Get ready to visit the world of Azeroth my friends. It’s all official and announced… they’re moving ahead with a Warcraft movie. It was all announced today at BlizzCon (thanks to Paul for the heads up). The word comes through Warcraft Movie Chronicles which gives us this:
Today at BlizzCon 2007 we have heard our first solid and interesting information with regards to the Warcraft, or to some, the World of Warcraft Movie. This movie will be big, huge in fact, Thomas Tull (producer of 300) stated a budget of over $100m would be committed, with a projected 2009 release date.
The plot for the film will take place approximately a year before the start of World of Warcraft, including races you have played and lands you have wandered in, where lots of plot arcs are melded into a two and a half hour story. The film itself will revolve around a ‘badass’ new hero, with a theme towards conflict and culture – being a War Movie rather than a quest movie, from an Alliance’s perspective.
Another very interesting point that was brought up is that the producer said this WILL NOT be an “adventure” movie. It will indeed be an all out WAR movie. Holy smokes… I don’t know about you… but the idea of a full out Warcraft war movie gets me kinda stoked.
The big concern obviously will be the inevitable comparisons to the Lord of the Rings movies. Let’s face it, as popular as World of Warcraft is, it’s nothing compared to the larger movie going audience who will be MUCH more familiar with Rings than Warcraft. The comparisons (or even accusations of being a rip off) are sure to follow. The challenge for the filmmakers will be in the areas of publicity and marketing in the year preceding the film to make it stand out.
I’m excited.
