Daniel Haynes (aka deth) has been following Duncan Jones‘ career closely ever since he watched Moon, Jone’s feature-length movie directorial debut and proving ground, followed by Source Code. Last night Dan made a point of informing me that Duncan Jones will be directing the Warcraft movie. The announcement was made by Hollywood Reporter, closely followed by World of Warcraft confirming the announcement on facebook. Jones himself alluded to this big announcement in this tweet:
So the gauntlet was thrown down ages ago: Can you make a proper MOVIE of a video game.Ive always said its possible.Got to DO it now! 😉
— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) January 31, 2013
In an interview with Badass Digest a couple of years ago, Jones identified Warcraft as the project that could break the abysmal record of movie adaptations of video games.
“I really believe World of Warcraft could be the launch of computer games as good films,” he said then. “And from the little I’ve read of interviews with [Raimi] the way he’s approaching it makes so much sense… it’s not worrying about how the game plays, it’s about creating the world of the game and investing the audience in that world.”
In the same interview, Jones described himself as a “real gamer”, unlike other film directors jockeying to associate themselves with the video game medium who didn’t have the time to actually play. “I’m just slightly insane and I stay up all night playing games,” he said. “In the day I’m working and at night I play games.”
Gamers are excited having one of their own produce a movie based on games. General Ironicus said
The WoW film went to @manmademoon because nobody else had as much experience with films involving respawning.
— General Ironicus (@Gen_Ironicus) January 31, 2013
According to Oli Welsh of Eurogamer, in 2007 Legendary and Blizzard said Warcraft would be a live action film, slated for release in 2009.
Blizzard’s Chris Metzen – who can lay more claim to being creator of the Warcraft universe than any other individual, and who’s serving as a producer on the movie – said he expected the story to be set a year or two before the beginning of World of Warcraft‘s storyline, and to concentrate on the war between the Horde and Alliance from an Alliance perspective.
“Thematically, it’s about cultures in conflict, the cycle of violence,” Metzen told the BlizzCon audience, including yours truly. “It’s not so much a quest movie. It’s absolutely a war movie.”
Now it’s 2013, the movie is scheduled for 2015 and the creators are being tight-lipped about all plans.
The Tracking Board says Warner Bros is interested in having Johnny Depp star in Warcraft.
Just remember, it’s always the tank’s fault, NEVER the heals 😛
While we wait, Guillermo del Toro’s monsters vs mechanics movie, Pacific Rim, is coming out this winter. IMDB says, ‘When an alien attack threatens the Earth’s existence, giant robots piloted by humans are deployed to fight off the menace.’ Very Japanese in its influence.
