Blizzard and Legendary Pictures’ “war movie” won’t be troubled by JJ Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode VII any longer – it’s been rescheduled for release in two-and-a-bit years’ time.
Warcraft, as it’ll snappily be called, was originally expected to open on December 18, 2015. But that spot has since been claimed by the new Star Wars, and studio Legendary have deemed it wise to find Warcraft a space of its own.
Now, Warcraft is slated for a still-very-specific March 11 premiere in distant 2016. In the grimdark future, the cars may no longer have wheels and the land might have been turned to ash, but a Duncan Jones-directed WoW film is one certainty we can cling to.
During BlizzCon 2013’s movie panel, special effects supervisor Bill Westenhofer (The Chronicles of Narnia, The Golden Compass) told the throng that the film’s primary tonal influence was Gladiator – “dark, dirty and gritty”.
The panel, which also included director Jones and Blizzard’s VP of story Chris Metzen, chief creative officer Rob Pardo and head of cinematics Nick Carpenter, pegged the film as a “war movie”.
Its plot will see orcs and humans, represented by Durotan and Lothar, fight a war that neither side wants. Jones in particular enthused about the weighty moral themes he and Blood Diamond scriptwriter Charles Leavitt have been able to tackle within the films multi-perspective framework.
The team are aiming for a PG-13 rating – though, as Jones smirked, “You can get away with some shit in PG-13”.
Shooting was most recently pencilled in for early 2014, with Colin Farrell attached to a key role. But Hollywood seems to be in perpetual schedule landslide, and that may no longer be the case.
Do you think it sensible for Legendary to dodge Star Wars? It stands to reason that the two films will share a chunk of their audience.