Sam Raimi: Warcraft

[DJ Mighty]

Couldnt find a thread on this, sorry if this is old news.

I am not sure about this, as much as i love Spiderman 2 i dont know if he can pull this off.

http://news-briefs.ew.com/2009/07/sam-raimi-warcraft.html

Edit: i just saw its posted on the WoW website as well.

[lazygecko]

Army of Darkness style Warcraft > LotR style Warcraft

[OverCoat]

Holy shit Sam Raimi warcraft movie

Hopefully they will film a live action version of "Warcraft Adventures" !!!

[Moseph]

Where's my Warcraft Broadway musical?

[Bleck]

this could be good if he just tries to do as good a job as possible with the source material instead of going to any lengths to please the sweaty disgusting people who play WoW

[friendlyHunter]

this could be good if he just tries to do as good a job as possible with the source material instead of going to any lengths to please the sweaty disgusting people who play WoW

My thoughts exactly. It might do WoW players good to know what Blizzard storytelling was like before it turned stupid.

A few years ago I decided to read the story from the Warcraft I and II instruction manuals... I have to say it's as dark as Diablo or LoTR. Even Warcraft III's instruction manual has a pretty dark and interesting story.

In the Warcraft instruction manual there is a picture of an Ogre taking a huge bit out of a horse, and the Warcraft II manual contains drawings of an enraged Troll pierced with arrows, Orcs trying to taste the blood dripping from a human head held by another Orc, and an Orc with an expression of absolute agony as he's being turned into a freaking sheep. Warcraft was filled with crazy awesome stuff and a good movie-length story before it turned into a silly cartoon world.

[Edit]

To be honest, I can't imagine a decent Warcraft movie that doesn't sufficiently cover the origin of Orcs in Azeroth (the Dark Portal and all that stuff). I can't see them including Night Elves either without it getting very bad very fast (unless the movie is 4 hours and covers thousands of years of history).

[Bleck]

it should basically just be Thrall: The Movie

[friendlyHunter]

Yeah that would work. So long as they don't assume the audience has any background knowledge of what happened before Thrall was born. Heck, the movie could even reveal the Orcs' demonic past at the same time Thrall learns about it (though I have no idea when that is).

[Ramaniscence]

Really, there's enough sub-stories going on in WoW to not really know the WHOLE history and still get a pretty solid story. I'd bet the majority of people playing WoW now that're even interested in whats' going on would know much about pre-WarCraft I Warcraft lore, and really...they're not missing much right now. Little references to the past now and then, and huge plot elements every once and awhile, but you get the idea.

The Ashbringer comic and the Varian Wrynn series, standalone, are good stories. They don't go much into the orcs demonic past, or the third war, but they do a good job of explaining the stories around them. "This guy is important. He's being kept prisoner by the orcs. Oh wait he's the king of the humans and orcs killed his dad. Dargon is queen of story. President's daughter's been kidnapped."

It's GOOD to know the backstory, and it makes everything more interesting, but it's not totally important to make you get an idea for what's going on...and I'm pretty sure that's the point.

In the WarCraft universe RIGHT NOW there's multiple storylines going on in multiple mediums:

A) The fight against Arthas, the main battle of Northrend involving the expanding on the WarCraft III story.

The old Gods, and the Titans in Ulduar, with Brann Bronzebeard and all that noise hinting at a possible return of the titans to Azeroth.

C) The dreadlords have all been revived, and active, hinting at a return of Kil'jaedan or maybe even Sargeras given the Titan activity.

D) The fact that Garona AND Cho'gall are alive in the Comics, that Garona's son may be also be the son of Medivh and the new Guardian of Azeroth.

E) The story of Darius Mograine, Tyrion Fjording, and the death knights and Argent Crusade that builds on the Ashbringer comic lore.

F) The story of Thrall and Garrosh fighting constantly because Garrosh wants to kill all the humans on sight and Thrall is trying to be diplomatic.

G) The stories of Broll Bearmantle in the comics getting called into the Emerald Dream because something big is about to happen in there.

H) The novels that talk about Death Wing being alive in Grim Bitol and tying that in with Sartharian and the Twilight Drakes in the Obsidian Santum in WoW and probably having something to do with the Death of Malygos, and the fact that Nozdormu is being completely shady.

I) More....

There's like 40,000 things going on at once, and very few of the REQUIRE you to have knowledge of EVERTHING to really get an idea for going on. And seeing how important keeping the lore of WarCraft intact is for Blizzard, I'm sure the movie be mostly in line with the plot, though probably really condensed and watered down.

[I-n-j-i-n]

It's bound to have a lot of wacky and macabre humor.

I hope it's at least Darkman levels of funny, dark, gruesome violence.

[Arek the Absolute]

it should basically just be Thrall: The Movie

fucking agreed

[Toadofsky]

I get the feeling they'll have a "emo" character, dancing down a village street, with James Brown in the background.

And said emo character will cry ALOT....

[CarnCarby]

Where's my Warcraft Broadway musical?

You joke, but when Blizzard first announced they were working on a Warcraft movie years ago, some friends and I thought to ourselves: What could be more ridiculous than this? And we came up with the same answer. We didn't get that far; pretty much a story outline and a couple numbers, but it would've been awesome.

[Vilecat]

My thoughts exactly. It might do WoW players good to know what Blizzard storytelling was like before it turned stupid.

A few years ago I decided to read the story from the Warcraft I and II instruction manuals... I have to say it's as dark as Diablo or LoTR. Even Warcraft III's instruction manual has a pretty dark and interesting story.

In the Warcraft instruction manual there is a picture of an Ogre taking a huge bit out of a horse, and the Warcraft II manual contains drawings of an enraged Troll pierced with arrows, Orcs trying to taste the blood dripping from a human head held by another Orc, and an Orc with an expression of absolute agony as he's being turned into a freaking sheep. Warcraft was filled with crazy awesome stuff and a good movie-length story before it turned into a silly cartoon world.

So the orcs finally being free of the demonic curse that flew in their blood is stupid?

While I don't fully enjoy some parts of the old world and even some parts of Outland because it doesn't do much more than send you on critter killing spree with a weak "backstory", there's much more to discover in Northrend. With the new expansion, Blizzard found a way to play around with the "storyline" in an interesting way: I feel like I'm actually taking part of it, that what I do has a reason (most of the time). The Wrathgate chain is a very good example, with all the quests not included in it that still explain/affect the plot.

I agree that a good portion of WoW hasn't done much to truly give justice to the lore (and its atmosphere) but I believe some parts of Outland (BT + patch 2.4 mainly) and most of Northrend are getting there.

For the horde, baby!

[Bleck]

guys the warcraft story is very serious business

[friendlyHunter]

Yep =p

So the orcs finally being free of the demonic curse that flew in their blood is stupid?

Nah, I just thought Warcraft 3's relatively weak storytelling and plot would have carried over into WoW. I haven't played WoW, but I've seen a few of the intro videos and cinematic trailers, and it just looks terribly weak and watered down to me. It's like everything is now a clear-cut "you vs. the bad guy" battle.

Warcraft had just Orcs and Humans, and War2 introduced two-headed ogres and goblins (which were actually kind of funny!), forest trolls, high elves, dwarves and gnomes.

War3 introduces:

-Night Elves

-Jamaican stereotype trolls

-Drunken Pandas

-Super-insane-high-tech Goblins (which were originally an April Fools joke)

-A race of fish people all of a sudden. So not only are Night Elves immortal - when they go underwater they evolve into roughly 3 separate kinds of fish.

-And about 30 different races of intelligent treasure-hoarding creatures and magical beings and treasure-hoarding creatures that know magic and summon magical beings and magical trees and giant stone people with trees growing on them that pick up trees and hit treasure-hoarding polar bears with the trees to get rings and books and scrolls to summon giant talking spiders that turn any dead animal into two armed and costumed skeletons and sometimes the skeleton is a wizard.

And I couldn't help notice the characters were all pretty 1-dimensional. Warcraft 3's story had potential, but I really don't think they handled it well at all.

[Ramaniscence]

Yep =p

Nah, I just thought Warcraft 3's relatively weak storytelling and plot would have carried over into WoW. I haven't played WoW, but I've seen a few of the intro videos and cinematic trailers, and it just looks terribly weak and watered down to me. It's like everything is now a clear-cut "you vs. the bad guy" battle.

Warcraft had just Orcs and Humans, and War2 introduced two-headed ogres and goblins (which were actually kind of funny!), forest trolls, high elves, dwarves and gnomes.

War3 introduces:

-Night Elves

-Jamaican stereotype trolls

-Drunken Pandas

-Super-insane-high-tech Goblins (which were originally an April Fools joke)

-A race of fish people all of a sudden. So not only are Night Elves immortal - when they go underwater they evolve into roughly 3 separate kinds of fish.

-And about 30 different races of intelligent treasure-hoarding creatures and magical beings and treasure-hoarding creatures that know magic and summon magical beings and magical trees and giant stone people with trees growing on them that pick up trees and hit treasure-hoarding polar bears with the trees to get rings and books and scrolls to summon giant talking spiders that turn any dead animal into two armed and costumed skeletons and sometimes the skeleton is a wizard.

And I couldn't help notice the characters were all pretty 1-dimensional. Warcraft 3's story had potential, but I really don't think they handled it well at all.

So...what you're saying is...you're not really familiar with the storyline at all.

[Broadcast Bowsette]

So...what you're saying is...you're not really familiar with the storyline at all.

Sounds like it.

I think this could turn out to either be an amazing movie, or absolutely craptastic. But regardless of whether it turns out to be gold or trash, it will make a ridiculous amount of money based off the sheer number of people that play the game and go see it anyway.

[Moseph]

Sounds like it.

I think this could turn out to either be an amazing movie, or absolutely craptastic. But regardless of whether it turns out to be gold or trash, it will make a ridiculous amount of money based off the sheer number of people that play the game and go see it anyway.

Plus those who haven't played the game but like the movie will be inclined to check out the game. And I can totally see Blizzard adding movie-related content to the game around release time.

[dsx100]

I was hoping the movie would be based on Thrall's or Arthas's stories but everything I have read about it so far says its a completely new story.

Anyway, I like Sam and I think he can do a good job if he is given a enough freedom.

[friendlyHunter]

So...what you're saying is...you're not really familiar with the storyline at all.

I read the instruction manuals for Warcraft 1, 2, and 3, and I played most of the campaigns for 2 (some of which isn't considered canon) and all the campaigns for 3 (but didn't finish the TFT bonus Orc campaign). Is there any more pre-WoW canon that I should be aware of? I read that the movie is supposed to take place between WC3 and WoW, so I'm under the impression that you won't need in-depth WoW knowledge to discuss the movie.

So... are all the wacky new things in Warcraft 3 considered canon or not? I just assumed without thinking that the units and creeps in Warcraft 3 and WoW are canon.

And I never said the story of WC3 was BAD, just that it was presented badly through a mediocre script. HUGE difference.

[Broadcast Bowsette]

Plus those who haven't played the game but like the movie will be inclined to check out the game. And I can totally see Blizzard adding movie-related content to the game around release time.

Yeah, that's a Blizz thing to do. It's all about that cash and then some. Not that I really blame them, particularly not 'now.'

[DusK]

I can't believe you guys are putting so much thought behind this. Sam's a good director, and WarCraft's full of good source material. I don't really see how anything bad could come out of that.

[Ramaniscence]

So... are all the wacky new things in Warcraft 3 considered canon or not? I just assumed without thinking that the units and creeps in Warcraft 3 and WoW are canon.

Pandarens are technically canon, but they're still "myth" in lore. They can't be included in the story if they want to sell anything in China, though...so generally they avoid it.

Naga are a major plot element because of the Sundering and the War of the Ancients dealy, and the next WoW expansion will probably circulate around that directly.

Goblins are kind of high-tech. They have mechanical logging suits, but you don't see them often at all, and they're no where near as high-tech as gnomes. There's going to be a lot about them in the expansion too if we go to the undermine.

BETWEEN WC3 and a WoW a lot happened. It was during that time that the orcs and Taurens founded their respective cities and the Darkspear trolls were forced to leave their home on the Echo Islands to take refuge in Orgrimmar (all this happened in the TFT Bonus missions, though.)

It was also during that time that the undead moved into the ruins of Lorderan and rebuilt it as the undercity. That the Knights of Silverhand disbanded because some higher ups didn't want to let in "lesser races" like the dwarves, after Highlord Mograine went to Magni Bronzebeard to forge the Ashbringer to cleanse the now destory plague lands of the northern eastern kingdoms. Which descends into those paladins becoming to Scarlet Crusade under the command of Balnazaar the dreadlord, and the rest forming the Argent Dawn.

The night elves, having lost their immortally, try to make a new world tree so they can live forever again. Nature rejects the tree, and it starts to die and corrupt the earth around it, but they build their capital city on top of it anyway.

Malfurion returns to the Emerald Dream with a lot of the other Arch druids to figure out what's going on down there because shits majorly corrupted. The Ysera the green dragon aspect goes too...they're still fighting in there now.

King Varian Wryn of Stormwind gets kidnapped by the Defias Brotherhood, and was being held until just recently. While he was gone his son Anduin becomes the interim king of Stormwind, and the biggest concentration of remaining human forces. With him are 2 advisors, Borvar whose one of Varian BFFs, and Lady Prestor who is really Onyxia, daughter of Death Wing, and the Brood mother of the black dragonflight. She uses his power to corrupt the leadership of Stormwind, and make sure that the relations between the horde and alliance break down so that they're divided when the black dragonflight finally decides to strike. She eventually makes a fake Varian, which is apparently...kind of the real Varian too, and then the real Varian meets him, and they fight, but then they work together...and then they become 1 again...I don't know it's weird.

The gnomes lost control of their home Gnomeregan and left it for Ironforge, but that kind of happened during WC3 which is why they didn't have a huge presence in the Third War, they were too busy defending it, and also why they LOST it, 'cause everyone else was too busy fighting elsewhere.

The whole Arthas novel talks about everything Arthas did before, leading up to, and after the third war, but I'm not up to date on that yet.

That's MOST of what I can recall happened between WC3 and WoW, there's probably even more than that even, but those are the MAJOR events that have been laid out thus far. MOST of what they're doing in the comics and novels starts between WC3 and WoW, and eventually becomes pretty current with what's going on in WoW now, so it's not really hard to believe they can't come up with something else that happened inbetween.

[SynthesizedStampede]

I was hoping the movie would be based on Thrall's or Arthas's stories but everything I have read about it so far says its a completely new story.

Anyway, I like Sam and I think he can do a good job if he is given a enough freedom.

Yeah, same here. Thrall's story would be interesting, on behalf that he is an orc, and a lot of people who don't play fantasy games relate orcs to bad because of the LotR movies. That and I think Eternity's End would be one heck of a thing to watch .