BlizzCon, the fan convention for the World of Warcraft video game by Blizzard Entertainment Inc., kicked off Friday. News about the Warcraft film has been slow coming. The cast and characters were finally announced at a BlizzCon panel on Friday, building hype for the film that had been announced as early as 2006.
According to the Associated Press , Warcraft director Duncan Jones was joined at BlizzCon by the visual effects supervisor, Bill Westenhofer, and actor Rob Kazinsky, who will play Orgrim, an orc warrior. Duncan talked about the plot and effects. Fans were invited afterward to view a trailer for Warcraft . BlizzCon goers also got to see behind-the-scenes footage of Industrial Light and Magic’s computer-generated orcs.
“We have so many special effects. It’s ‘Avatar’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’ at the same time.”
Jones revealed that Warcraft will focus on the early days of the World of Warcraft game, when conflict waged between humans and orcs. However, Duncan does not want to tell you which side to be on. Warcraft recast the orcs in a better light. Especially since there are fans for both the Alliance and the Horde, Jones may have made a beneficial move toward creating a successful movie.
“As in the game, where you can choose what side to be on, I thought it was really important that we made a film which allowed you to be on either side of the conflict and follow heroes on both sides.”
Not only was the Warcraft plot revealed at BlizzCon, but stills of certain actors and characters appeared on the giant screens for panel goers. Actors chosen for the Alliance (human) roles include Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper, Travis Fimmel, and Ben Schnetzer.
Orcs on the Horde roles include actors Toby Kebbel, Clancy Brown, Daniel Wu, and Paula Patton. Paula is the only actor portraying an orc whose image will not be computer generated, says IGN . Instead, the effects teams used makeup to enhance her performance.
BlizzCon usually brings news about the film as details slowly come together. Last year, Colin Farrell was rumored to be in talks to become a cast member, as covered by the Inquisitr . However, he was not in the lineup of this year’s Warcraft announcements.
Posters for Warcraft were revealed after the BlizzCon film panel to promote the different factions. Fans can support their favorite side by visiting either fightforthealliance.com or fightforthehorde.com. Warcraft has a release date of March 2016.
[Photo Sources: Eclypsia, Cast Stills from IGN, and Posters from ComicBook.com]
