Remember that World of Warcraft film that’s currently in development? The one that Sam Raimi was attached to but then bailed on? Ya, it’s still getting made and after hiring Blood Diamond scribe Charles Leavitt to touch up the script, Legendary Pictures has brought on Moon and Source Code director Duncan Jones to helm the film, which will be a live-adaptation of the mega-popular video game.
Having impressed with both Moon and Source Code, Jones is now ready to hop on board his first big budget film and I am pleased to see him doing so. He’s an incredibly talented director, as demonstrated in his first two films, and his unique and exciting vision should complement the source material very well. I loved both Moon and Source Code. Seriously, I loved them both. They were both so well made and they really showed the talent that Jones has, so I’m very happy that he’s landed himself such an exciting job with World of Warcraft.
Now, this does bring into question the status of some of his other projects. Jones has a film called Mute which he’s been working on for a while. He has compared it to Blade Runner and while it sounds exciting and something that we’d love to see him do, it seems that for the time being at least, that project has been put on hold. There was also the Ian Fleming biopic which was announced last year, but who knows if that’s still moving forward. Considering the studio is aiming for a Fall 2013 start for World of Warcraft, it will very likely be the director’s next film.
Having never played World of Warcraft, I can’t offer too much insight into this one. Sure, I know that the game is a massive success, but having never experienced it myself and not being familiar with the story or characters, it’s hard to say how this will turn out.
What I can say, however, is that I’m thrilled to see Duncan Jones landing more directing gigs, especially on big budget tentpoles like this one. He’s one of my favourite directors working today and I’m intrigued to see what he’ll bring to the table here.
What do you think? Are you happy to see Duncan Jones directing World of Warcraft?
