Duncan Jones Discusses WARCRAFT and Breaking The Video Game Movie Curse
While we wait for the first full trailer for Warcraft to premiere today, we have an EW interview with director Duncan Jones about the epic fantasy adventure film.
I'm not only excited to see the film for myself, but I’m also excited to how it changes the way these kinds of movies are made. The epicness you saw in the previously released teaser trailer is just the tip of the iceberg of what this film has to offer. As I’ve said before, I think this movie is going to take fantasy to a whole new level. I also think it will break the video game movie curse. When asked about that specifically, Jones had this to say:
“There are a couple of things. One thing I would say is that that stigma used to be attached to comic book movies too. It took a generation of filmmakers who loved and were raised on comic books to make movies that you actually cared about and felt something for. I think that’s absolutely the same with what’s going on with video game movies. I am absolutely of the video games generation, starting on the Atari and Commodore 64 and the Amiga. I’m a gamer at heart and always have been. I’m also a filmmaker. I think my sensibilities about storytelling and character just automatically come into play when I’m trying to work on any kind of narrative. For me, it doesn’t really matter what the source of the narrative is. I will be looking for ways to make it into an intriguing story with empathetic characters.”
Warcraft is a film that was made for both fans of the game and audiences who have never played it. It had to appeal to everyone, and from what I’ve seen and heard, the film will please people on both sides of the fence. Jones went on to talk about the faithfulness of the movie to the game:
“I am someone who played Warcraft, but at the same time, I consider myself a filmmaker first. I think one of the reasons why it’s taken so long for this film to come together the way it has is that there were a lot of priorities and a lot of concerns about what this film needed to be and how it absolutely had to be something that you could approach and watch if you didn’t know anything about Warcraft. That was really that tricky line to walk, making sure that the fans would really feel that it’s their world and at the same time introduce it in a way to people who know nothing about it. That’s why it took such a long time. Peter Jackson went through this with The Fellowship of the Ring. There was always going to be a hardcore fanbase for Tolkien that was going to take him to task if he didn’t address things in a way that stayed true to the spirit of Tolkien’s work. Obviously, we don’t have the amount of history that Tolkien does. It’s a different fanbase, somewhat overlapping. We have the same passion amongst our fans, so it was a similar job.”
The director spoke about the challenges of putting together the first trailer for the film saying:
“We’ve got an awful lot of introducing to do, both in this movie and inviting audiences in to come see this movie. There’s an entirely new world, new characters. This is beyond the Warcraft faithful, who know what it is that we’re talking about. Also, what kind of subject matter is it? What kind of fantasy is it? There will be different pieces that we have to address over the seven months until our film comes out. Right now, we just want to give everyone a sense of the breadth of the world, the kind of action that’s involved, and a sense of the energy of the movie. As we go along, I’m sure we’ll be introducing people to the broader spectrum of what this big, big film is.”
Since the movie is completely finished, Jones can basically watch the movie whenever he wants. The last question he was asked was, “Do you just watch Warcraft on your phone because you can?” This was his reply:
“Right now, I feel really bad for my wife because I keep on playing the teaser trailer and seeing what people are saying about it. It’s absolutely self-destructive behavior, but I think today I’m just going to give myself the day off to do that kind of thing. We’ve been waiting nearly three years now to see what people think of what we’ve been doing. I’ve just been enjoying the excitement.”
We’ll make sure to post that trailer for you as soon as it’s released later on today! It’s something you won’t want to miss! Warcraft arrives in theaters on June 10th, 2016.