Warcraft Movie

[Scotty]

http://www.blizzard.com/press/060509.shtml

Read it and see by yourself!

[Archibaldo]

Yeah, it looks pretty cool. I don't know how they're going to make it live action though.

[SomaLlama]

its doomed to fail.

[{DSG}DarkRaven]

Yeah, it looks pretty cool. I don't know how they're going to make it live action though.

With people.




Doesn't this belong in the Entertainment Discussion section?




The thing about this is, while Blizzard has a strangle hold on a very large portion of the gamer demographic, Warcraft is NOT mainstream. It's only connection is to a fairly young group of people, whereas more successful fantasy films like LOTR and Narnia are based on old, well established intellectual properties. Even if all six million WoW subscribers go and see the movie three times, they'll have a hard time making it a success, or even making a profit unless they can make it appeal to people outside their niche.


And honestly, Soma, if there's any gaming movie that has a chance of being a success, it's this one, particularly since Blizzard is in charge of it, instead of some studio with just the licensing rights.

[Archibaldo]

It will be interessing what the story could be. It would have to be something new that doesn't involve any lore that only people who played the game could understand. Or atleast have a little prologue at the begging.

If the movie continues to follow the trend other "adventure" movies have been following, it will be a trilogy.

[ShadowTiger]

It'll be a success based on the sheer number of gamers who will trample over each other just to see it, regardless of whether it sucks or not. It's freaking WARCRAFT, people! :p XD


I'll probably end up seeing it anyway. Hell, if worse comes to worse, you can rent it from the library or something.

[Cronic]

heh sounds like a job for peter jackson if ya ask me ...hopefully it isn't butchered.

[goKi]

I actually think a Metroid movie, which has reportedly been in and out of the works several times this year, although some Nintendo reps have confirmed its existance at some point, has more potential to be great than a Warcraft movie, but unfortunately, so far, all game-to-movie productions have been subject to a very evident failure to use that potential.

[Glitch]

heh sounds like a job for peter jackson if ya ask me ...hopefully it isn't butchered.

my thoughts exactly.

[SomaLlama]

And honestly, Soma, if there's any gaming movie that has a chance of being a success, it's this one, particularly since Blizzard is in charge of it, instead of some studio with just the licensing rights.
meh, the major thing about it is, i just dont see them makeing a good LIVE ACTION movie off of a game that is incredibly cartoony.
Also the story line for the game in general is pretty messed up right now because they keep changing it. and theres like, one guy writing it all? I just dont see what they could make the movie about when they keep changing and adding story for the MMO. But im sure if anyone can find a way its blizzard.

[goKi]

Warcraft is lacking a real focal character. Sure there was one in Warcraft 3, i can't remember his name, but in WoW, you create the character entirely, and there's alot of Warcraft fans who never really picked up on the game up until WoW. I don't have high hopes for this movie.

[Shadowblazer]

Warcraft actually has a number of good characters. There's Thrall, Jaina, Sylvanas, Kael, Malfurion and Tyrande just to name a few. I don't know if any of them would be good to focus the story of a movie on though, since they're all pretty much leaders of their respective people and it probably wouldn't make a lot of sense to have them out adventuring.

Still, even if they focus the story on a bunch of brand new characters, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Just because you don't know who the characters are going into the movie doesn't mean that they won't be able to make them compelling enough to make the movie good. Isn't this the case with most films, after all?

Bottom line is that it could really go either way. I think Blizzard has the creative skill to make this work, but Hollywood's track record with game-related movies is pretty damn shitty. I guess we'll have to wait and see. Personally I'm pretty psyched about this, but I'm also a die-hard fanboy ;)
meh, the major thing about it is, i just dont see them makeing a good LIVE ACTION movie off of a game that is incredibly cartoony. This I agree with. A computer-generated movie seems more up Blizzard's alley. There's a lot they could do to make the visual style of the movie, live action or not, resemble the visual style of their games though, so I don't think it's going to necessarily make it feel like it's not WarCraft.

[{DSG}DarkRaven]

heh sounds like a job for peter jackson if ya ask me ...hopefully it isn't butchered.

He'll be too busy with Halo.



BH4, you did read my post, and the reasons why the movie can't be a success simply on their fanbase alone? I agree, they'll make a ton of money from that segment, but not enough to make a profit on a $200+ million movie. Unless of course they film several movies at once, LOTR style. Then they'll probably be okay.

The course they have to run in order to be a success is smaller scale, in regards to characters. My guess is, they'll go for some out of the way part of the series history that hasn't been fully shown in the games. Something out of the past, when it was just orcs and humans, rather than something out of the current history, which has too many factions to be easily understood by non-gamers.

Then again, who wants to bet that they tie it in with the next WoW expansion pack?

[Archibaldo]

Then again, who wants to bet that they tie it in with the next WoW expansion pack?

That's kind of what I was thinking. I figured the movie would be about the Burning Crusade.

It will be entitled, World of Warcraft: The Search for Ashbringer. (only WoW players will get this reference)

[gdorf]

Maybe its because WC3 has been my favorite installment sofar, but I think following illidan's quest would make for a good movie. IMO, its the most central plot story to date.

[Warlock]

The thing about this is, while Blizzard has a strangle hold on a very large portion of the gamer demographic, Warcraft is NOT mainstream. It's only connection is to a fairly young group of people, whereas more successful fantasy films like LOTR and Narnia are based on old, well established intellectual properties. Even if all six million WoW subscribers go and see the movie three times, they'll have a hard time making it a success, or even making a profit unless they can make it appeal to people outside their niche.

This is not true at all. Two years ago it would have been true. Maybe even one year ago. But not anymore. World of WarCraft has made it mainstream. Hell, when you have people like Dave Chapelle saying they play WoW, you know it's mainstream. And the fact that WoW is played by people of all ages invalidates your "young group of people" comment as well. But even if it didn't, so? Ages 16-25(ish) is a pretty large demographic. If they can get a movie those people will enjoy, that is enough. Not to mention, six million people seeing it three times is not a lot? That's better than most major motion pictures do :P


Anyways, back on topic, no to Peter Jackson. The guy does LotR and suddenly he's the authority on all fantasy franchises. Just because he directs the only good fantasy movies out of the whole five fantasy movies that actually exist doesn't mean he's a fantasy movie god :P Peter Jackson is good, but frankly one, he wouldn't do it, and two they need to distinguish this movie as SEPERATE from LotR. Getting the same director is not the way to do that.

Also, I do have hope for this. I know Blizzard will not settle for sub-par quality for one. They cancelled WarCraft Adventures - a game that was for all purposes DONE - because it sucked. They could have easily released it and at least made back some of the money they invested in it, but they are commited to quality. Second, they've got Legendary Films. These are the guys that made freaking Batman Begins, the ONLY good Batman movie (you could argue the first one wasn't too bad but it wasn't spectacular either). They're also doing the new Superman movie, so we'll see how that turns out. But they seemed to do a fine job translating those comics to film, and this is more-or-less the same type of process.

I'd also like to point out, most VG-to-movies have suffered because they pick poor video games. How can you honestly make a movie out of Doom for example? The game has a freaking two sentence story. Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Super Mario (never should have been live action - it's just too crazy of a setting.. it might have worked as a cartoon since they wouldn't have changed so much), etc. I mean, none of those games really have much more than one/two paragraph stories to them in the manuals. WarCraft on the other hand, has a huge backlibrary of lore behind it. Not just the games, but much like LotR's appendices, it has a ton of backhistory and side stories that flesh out the setting as a whole. Hell, there are now 7 paperback novels for the series, with at least two more on the way (but likely more after that). You've got the WarCraft RPG series which is a D&D setting, the three book Manga series, the Sunwell Trilogy, and so much more.

So yeah, there is a lot to work with here.

P.S. - in response to a few comments - the movie will NOT follow any of the existing games. Blizzard has already said this. It will simply be a movie set in the WarCraft universe rather than "WarCraft: The Movie!" so to speak. Much like the novels in fact.