The movie and video game industries are still searching for their first truly great collaboration, the elusive, spectacular video game film. As time goes on, more and more high profile video game movie projects are surfacing, and with them, more and more talented industry veterans are getting involved.
‘Warcraft’ is currently the frontrunner for the movie that might break the “just-okay-at-best-really-terrible-at-worse” video game movie curse that has existed since the Super Mario Bros. movie disaster of the early ‘90s. The keys have been given to director Duncan Jones, who between Moon and Source Code, has not made a bad film in his first two attempts. A blockbuster on this scale is a different story however, and fans are nervously holding their breath to see how it all plays out.
We have seen relatively little from the ‘Warcraft’ movie (which should be noted is not a ‘World of Warcraft’ movie, per se), but now we have our first look at the CG work going into the film. What you see above is not concept art, but the full debut of the movie’s lead Orc, Orgrim, rendered entirely in CG by Industrial Light and Magic.
Orgrim is being played by The Hobbit’s Robert Kazinsky, who did extensive mo-cap work for the role. The film also stars Dominic Cooper, Travis Fimmel, Toby Kebbell, Paula Patton, Ben Foster and Clancy Brown in various Horde and Alliance roles, but Orgrim is the first to make his official debut. To this point, we’ve only seen props and title cards for the film, so needless to say, this first look at Orgrim has gotten fans excited.
There’s a second render of the character, which you can see below, that blurs the line between CG and reality to such a degree, the first time I saw it I was genuinely confused as to whether it was animated or real life make-up and costume. But it is in fact all CG.
While I’m certainly excited as all the rest, I think it is still important to reserve judgement until more is shown. It’s one thing to render a still image in photorealistic perfection, but the real challenge is getting it to feel real onscreen. Recently films like Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Avatar have effectively translated human acting into believable CG characters, but in a movie that is clearly going to rely so heavily on computer effects, there always a worry it won’t be grounded enough to feel real. That’s something we can’t really know until we see an actual trailer, or ideally, the film itself.
Regardless, it’s hard not to feel like everyone’s lifelong dream of Blizzard’s cutscenes coming to life is finally happening. Everyone involved with the Warcraft film seems incredibly excited about it, which is refreshing in an age where getting some casts talk to the press and fans about their film like someone is torture. Contrast that with say, Orgrim actor Rob Kazinsky’s 2014 appearance at a WoW panel where he seemed positively exploding with energy about the project, and boasted of his 500 real-world days spent playing the game. There are more than just financial stakes here, these are fans who want the movie to succeed so they won’t embarrass themselves by ruining something they love.
The Warcraft movie is still aiming for a 2016 release date, and if successful, could create a new category of video game blockbusters that play alongside superhero films, novel adaptations, and Hollywood originals (however few and far between those are, these days). We could finally move out of the era where movies like Halo and BioShock sink before they see the light of day, and with other big projects like Assassin’s Creed and The Last of Us on the way, Warcraft may be leading quite a charge indeed.
As for the potential audience of the film? That’s hard to gauge. Obviously World of Warcraft is one of the most-played games in the world. It used to be the most played before it was unseated by free-to-play titles like League of Legends and Crossfire, but it still has a big playerbase and ex-players with fond memories. I have a hunch that Warcraft will be able to attract a sizable crowd from its video game influence alone, particularly in Asia which could help it do incredibly well overseas. It could also pick up the general “action-fantasy” moviegoing crowd, the likes of which have made LOTR/Hobbit movies worldwide smash hits. Hell, if the new (really not great) Hobbit trilogy can make billions worldwide, I don’t see how Warcraft can't as well.
We’ll see in 2016, which can’t come soon enough. Hopefully there will be more to see soon, including a debut trailer.
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