By "they," I meant the film industry as a whole.Originally Posted by WildElf
By "they," I meant the film industry as a whole.
Oh no, really ?
This does nothing to the fact that it felt cheap and boring for the most part (and imho of course).
Apparently, it is just Warcraft with no "World of," as Legendary's slate mentioned earlier this year.
When it was announced in 2007, at the time, the only story elements Metzen talked about was that it takes place a year before WoW (which will put it after Arthas' fall, I think, so I guess it's not about that), and it will be from Alliance perspective.
This book took place during that time period. It wasn't one of the better WoW books, but tried to bridge the gap between the alliance of Orcs and Humans at the end of W3X to the state of war in WoW.
It was announced in 2006. But as mentioned earlier, it likely gone under massive rewrites, so that may not be what it is still about.
This is going to be a very derivative and stale movie if it tries to take itself seriously. We already have several ongoing film franchises that use the elf/orc/dwarf/troll mold to tell their plodding narratives, and Warcraft really did just rip off every fantasy stereotype they could get their hands on. I couldn't give a rat's ass about ancient prophecies, a warlike race rising, a magical tree ruining the land or whatever passes for every WoW players' favorite subplot. You know it'll be bad.
If it's played completely tongue in cheek, or even better, if it's satire and directly addresses gaming somehow (see the excellent Vertigo series "User") it could be very entertaining.
Then again, I think Potter is a shameful aggregation of fantasy stereotypes and isn't worth another second of attention, but I know I'm retarded when it's become a gazillion dollar franchise.
I had actually been working on this for the past two years. Had to keep it under wraps at the time but it doesn't really matter now.
I worked very closely with Legendary and Blizzard to come up with a screenplay that distilled the sprawling Warcraft mythology into a narrative that was easily accessible to the non-player, and everyone was really pleased with the results - I personally thought my last draft of the script in particular was really kick-ass and did a good job of introducing the Warcraft world to non-players while also satisfying hardcore players who knew every nook and cranny of the universe. When Sam expressed interest in the property, however, he had his own pretty specific vision of what he wanted to do story-wise so that's the version they're now pursuing. I'm no longer involved but I wish them all the best with it; so far as I'm concerned Raimi is the best possible director for this.
Last edited by Gary Whitta; 07-22-2009 at 06:26 PM.
Well, I hope he understands the basis on which Warcraft's world was created. I also hope he's read Tree and Leaf by Tolkien. Otherwise, this is going to be pretty terrible in its story.
How many other projects of yours do we not know about?
Only the secret ones.
Whitta was just waiting for someone to poop on the story aspect. Promise me there will be no ancient prophesied magic trees and we're good, ok?
Exactly my thoughts. I'm very fond of WoW, but the story is 'extruded fantasy product'. Plus the names, dear god the names: ZAX SKULLSPLITTER, DEFENESTRATOR OF THE NORGULITES CHALLENGES YOU, THROATRIP GUTBELCH! HE WILL HAVE VENGEANCE!!!
Edit: No offence, Gary - not saying it can't be done with some judicious pruning (Arthas' story in WC3 is actually pretty solid, f'rex) but my expectations are low.
Don't forget to leak it to us eventually.
That's not a number. I'll settle for something vague: under a half-dozen or over a half-dozen?
Let's hope they focus on the zog zog era.
I love how Hollywood kiss-assery extends even into the online realm.
Heh - I was gonna start chanting "Whit-TA! Whit-TA!" earlier in the thread. I shoulda known he was already involved. :)
Enough about who's writing it, though - inquiring minds want to know which role Ted Raimi will be playing.
We need Whitta to build up enough Hollywood heat to get Quarter to Three: The Movie off the ground.
Leroy Jenkins, of course.
Even with Rami at the helm, I have serious reservations about the ability to bring the Warcraft world to the big screen in any way that doesn't end up looking like a joke. Peter Jackson spent a huge amount of time and effort bringing Lord of the Rings to life on film, which is the closest comparison I can think of to this project. In the case of Warcraft I'd say you need even more time and effort because there's no excellent story already written to work from.
Of course, all that assumes they're making a serious film set in Azeroth, not an action-comedy where some players somehow get sucked into the game and hilarity and in-jokes ensue as they interact with everyones favorite NPCs.
So, South-Park again.
Oh, DO explain, would you?
No, I don't think I will!
The difference is Blizzard has a fully functional 'lore' team in place that has been generating Warcraft content for years. From books, games and WoW, they are easily able to generate a fairly in depth story that should play out well on the screen.
Whether it will be a particularly good story remains to be seen, but both Blizzard and Rami have good track records. My guess is where Jackson went authentic (ie: recreating Bag End) Warcraft is not saddled with such descriptive restrictions.
Well thanks heavens for that. Apparently in your mind the South Park movie was live-action.
And bravo to him, but I still did not like the films (I'm no LOTR fan, though).
With the best intentions you can adapt something very faithfully and end up with boring movies (at least that's what I thought of it). Maybe Raimi and his staff will embrace the Warcraft lore & universe and actually come up with something good, even if it's not a perfect adaptation per se.
He means: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_Love,_Not_Warcraft
Still, not even close to what Slainte suggested (except for the in-jokes part, which constituted 90% of that episode).
(and why the hell didn't they just ban the guy?)
It's cool, you can personally not enjoy the LotR movies and yet still respect the effort that went into making them, which is all my comparison was trying to illustrate (and you seem to agree). I agree with you in the hopes that Rami and company fully embrace the lore and the storytelling aspect of Warcraft games and come up with something that treats the subject material with respect and an eye for detail.
While there is a lot of "lore" in place for Warcraft via the games, books and even trading card game, none of it approaches the level of spphistication needed to produce a decent movie script (which is why they contracted Whitta in the first place I would guess). The fact that Rami came in with his own preconceived ideas and didn't want the already fleshed out script worries me a little because it means he has a vision that may not incorporate anything already produced in terms of Warcraft lore. That could be a bad thing, or it could be a really good thing. I'll need to see a trailer before passing final judgement. =)
I would love to someday see Gary's script though. I bet it's awesome.
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