Rumors have circulated for a few weeks the plot for the Warcraft film is based on Khadgar and Medivh — rumor ignited by Bleeding Cool on July 31. That sets the story during the First War as depicted in the first Warcraft game titled Warcraft: Orcs and Humans (1994). Players kill Medivh in mission # 8 of the Human campaign as seen in our single-player guide.
A day ago, Production Weekly tweeted Legendary Pictures is shooting the Warcraft film on January 13th in Vancouver.
The CMPP stands for Canadian Motion Picture Park.
A contact who asked to remain as an anonymous source has provided me the Production Weekly – Issue 861 – Thursday, August 29, 2013 which contains 104 film listings (including the Warcraft film) and 22 pages. The PDF sent to me contains indeed 22 pages, and it is dated Thursday, August 29th.
Due to the notice at the end of the document, I am not able to copy/paste or quote the entry:
“Production Weekly is intended for the personal use of its recipients. Mass forwarding or redistribution of this email or posting of this list or any information derived from the list on any web
site or message board in its entirety or in part without the written permission of the list administrator is neither permitted nor within the spirit of the efforts put into its creation. Copyright 2013 by Production Weekly All Rights Reserved.”
I’ll try to paraphrase instead without directly quoting word by word.
The Warcraft Film is codenamed “Conflagration”. That’s synonymous with War or Conflict according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. As well as Inferno, and Holocaust. Curiously, it’s also a mage spell.
However, what I just read in this Production Weekly document of 22 pages is a short description that includes Prince Arthas Menethil. The way this is phrased seems to tell the story of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
Could go any of both ways — the novel way (which includes Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos) or the RTS game way. The novel truly expanded Arthas’ story and personality. However, all the events of the Orcs, Night Elves and Scourge campaign were skipped in the novel. The way the film could work is mixing a little bit of both plots.
Keep in mind the story in the Production Weekly might be misdirection, inaccurate, or even outdated. Take with a grain of salt, and not as “Fact”.
UPDATE
I have been investigating some of the information in this PDF file to verify authenticity. Following the address in Google Maps it is indeed a Vancouver address. The email of the production led me to another public website (acting-auditions.org) that is listing the same info seen in the Production Weekly. As such, I will directly quote the short film description also seen in the Production Weekly #861.
| His evil is legend. Lord of the undead Scourge, wielder of the runeblade Frostmourne, and enemy of the free peoples of Azeroth. The Lich King is an entity of incalculable power and unparalleled malice – his icy soul utterly consumed by his plans to destroy all life on the World of Warcraft. But it was not always so. Long before his soul was fused with that of the orc shaman Ner’zhul, the Lich King was Arthas Menethil, crown prince of Lordaeron and faithful paladin of the Silver Hand. When a plague of undeath threatened all that he loved, Arthas was driven to pursue an ill-fated quest for a runeblade powerful enough to save his homeland. Yet the object of his search would exact a heavy price from its new master, beginning a horrifying descent into damnation. Arthas’s path would lead him through the arctic northern wastes toward the Frozen Throne, where he would face, at long last, the darkest of destinies. |
If you re-read that description, it is not specifically saying this is a Lich King film. It is the story that led Arthas to become the Lich King — aka the human campaign in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Part of the RTS game’s human campaign plot is fleshed out in the Christie Golden novel. If you have read that novel, you will know how cool the film might be if this was not a rumor or flavor description for misdirection of the real plot.
Now the Duncan Jones “mood piece” shown at the 2013 San Diego Comic Con (read more) shows a human warrior and an orc. The novel didn’t have much screen time for orcs.
Mixing the great qualities of Arthas’ story from the novel, and adding some scenes of the RTS orc campaign could potentially add some nice battles, without sacrificing the depth of a well-written story with Prince Arthas as the central figure.
There were battle scenes when Thrall freed Grom Hellscream from the Humans. There was another humans vs orcs battle in the Echo Isles. However, most of the Human Campaign dealt with Arthas and Jaina going to Andorhal where they found Kel’Thuzad and the Scourge plaguing the grains. Later, the Culling of Stratholme. The travel to Northrend, and the eventual scene of Arthas and Muradin finding the runeblade Frostmourne.
Can all this story, and that of the orc campaign be crammed into a single film? Sounds like mission impossible, it has a lot of potential, but then again — this plot is not yet “factual” nor confirmed.
UPDATE # 2
And here is another reason why this Arthas plot could be true; or it could also either be misdirection, or inaccurate. The same text flavor used in the Production Weekly and in the casting website comes straight from the Christie Golden’s World of Warcraft: Arthas novel as seen in the Simon & Schuster website.
I don’t know… I’m still very sceptical of this whole thing.
A game should stay what it is: a game! Look at nearly all movies that based on a game. They were all inconceivable scrap! (i.e. Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon Siege, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tomb Raider, Super Mario Bros., )