Movie Chronicles » World of Warcraft Movie

Thomas Tull discusses film’s progress June 27th, 2007

Speak­ing at the Hol­ly­wood and Game sum­mit keynote, Thomas Tull (Leg­endary Pic­tures Chair­man) pro­vided some rest-bite, ensur­ing us that the movie will be dealt with as nec­es­sary. He begins,

“We’re doing World of War­craft, and mak­ing it into a movie. I have very strong feel­ings — from the movie side — that mak­ing movies based on games just because they sold well is a really bad idea. There’ve been some like that that weren’t up to snuff just out of the gate. It doesn’t mat­ter to us if it’s based on a graphic novel like [Frank Miller’s] 300, or a TV show – if there’s a great uni­verse and story, that’s what’s inter­est­ing to us.”

In the fol­low­ing  Ques­tion and Answer ses­sion Tull stated that Leg­endary and Bliz­zard are work­ing very closely together to get the sto­ry­line per­fect by pin­point­ing what makes up the essence of the War­craft universe:

“I think some of the stuff that makes a game trans­late well into a movie is a good story. If there’s a lore, if there’s a road and story and a world that’s been cre­ated, and char­ac­ters that are inter­est­ing in a way that’s more than just point and shoot. You have to look at it and not make a nov­elty out of it. Not just look at sales records. Bliz­zard plays a very impor­tant role in this process. If you’ve cre­ated a game, be it Halo, Gears Of War, or War­craft [each being trans­formed into a movie] — you came up with some­thing that’s com­pelling enough to res­onate with a huge num­ber of peo­ple. There has to be a trust, and you have to at some point hand over the baton to peo­ple who know how to make films.

“We are work­ing very closely with the design­ers and writ­ers, and they’re very involved. I think on the big­ger [films] you have to have that. They’re sit­ting right there at the table with us as we develop the story and the script, and I think we’re nail­ing the story and what’s com­pelling about it.”

Via Gama­su­tra where you can find more news from the Hol­ly­wood and Game summit.

Comments 45 Responses to “Thomas Tull discusses film’s progress”

Kyle February 5th, 2008

Mak­ing a real life War­craft will be a fail­ure. And you know it will. So why not take up a com­puter ani­mated full length movie like the cin­e­mat­ics. Not only would it be in sync with orig­i­nal cin­e­mat­ics that fans have already seen, but it’ll be a break through in movie ani­ma­tion. Beowulf tried to do some­thing with it, and it looked really good in my opin­ion. They just chose the wrong story.


Elvin February 8th, 2008

I agree with Kyle. Beowulf was good-wrong story how­ever. They should to that with Wacraft because if real-life actors are used fans will think, ‘What the heel?’ This isn’t Warcraft-its shit. Thats my opinion.


Greg February 8th, 2008

i agree w/ kyle


Damian February 12th, 2008

I thi­ink this would be an amaz­ing film.…my whole fam­ily plays the game and we were say­ing they should make a movie.…so i looked it up and found this it made me so excited.…it is a great idea.…i give the idea 10 gold stars=)


Zackor (Human Warrior) February 26th, 2008

I totally agree with Kyle. World of War­crat is sim­ply NOT real life. It is fan­tasy, a com­pletely dif­fer­ent world. I sug­gest putting up a poll on this web­site where peo­ple can vote wether or not the movie shall be “real life” or “com­puter ani­mated”. I’d most def­i­nitely vote for com­puter ani­mated, just like the cin­e­mat­ics that comes with the game. They are brilliant..


Zackor (Human Warrior) February 26th, 2008

In case my last com­ment did not get reg­is­tered. To sum it all up. I totally agree with Kyle. Make this movie using comuter graph­ics like the cinematics..


Ricky March 30th, 2008

Per­son­ally, i think they should use the graph­ics from the movies that WoW has. hmmm.…thats the wrong way to say it… The cin­e­mat­ics from the intro movies would prob­a­bly be good. As well as the cutscenes in the orig­i­nal game.


Car­olyn April 22nd, 2008

I have to agree with Kyle. I love the cin­e­matic form Blizz uses to intro­duce the WoW games..why not use that in the movie.


Sora­bella June 30th, 2008

I want to be an extra!!


Rafayel August 21st, 2008

ok so ppl are sayin the com­puter graph­ics should be used but u cant really judge on how the movie will turn out if made into real life u have never seen a real life wow cutscenes so none of us is at a real stand­point 2 judge


Scott August 24th, 2008

Look, as many have said the movie will either be remark­ably amaz­ing or a dis­crace to the Wacraft name. I believe that Bliz­zard will NOT fail us in mak­ing this movie all that we could imag­ine it to be. Unfor­tu­nately on the real life side of the film mak­ing I believe that peo­ple will be dis­s­a­pointed if they see plas­tic suits like in dun­geons and drag­ons… no offence. I think that peo­ple like the cin­e­matic trail­ers and cutscenes because of the graph­ics. I actu­ally believe that if the movie can be made with the same level of real life, as an ani­ma­tion then why not. Either way I am look­ing foward to the movie.


Julian­boxe August 30th, 2008

Well I dont agree with Kyle.

I think that beowulf sucked both graphic style and story-wise.
I love cin­e­mat­ics from Bliz­zard too, but those could ( and prob­lably would) be applied in a real movie as espe­cial effects.
I think that , though a movie with real peo­ple is really risky, if done done with the per­fec­tion we always expect from bliz­zard, could be a great movie. Maybe a “Glad­i­a­tor” or “Brave­heart” kinda of movie set in the World of War­craft! Thats what i’m expecting.


Брунно September 2nd, 2008

Опять-таки достаточно побочная проблемка. Вряд ли она кому-нибудь мешает, мне вот лично как то пофигу :)


Derek September 17th, 2008

Hi
You shoud be the jour­nal­ist with your nice talent


Free­kee October 27th, 2008

Народ в таких случаях говорит — Батюшка Питер бока наши повытер.


Travis December 18th, 2008

I agree with Scott and JUlian­boxe on this one. If you want every­thing to look real life why dont you actu­aly do it in real life. The spe­cial effects you can tell are going to be great from just look­ing at the cin­e­mat­ics on the world of war­craft but they should try using real actors. The highly ani­mated movies intended for adults all suck pretty bad. I must say that if they used the same type of film­ing as 300 it will be amaz­ing. WOW just would look so much bet­ter with slow-mo cam­era on.


Brit­tany January 5th, 2009

I agree with both sides. But it would be really kick ass if real actors played the roles, i say this because i mean lord of the rings wasnt bad, pshh even Nar­nia. You can say what you want, but my opin­ion would be mak­ing the movie with actors/actresses. Either way the movie needs to come out i wanna watch it now lol. ( If you need any chicks to play a role count me in :].)


Purps (Draeni Paladin) February 10th, 2009

I hope they dont mess this up, that would be the end of war­craft for sure


Tita­nis March 17th, 2009

I see one per­son say that it would not be good because its not real life, it’s fan­tasy. I totally agree with you that it is fan­tasy. But let us take a look at one of the most epic fan­tasy movies Lord Of The Rings. Pure fan­tasy but looked very real­is­tic. Almost every­one walked away from that movie want­ing more. That’s how WoW is, every­one walks away from it want­ing more and thats how the movie needs to be. If they have the right team they can make this movie big­ger then LOTR. Only the best direc­tors can bring this movie to life. If they make it com­puter based, (like 300), or car­toon­ish that would be a huge mis­take. This is an epic game, it deserves bet­ter then that. We will see, it will be interesting.


chee­taspoisee May 24th, 2009

ха-ха смешно

здесь видел ет game​bul​letin​.ru


kali June 7th, 2009

As long as the movie dont lag , lock up , glitch out , ran­domly boot you then i say the movie will rock , its a must watch


Greg June 22nd, 2009

Okay first of all i think it will be a com­plete fail­ure if made in real life. The actors i think wont be able to take the rolls of the peo­ple in war­craft like their atti­tudes and and spells things of that sort. Also what will they use as the props plas­tic suits of armor? and if the movie is rin real life almost the whole movie will be in spe­cial effects because of how many mag­i­cal things that hap­pen in the sto­ries and games. Now if they do ani­ma­tion i think they will eas­ily be able to shape the char­ac­ters and the fan­tasy in the game that a real life movie wouldn’t be able to shape


momo7 June 25th, 2009

The movie will be per​fect​.As you know Blizard and WB(Worner Broders) are good in all!!! And I think the movie World of War­craft will be the great­est fillm ever made and it will be the fillm of the year !!![..]


alex January 1st, 2010

I agree with Kyle too real life war­craft will suck!!!
it would be bet­ter if they will do it ani­mated like many other new movies! i cant imag­ine undead or tau­ren play­ing in real life movie

by http://​alexragea​holic​.blogspot​.com


Play Free WoW March 6th, 2010

Hey, came in from Google. I’m book­mark­ing, aloha. :)


myspace chips March 20th, 2010

i was start­ing to sup­pose i may per­haps be the only young woman whom thought about this, at least at this point i learn i’m not ridicu­lous :) i am going to be sure to take a look at a num­ber dif­fer­ent arti­cles when i get a lit­tle caf­feine in me, it’s not easy to read with­out hav­ing my cof­fee, I was until the wee hours of the morn­ing last evening grind­ing myspace poker and after down­ing a few brewskies i ended up giv­ing up all my face­book poker chips take care :)


dia­blo 3 forum March 29th, 2010

My par­ents and I been play­ing World of War­craft since its release and have been play­ing ever since. It brings peo­ple raid together and the pos­i­tive social atmos­phere is what makes this so popular.


Zach­ery Steigerwald April 8th, 2010

I am unt­terly addicted wow.


Jenif­fer Bernabo April 8th, 2010

I can’t wait for the new toy story 3 movie… do you guys know when it’s realeased ?


Jean­nette Bakios April 27th, 2010

Ha ha ha ha… Very funny. I liked it a lot.


Coral Boshard May 13th, 2010

awe­some blog


Edwin Oballe May 14th, 2010

I found this really inter­est­ing, I hope you make more posts like this!


gnage May 18th, 2010

i think they should have a go with using real actors for the movie but also make a amine out of it using the com­pute cin­e­matic that they use to promo the game


aol down­load center May 21st, 2010

When you’re a real estate agent, you are your own brand. It’s your own rep­u­ta­tion, your own name, on the line. And it’s sad that some peo­ple don’t seem to care.


Jer­rell Vilhauer June 3rd, 2010

I was actu­ally diag­nosed for a gam­ing habit because of World of War­craft. I started 2 years back, and even bought things like a horde guide to help me to level up in WoW. It slowly took over my com­plete life, and to chop an extended story short, my friends needed to bring me to the doc­tor. It is now 4 months since my ther­apy began, and I really feel com­pletely weaned off the game. World of War­craft is fun, but I really advise against it in case you’re some­body with weak will-power like myself. Just thought I’d share.


Linn Christo­pherso June 3rd, 2010

I used to be actu­ally diag­nosed for a gam­ing depen­dancy because of World of War­craft. I started 2 years back, and even pur­chased things like a horde guide to assist me to level up in WoW. It slowly took over my full life, and to cut an extended story short, my fam­ily had to bring me to the doc­tor. It is now 4 months since my treat­ment began, and I feel com­pletely weaned off the game. World of War­craft is fun, how­ever I highly advise against it when you’re some­body with weak will-power like myself. Just thought I’d share.


Jan­u­ary Heiden June 13th, 2010

Well writ­ten arti­cle. Wait­ing patiently for more.


Cle­tus Raper June 17th, 2010

Hello, I like the Shrek movies, awe­some film!


down­lad free full games June 17th, 2010

I stopped by on ur great Site. Good Work sir.


Ramuh (53 For­saken Shaman) December 9th, 2010

Hmmm… I’m mighty ticked off by Blizzard’s removal of the Zul’Gurub mounts on the upcom­ing patch, now here’s an idea that blizz should use to keep the mounts ingame, even after zul­gu­rub has gone: How about hav­ing a quest every day pretty much like that one for the polar bear?

There could be an NPC (it would be STV or one of the newer areas) giv­ing us a quest and then the reward would be to let me chose between two bags: “Raz­za­shi bag of spoils” and “Zulian bag of spoils”. As the name sug­gests, the Raz­za­shi one has a chance to drop the rap­tor, and the Zulian might be able to drop the tiger. You can pick only 1 of the bags a day. But that allows you to pick whichever is more con­ve­nient, to avoid receiv­ing the mount you already possess.

Now we would still have access to the mounts, but with­out cheap­en­ing them.

Any­hoo, I think I’d best con­tinue with my quests.


Ase­hon (45 Night Elf Shaman) December 9th, 2010

Hmm.. I’ve been look­ing to find out if hav­ing Alts in our guild will be detri­men­tal to the Rank­ing sys­tem or not. If so, I know I will be pulling mine out of the guild and cre­at­ing an alter­nate char­ac­ter guild for our alts until they’re at the level appro­pri­ate to bring to the guild with­out hurt­ing the score for the mains. All of the alts are at rank 1 sta­tus, so I’ve bene attempt­ing to find out if Guild ranks will be taken to con­sid­er­a­tion regard­ing the over­all guild score to avoid this.

Well, I sup­pose I’d best return to my quests.


girls gone wild January 3rd, 2011

WOW! Keep it up man! you rock


den­tal assis­tant salary January 8th, 2011

Agree!Stacks of sober­ing, tough to acquire infor­ma­tion here. This was a excel­lent piece of writ­ing. Do go on as you are. Thank you for you hard work.


Tracy Gottschall February 2nd, 2011

This post is great. Thank you for this post. I like this type of peo­ple who share knowl­edge with others.


Reed February 12th, 2011

I feel that mak­ing the movie in a Cin­e­matic type of way would please the fans the most but most likely not reach out to the mass major­ity of the world who would go and see the movie. Of course nearly all of the world of war­craft play­ers will go and see the movie; but you must think of the none player’s who go to see it they might not agree with a ani­ma­tion movie. Think of lord of the rings, that was an epic film that touched the hearths of mil­lions! If World of War­craft could be brought into that kind of newer light i feel that movie would be down right amaz­ing! Its risky either way, as long as the story line is truly a good one im sure that the movie will be a big hit either way. it truly depends on what the direc­tor and film cre­ators see as a bet­ter idea and will appeal to the mass major­ity of the peo­ple who watch the film.