New Release Window, Subtitle Emerge For Warcraft Film

[Earnest Cavalli]

New Release Window, Subtitle Emerge For Warcraft Film

Though its still a ways from release, details have begun to leak from Legendary Pictures' upcoming Warcraft, er, excuse me, I mean Warcraft: Rise of the Lich King.

Along with the new subtitle, the movie's IMDB entry [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0803096/] boasts a new release window. It's still quite nebulous, but barring any delays we should be enjoying Hollywood's concept of Murloc genocide sometime in 2011.

WorldofWar.net sees the new subtitle as a not-so-subtle hint that the film's plot will focus directly on Arthas, the titular lich king and key antagonist of the World of Warcraft MMO.

"A film based on Arthas as a main figure is definitely attractive to the audience, either to fans or to viewers new to the fantasy storyline. The life of Arthas is one saturated of tragic things that led him to take different type of choices. Some that drove him to the brink of insanity, shredding away the last vestiges of his humanity, taking an oath to give up his soul if he was empowered to slay the enemy that destroyed his land, and if it allowed him to save his people by wielding the runesword known as Frostmourne," the fansite explains [http://wow.incgamers.com/blog/comments/legendary-pictures-renames-film-to-warcraft-the-rise-of-the-lich-king/].

Of course, that's all speculation until Blizzard or Legendary Pictures opts to release some solid info, but it seems solid to my far-too-knowledgable-about-Warcraft-miscellenea mind. Let's just hope it turns out better than the obliquely similar Anakin Skywalker story arc from the execrable latter day Star Wars films.

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[Christemo]

THIS. IS. GONNA. BE. AWESOME!

 

[John Funk]

That's the subtitle to the Arthas novel, wasn't it? Which sounds to me like it'll roughly be a retelling of the story.

On the one hand, that's cool because it was a good pulp-fiction read that fleshed out the character a ton more. On the other, I have to question whether or not it'll actually be accessible to non-fans, since they didn't have the attachment to the character/world that existing Warcraft fans already do.

On the other hand, this opens the door for

Spoiler

Hot Arthas-on-Jaina action. Awwwww yeah.

 

[Amnestic]

That's the subtitle to the Arthas novel, wasn't it? Which sounds to me like it'll roughly be a retelling of the story.

Yes. The full title of the book was World of Warcraft: Arthas- Rise of the Lich King. Still haven't finished that yet. Should get round to it. I've only got a small slither of the book left to read anyway.

 

[Arsen]

Fuck Arthas.

Damn Blizzard ripping off Mordred from Le Morte De Arthur, the fact that he's freezing in the icy pits of Dante's Inferno, and furthermore depict him an Anakin/Sarth Vaderish kind of style. This company does nothing but rip off piece after piece of lore then bastardize it beyond contemplation.

I swear, this "story" is the deathblow to the worlds Tolkien and those old myths created. Wake me up when they announce the Icewind Dale movie.

 

[GamerLuck]

*Sigh* I really want this movie to be good, but i just cant get excited for it... I am a long time believer in "Game Movies are all CRAP".... Either this will suck and finally get hollywood to leave us be, or be awesome and shatter my tiny, pessimistic world.

 

[John Funk]

Fuck Arthas.

Damn Blizzard ripping off Mordred from Le Morte De Arthur, the fact that he's freezing in the icy pits of Dante's Inferno, and furthermore depict him an Anakin/Sarth Vaderish kind of style. This company does nothing but rip off piece after piece of lore then bastardize it beyond contemplation.

I swear, this "story" is the deathblow to the worlds Tolkien and those old myths created. Wake me up when they announce the Icewind Dale movie.

Wait, what? How is Arthas like Mordred at all, other than the general idea of "we kill our father kings"? Arthas had mostly good intentions and spiraled downhill, Mordred was pretty villainous (or at least hated Arthur) from the start. And the whole "frozen hellish evil land" [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GrimUpNorth] is a pretty timeless trope.

I'm not saying that Arthas is a particularly original character, because he's not. But I don't see the Mordred thing.

 

[thiosk]

Bah-- arthas. Makes me wonder what douchebag is going to play him in the film.

I was hoping for a more of a Warcraft: the Chasms of Draenor sort of film than a reimagined warcraft 3.

Edit: Looking at the graphic, I could swear Arthas is a chaos marine.

 

[DeadAccountMoveAlong]

I think a World of Warcraft movie may break the history of crappy game-based movies. WoW's fanbase is too rabid to allow a failure, sort of the same thing behind the newest Star Trek release.
On another note, thank sweet baby Jesus the plot might still be in Warcraft Three lore. I never gave WoW a chance, I stand fully behind the "Blizzard shouldn't have halted all projects for five years while they worked on WoW epansions" train of thought... the one exclusive to all two of us who don't play WoW.

 

[thiosk]

WHY DON'T THEY DO THIS F***ING STORY IN WARCRAFT 4?!

I'm anticipating it will run in the Starcraft 2 engine, so look for it 2 years after Starcraft 2 comes out. I also anticipate it will be much more merged into WoW, and will release concurrently with a major expansion.

 

[Amnestic]

WoW can't even advance the stoyline properly.

I find people who say this the least willing to read quest descriptions in WoW, if they played it at all.

 

[Loop Stricken]

Fuck Arthas.

Damn Blizzard ripping off Mordred from Le Morte De Arthur, the fact that he's freezing in the icy pits of Dante's Inferno, and furthermore depict him an Anakin/Sarth Vaderish kind of style. This company does nothing but rip off piece after piece of lore then bastardize it beyond contemplation.

No mention of Sauron? Troll harder.

 

[Captain Pancake]

WHY DON'T THEY DO THIS F***ING STORY IN WARCRAFT 4?!

IT'S NOT AS IF THERE ARE ANY BIG GAPS IN HIS LIFE!

Anyway, I liked the original RTSes, as you've probably guessed.

WoW can't even advance the stoyline properly.

It's a bit hard to progress a story in a MMORPG anyway.

A small coincidence here in that my friend just got WoW and it's first expansion, after a recommendation from another friend.

 

[Jaqen Hghar]

So instead of making a Warcraft movie they are making a World of Warcraft movie?
I like the three first Warcraft games (number three a lot less than the other ones) and I wish the movie would focus more on those stories. But no, they have to make it in the WoW storyline. I guess that is the best way to make money on it, since a lot of people don't even know of the first games.
Oh well. As much as I despise WoW, I hope this turns out great. Might turn the trend of crappy-games-to-movies.

 

[John Funk]

WoW can't even advance the stoyline properly.

I find people who say this the least willing to read quest descriptions in WoW, if they played it at all.

I haven't played, it, it seems way too expaensive, but I asked someone here and they told me that al that happens is the orcs team up with the night elves or something.

You know, just for you, I'm going on Wikipedia to check.

www.wowwiki.com

They've actually done a very good job at moving the story line, I think. Both introducing new plotlines (Old Gods/Ahn'qiraj) and wrapping up threads from WC3 (Legion/Illidan/Kaelthas/Scourge/Arthas). And Cataclysm is going to probably do so even more significantly.

WHY DON'T THEY DO THIS F***ING STORY IN WARCRAFT 4?!

IT'S NOT AS IF THERE ARE ANY BIG GAPS IN HIS LIFE!

Anyway, I liked the original RTSes, as you've probably guessed.

WoW can't even advance the stoyline properly.

...they did this in Warcraft III. It's the fall and rise of Arthas. We've already SEEN it in the RTS It's just fleshing it out more. (At least, just going by the subtitle)

 

[Amnestic]

WoW can't even advance the stoyline properly.

I find people who say this the least willing to read quest descriptions in WoW, if they played it at all.

I haven't played, it, it seems way too expaensive, but I asked someone here and they told me that al that happens is the orcs team up with the night elves or something.

You know, just for you, I'm going on Wikipedia to check.

Yes, because Orcs never teamed up with the Night Elves before. Wait, what's that Archimonde? Battle of Mount Hyjal? Intriguing! Talking about WoW's story having never played the game is laughable. That'd be like me reviewing NASA's space program having never watched more than the Apollo 13 film

Also, WoW costs approximately £9/month assuming you pay for the most flexible subscription. It's cheaper than £9/month if you buy their 3 monthly or 6 monthly subscriptions by a few quid.

If you play for one hour per day, you're paying 30p/hour for gameplay which gets so much lower if you play more than that - as many people do. Expensive? Compared to what? How many games do you normally buy per month? One perhaps? Maybe more if you're coming up on a high number of Grade A titles?

So instead of making a Warcraft movie they are making a World of Warcraft movie?

Eh? Arthas was featured prominently in Warcraft 3 and was the major focus of WC3 expansion. I'm not quite sure how you think a film on Arthas equals a film on WoW.

 

[Dyp100]

Can we get Arthus saying grovy? :'D

I really loved WIII, so I hope the plot is well done, it'll be nice to see a GOOD movie from a game, but we have yet to see what happens.

 

[101194]

That's the subtitle to the Arthas novel, wasn't it? Which sounds to me like it'll roughly be a retelling of the story.

On the one hand, that's cool because it was a good pulp-fiction read that fleshed out the character a ton more. On the other, I have to question whether or not it'll actually be accessible to non-fans, since they didn't have the attachment to the character/world that existing Warcraft fans already do.

On the other hand, this opens the door for

Spoiler

Hot Arthas-on-Jaina action. Awwwww yeah.

Awwwwwwwwhhh Yeah, <spoiler=My spoiler joke>Ruffle that Archmage Priceboy.

OP: I hope this film kicks ass! and that the Dipicition of Arthas should be done by a great actor, Because Knocking like Arthas takes balls and really shows his struggle for the people who don't konw.

 

[John Funk]

Yes, because Orcs never teamed up with the Night Elves before. Wait, what's that Archimonde? Battle of Mount Hyjal? Intriguing! Talking about WoW's story having never played the game is laughable. That'd be like me reviewing NASA's space program having never watched more than the Apollo 13 film

Also, WoW costs approximately £9/month assuming you pay for the most flexible subscription. It's cheaper than £9/month if you buy their 3 monthly or 6 monthly subscriptions by a few quid.

If you play for one hour per day, you're paying 30p/hour for gameplay which gets so much lower if you play more than that - as many people do. Expensive? Compared to what? How many games do you normally buy per month? One perhaps? Maybe more if you're coming up on a high number of Grade A titles?

Look, a) I prefer RTSes to MMORPGs by miles, b) I probably buy less games than that a month, and c) I just really want to know everything that happened. I tried wikiing it a million times, and seeing as I'll never find it out any other way, can you give me a complete plot summary of the WoW storyline?

Finally, I wasn't saying that it was bad that the orcs teamed up with the night elves, just that the way I was told it was all that happened so far.

Thanks

There are like.... fifty different plots going on in WoW depending on the zone / the race, and the Orcs and the NElves are on different factions (Horde and Alliance). What story do you want? The Defias Brotherhood? The kidnapping and return of the King of Stormwind? The madness of the Scarlet Crusade? The fall of Gnomeregan? The Silithid, the Qiraji, and the Old Gods? The Blood Elves' capture of a Naaru and final reawakening to the Light?

It's kind of impossible to summarize WoW just like that.