score:5, Funny)

    by DarkFencer (260473) on Tuesday May 09 2006, @08:41AM (#15292596)
    In related news, Blizzard has announced that tickets to the show will only be available in 'raid' and 'mini-raid' packages of 40 and 20 tickets respectively. Fans going alone will only see the first 30 minutes of the movie.
    • The movie will also only be available for viewing at peak times, due to lack of people who see movies at 2am on a tuesday. Repeated viewings are discouraged, and moviegoers will only be able to see it once per week, any repeated viewings are a violation of the terms of service.
  • As though elfs and orcs are the sole commercial property of the Tolkein estate.

    Frankly, even if the broader constructs of WoW are "Tolkeinesque," I look forward to anything that even trys to be as good as the LOTR films were.

    Lowes is about to become the ultimate RP server.

    • As though elfs and orcs are the sole commercial property of the Tolkein estate.

      Hobbits are, as anyone who was into "Dungeons & Dragons" back when TSR had to quietly rename theirs to "Halflings" remembers.

    • As though elfs and orcs are the sole commercial property of the Tolkein estate.

      It's not just the races. When I played through WC3 I noticed names of places taken directly from Tolkien, and a lot of the plot was suspiciously similar to e.g. parts of the Silmarillion.

      There's also Arthas turning into an obvious knockoff of Moorcock's Elric.
      • People who get snobby about resemblances always amuse me. Tolkien himself borrowed heavily from Norse myth cycles, and Moorcock, jesus, borrows from everywhere.

        Does that mean it's not good? No. It just means that art is often derivative from other art. Is the whole of Impressionism soiled by the fact that it wasn't all done by one guy?

        So what if WoW is derivative? You certainly can't say they didn't do anything original, which is a hell of a lot more than you can say for any of the other multitude of copies out there.
        • I don't mind resemblances so much. I do dislike wholesale lifting of obvious plot elements, like a main character who is an evil albino with a soul-stealing runesword.

          I've seen it before, so it doesn't add anything to the story. There's nothing surprising about it.

          I thought there were some good things about WC3, but I also thought it would have been a *lot* better if it had more originality.
          • Meh. He didn't start off as an albino, that was a post-death sort of thing, and the rest of the story is hugely divergent. I'm willing to give 'em the benefit of the doubt on that one, just because the story elements add up on both, and only incidentally intersect on that one point before flying off into the wilderness again on either side.
    • As though elfs and orcs are the sole commercial property of the Tolkein estate.

      Actually, if you get a chance to read "Tales Before Tolkien", you will see that a lot of the premises he used were from writings going back to the 1800's. It also seems a lot of them were from Germany.

      His style was much more captivating and expansive than pretty much all of those works though, and therefore had a much broader appeal (and therefore exposure).

  • Voice (Score:5, Funny)

    by Inverted Intellect (950622) on Tuesday May 09 2006, @08:45AM (#15292625)
    I just hope they can get the guy who did all the voice overs in WCII to do some work on the movie.

    "Don't you have a kingdom to run"? -Footman
    "Stop rocking the boat! you're making me seasick *puking sound*" -Elven destroyer

    "Yeeessss Massssterr" - Death Knight
    "I'm the smart one! No, I'M the smart one!" - Ogre mage
  • As long as they find a way to sneak in a line by a dopey sounding guy saying "Ready to Serve", I'll be happy.

    The WarCraft series had quite a bit of personality prior to going MMORPG, and (although I haven't had a chance to play it) I would assume they have quite a large base of backstory to draw from in the World of WarCraft game.

    Sounds interesting...

    MTW
    • That most likely will be the only good part of the movie. Why is that movies based upon computer games and computer games based upon movies always tend to suck.

      With games it is all about the gameplay and if that doesn't work then no matter how good the story is the game will suck.

      With movies it is all about the story and without a good storey it just comes off as a string of empty special effects and lots of meaningless CGI.

      • There are so many great stories in WoW alone. Any of the better Quests could be made into the central plotline (onyxia story comes to mind, "The missing Diplomat" Quest, the stuff going on with the forsaken etc). Then there are the other games and the "history". WC3's story made into a movie wouldn't be half bad, I think. Illidian, also very nice. For added drama the Theramoore thing where the daughter has to take up arms against her, now mad, father. There certainly is potential, and I think the percent ch

  • Ooooh (Score:4, Funny)

    by LiquidCoooled (634315) on Tuesday May 09 2006, @08:59AM (#15292747) Homepage Journal
    Stand in line for 90 minutes waiting for your ticket to be validated.
    Then when you get into the theatre just as the action hots up random people are ejected forcefully and then forced to stand back in line outside.

    Of course they want it to be big, they always do. Its not like it will be the first movie to hit the spot.
    They are standing on the shoulders of such greats as Street Fighter, Tomb Raider, Pokemon and Doom..

  • OMG Hunter item (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 09 2006, @08:59AM (#15292749)
    Naturally this movie is a hunter only item. If any one else tries to see it then they should be labled a ninja and booted from the theater.

  • My favorite part (Score:3, Funny)

    by faloi (738831) on Tuesday May 09 2006, @09:01AM (#15292767)
    I really liked the part where all the guys with the dragon loot caught the guy fresh off the farm and killed him. Then camped him for four hours. That was hillarious! Much better than when it happens to me in game.
  • "Many details of the film deal remained unsettled or undisclosed on Monday, including the choice of director..."

    My vote is for Uwe Boll.
  • This is the obvious next step for Blizzard. Forget StarCraft II or even putting Ghost back into production. No one wants those; they want another crappy movie based on a video game.
  • Less than 10% of films based on a video game title survive in any fashion.

    Blizzard, spend your money on infastructure upgrades first. This is a little more important to us, your subscribers of WoW.

    Horde still suck.

    • We Horde may suck, but we're twice as good as those Alliance whiners ;-)

      Oh, the Horde does agree with you on the infrastructure upgrades though. With as much cash flow as Blizzard has, that should be their main priority. Period. Never let it be said we are in total opposition with the Alliance *heh*

      Now log in, get in queue for WSG, and get ready for an ass-kicking! :)
    • You know, Blizzard isn't just one guy named Jim. They can do more than one thing at the same time.

      Like all you people bitching about "Why are you spending time fixing balance issues, when you could be fixing the servers?" Well, because the guys who work on patches don't work on the fucking servers.
    • >Horde still suck

      I've heard this said a lot, and I don't entirely agree with it. My primary character is a Forsaken mage. I consider the Tirisfal Glades area to be extremely atmospheric and as well populated with monsters and quests as any other area of the game that I've seen. Thunder Bluff and Mulgore are also beautiful, and the Barrens are a wonderful approximation of a savannah environment in my mind.

      I will agree with anyone that Orgrimmar is probably the single least impressive city in the game, but

  • Intereted, but (Score:5, Funny)

    by cordsie (565171) on Tuesday May 09 2006, @09:24AM (#15292923)
    I'm interested, but I don't have a lot of time to go out to the movies these days. Can I pay someone in China to go see it for me?

  • Blizzard's Reputation (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Avatar8 (748465) on Tuesday May 09 2006, @09:29AM (#15292957)
    Over the past several years, Blizzard has yet to produce any product that was less than outstanding: Diablo, Warcraft, Starcraft and WoW.

    While the gaming industry is getting more similar to the movie industry there are still differences that have been the bane of most game-based movies. I will optimistically have faith that Blizzard can navigate these pitfalls.

    You only need to look at the stories and mini-movies in their games from the last five years: Diablo II chapter movie sequences are a good example. Ghost's story in Starcraft and the Undead Prince in Warcraft III are others.

    I'd think they would have better luck making a Diablo movie first. I think the story is simpler, has more chances for pulling the audience in and obviously lots of opportunities for special effects and unique scenery. (Imagine a male barbarian, female paladin and male mage travel together.... oh wait, that's Conan. ;-)

    Starcraft, too, would make a good movie.

    The real questions that occur to me are:
    -What time will they choose? (WC III, WoW, before?) Maybe there will just be lots of history explanation and flashbacks.
    -What storylines will they follow? There are so many in WoW, but what is the "central" plot line?
    -From which point of view will the movie be? I can guess Alliance, but it would be interesting if they did a second movie from the Horde perspective.
    -Live action plus CGI special effects, or full digital animation? They'd get more general masses with live action, but they'd have the hardcore following of gamers and anime fans with full digital.

    Regardless I think this will be worth seeing, and again, I trust that Blizzard will do a quality job. Let's hope the director and producer(s) they get listen to them.

    • I'd prefer it if they didn't focus on the war much, but rather used it as a background instead of trying to follow the whole war from start to finish. Someone else mentioned that the Jaina Proudmoore vs. her father storyline could be interesting. The fall and subsiquent redemption of Grom Hellscream might also be nice. Naturally they could just follow the fall of Arthus as outlined in the game, but for some reason that doesn't sound as interesting to me, don't know why.
  • The Alone in the Dark film [imdb.com] will be released on DVD today in the US.

    Video game films obviously have a bright future.
  • I'm wondering if Blizzard might set the movie during the current WoW timeframe and create an opportunity for a reverse Tie In. I have seen SWG and MxO fail dismally, despite the iconic status of the characters which exist in their respective franchises; however, Blizzard could offer a new level of interactive content.

    Naturally, it would be easy to have players re-enact certain quests or events that occur in the movie, but Blizzard could also introduce content within the movie and have players explore it

  • well... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by cornface (900179)
    We want to make a movie that will not only appeal to our existing fans, but will also bring in people that have never heard of Warcraft before.

    And that is why it is going to suck.

  • Script exerpt (Score:4, Funny)

    by Trails (629752) on Tuesday May 09 2006, @01:35PM (#15295265)
    "... fade into snowy wooded glade, midafternoon. Lots of conieforus trees, bunnies hopping around, mountains in background, stone veranda visible on mountains. Focus on two wagons, with sevral dwarves standing by them. The main protagonist Urmomishot approaches the dwarves. Dwarf1: ! Dwarf2: ! Dwarf3: ! Urmomishot approaches Dwarf1 Dwarf1: Those hundreds of troggs over there have been giving me grief, please go kill 10 of them. Urmomishot approaches Dwarf2 Dwarf2: I have to deliver a package 30 metres down the road, but I'm lazy. Do it for me. Urmomishot approaches Dwarf3 Dwarf3: I need 15 pieces of wolfhide to make you a shirt you don't need. Go get me the hide. A gnome runs up. Gnome: Hey can u spar soem copr? kthxbye ..."
      • Hell, MI3 only cracked $48m it's opening weekend.

        Plus, if the Warcraft movie opens against weak movies, people will see it because there's nothing else out.

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2009 Geeknet, Inc.