Warcraft is an upcoming fantasy epic based on the Warcraft series and set on the world of Azeroth. It was first announced in 2006 as a project partnership with Legendary Pictures,^[4] but since more than 6 years have passed since the announcement and the film still is not in shooting. Starting in February 2013, there has been a relative flurry of small news bits from recently named Director, Duncan Jones.^[5] In April 2013, Legendary Pictures producer, Thomas Tull, was reported to have said production status, script, and release date announcements were coming "soon".^[6] Development does appear to be proceeding, though, as a Blizzard executive, Nick Carpenter, recently confirmed Bill Westenhofer as the Visual Effects director for the film.^[7]

The film was originally set in the era of Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. This was scrapped, however, as there were notions that it would be too similar to Lord of the Rings and that Warcraft had reached its current level of popularity through its MMORPG, rather than the previous RTS games.^[8]

The movie will primarily be told from the Alliance's point of view, though Chris Metzen says his heart lies with the Horde. At BlizzCon 2007, Metzen said that the main character is set to be a new hero described as a "kick-ass Human" and an "Anti-Thrall".^[9][10]

Director - Duncan Jones^[1][2]

Executive Producer - Stuart Fenegan^[2]

Co-Producer - Chris Metzen (Blizzard)^[2]

Producer - Charles Roven^[2]

Producer - Alex Gartner^[2]

Producer - Thomas Tull (Legendary Pictures)^[2]

Producer - Jon Jashni (Legendary Pictures)^[2]

Writer - Charles Leavitt^[2]

Visual Effects Director - Bill Westenhofer^[7]

In a May 9, 2006 press release, Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures announced that they will develop a live-action film set in the Warcraft universe. Legendary Pictures has acquired the movie rights for the game universe, and both companies are now focused on translating the Warcraft experience to the big screen. Read more about it in the press release.^[4] At BlizzCon 2008, according to Mike Morhaime, a script was being written.^[11] Chris Metzen mentioned that the film will be action-packed and violent, stating "We're definitely not going to make a G or a PG version of this. It's not PillowfightCraft."^[12]

The live-action film was set for release in 2009,^[12] but was later rescheduled to 2011.^[13] On July 22, 2009, Blizzard Entertainment announced that Sam Raimi would become the Warcraft movie director, but in July 2012 he told Crave Online that he would not direct due to committing to the movie Oz the Great and Powerful.^[14] At San Diego Comic-Con 2011, Chris Metzen said the movie was not dead, but gave few useful details saying it was still in the "treatment stage".^[15] In mid-March 2012, Nethaera said the movie is "still on the radar" with no other update.^[16]

Not much happened through late 2012, but in late January 2013, Legendary Pictures announced that director Duncan Jones had been attached to the production,^[2] sparking some hope the filming might start. No specific development news has come out so far in Spring 2013, but lots of indirect evidence of film production has cropped up. However, previous Director, Sam Raimi, did explain why he left the project in 2013. He revealed that a lot of pre-production work was done by him and Robert Rodat (script writer), but Blizzard effectively vetoed their work and he largely blamed it on their mismanagement.^[17]

The film is supposed to begin principal photography some time in early 2014 with a plot based on the novel Warcraft: The Last Guardian.^[18] </ref> On September 22, 2013, actors Colin Farrell and Paula Patton are in talks to portray the leads in the film.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

A very short visual teaser for the film was introduced by current director, Duncan Jones, at San Diego Comic-Con 2013.^[19] Here is a brief description of the teaser which was not released to the public:^[20]

A view of a desolate, dry landscape full of rocky outcroppings that pans to a scruffy, armored human soldier drinking water from a leather skin. A cage with rocks in it is shown followed by a squeaking noise as a green tinged sky is shown with dark clouds and green lightning. The waterskin is tossed to the ground and the soldier draws his sword with a sound of metal ringing off metal. The human walks over to the skeleton a fallen soldier and picks up the soldier's shield. He smashes his sword on the shield, apparently testing it. Cut to the muscled green arm (likely of an orc) of a creature heading toward the soldier. They circle each other with flashes of green skin and some armor as they charge each other. An extreme closeup of the orc as it raises its hammer and brings it down as the human raises his shield. Cut to black. A Warcraft logo. And then the Blizzard Entertainment logo.

The film will begin filming on January 13th 2014. ^[21]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Warcraft (film).

• Warcraft at IMDb