Duncan Jones hopes to give a new voice to fantasy films with Warcraft, the highly anticipated, big-budget epic that hits Australian theatres one month from today.
Speaking at the recent global press conference for the movie in Los Angeles, the director referred to the Lord of the Rings trilogy by Peter Jackson as the “gorilla in the room” when it came to fantasy films, but despite being hard to live up to, Jones hoped Warcraft would herald a new cinematic era for the genre.
“I love the opportunity to maybe try and do a film which would hopefully reach the same bar as Lord of the Rings, but give fantasy a little bit of a new voice and a new feel, and that’s what we tried to do with Warcraft,” Jones said.
Yesterday Jones was in Russia for a special Warcraft presentation at Moscow’s Epicenter and said having grown up reading science fiction and fantasy books, being able to bring Warcraft to the big screen was a dream come true. Jones, who was dressed in Alliance colours, was joined by Robert Kazinsky for the Russian event, who portrays orc warrior Orgrim and appeared on the stage carrying the Doomhammer.
Asked to elaborate on how playing World of Warcraft had saved his life, Kazinsky said WoW had offered a place where nobody knew who he was and where he was judged only by how good he was at the game. It also gave him a sense of community and helped bring back his self–belief. “Now that we get to make this movie, I get to repay the game for what it gave me,” Kazinsky said.
Meanwhile new stills have been released from the film including images of Travis Fimmel as Anduin Lothar, Ben Foster as mage Medivh, and his apprentice Khadgar portrayed by Ben Schnetzer. You can also check out three clips from the film featuring Lothar in a battle scene, Medivh casting a spell and a scene with Garona and King Llane.
A new international TV spot for the film also showcases a scene featuring Lothar that you can view below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twYw0dbPBfU
Based on the worldwide phenomenon World of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment and directed by Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) Warcraft: The Beginning stars Australians Travis Fimmel as Anduin Lothar and Anna Galvin as Draka, Paula Patton as Garona, Ben Foster as Medivh, Dominic Cooper as King Llane, Toby Kebbell as Durotan, Ben Schnetzer as Khadgar, Robert Kazinsky as Orgrim Doomhammer and Daniel Wu as Gul’dan.
The 3D epic fantasy adventure of world-colliding conflict is written by Charles Leavitt and Duncan Jones. The film is a Legendary Pictures, Blizzard Entertainment and Atlas Entertainment production and will be released by Universal Pictures.
Warcraft: The Beginning opens in Australia on June 16.
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