Even though the calendar has reached 2015, we still have more a year to go before Duncan Jones unleashes his Warcraft film on the world. Recently, he let slip some details about the characters for the game adaptation, and has now talked to Chinese news site Mtime (with a helpful translation via Man Made Movies) about his aims for the film’s tone and story.
According to the director, he was looking to explore the initial meetings between orcs and humans that led to the big conflict. “From the moment I first talked to Blizzard, the plan was to start our film with the first time Orcs met Humans,” he says. “First contact! I think that for a world with so much newness to explain, this was a wise choice, especially when so many people in our audience may not know anything about Warcraft... It was important that some of our characters would be seeing the world fresh as well, and that the audience could see the situation through their eyes. A Warcraft film should not be about a good race of humans battling an evil race of orcs. Warcraft should be about heroes on both sides trying to avoid a conflict, when villains leave them no choice.”
And for inspiration, he looked to a slightly successful fantasy trilogy for inspiration: “Peter Jackson did a magnificent job of ‘setting the table’ for Tolkien’s universe with his first Lord Of The Rings film. I know that my job in this first film is to establish certain characters, places and culture while telling a story that a broad audience can be excited by. Hopefully, if I have done my job right, people will want to know and see more. There is certainly plenty more to tell. I would love to be part of that process of expanding on the lore that makes up Warcraft, but it will all depend on what you, the audience, think of our first film.”
So there you have it: Jones is hopeful, and still has plenty of time to wrangle what must be a beast of an effects job and apply the finishing touches. With luck, we’ll see a trailer soon.