World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment’s monolithic and genre-defining MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online game), is a mere two weeks away from gracing the big screen in the form of Duncan Jones’ budding franchise-starter, Warcraft: The Beginning.
Of course, wrangling a feature film out of such a rich and beloved universe hasn’t been easy, with early setbacks culminating in the abrupt departure of Sam Raimi, who had at one stage been attached to helm Legendary’s adaptation. Once The Evil Dead filmmaker made for the exit door, Warcraft plummeted in the depths of development limbo, and it wasn’t until the appointment of Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) that the long-gestating movie began to display a flicker of life.
Fast forward to May of 2016 and we’re on the verge of seeing that vision for ourselves. In bringing together the Alliance and the Horde, Jones has assembled quite the all-star cast to headline Warcraft: The Beginning, including Toby Kebbell and Travis Fimmel, along with Dominic Cooper as King Llane Wrynn, Ben Foster as Medivh, Ben Schnetzer as Khadgar, Ruth Negga as Lady Taria, Clancy Brown as Blackhand, Daniel Wu as Gul’Dan and Paula Patton’s Garona.
Ubisoft is beginning to fire up the marketing machine for its live-action Assassin’s Creed and soon, Legendary will have the chance to break the shackles of tradition – hopefully ending the video game movie curse in the process – when Warcarft: The Beginning roars onto the big screen on June 10 in North America.
The peaceful realm of Azeroth stands on the brink of war as its civilization faces a fearsome race of invaders: Orc warriors fleeing their dying home to colonize another. As a portal opens to connect the two worlds, one army faces destruction and the other faces extinction. From opposing sides, two heroes are set on a collision course that will decide the fate of their family, their people and their home. So begins a spectacular saga of power and sacrifice in which war has many faces, and everyone fights for something.
