io9 attended the Pacific Rim press roundtable in San Francisco and cornered Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull to ask about the Warcraft film.
Tull doesn’t mention the recent break up with Warner Bros, nor the comment by producer Charles Roven concerning the the Warcraft film’s 2014 shooting.
He reveals the script is not yet finished, but he feels they are close to reach a point when they can begin shooting the film. However, they wish to make sure this won’t be another video game film gone “teh Suck”. He’s also excited to have Duncan Jones directing the Warcraft film.
Thomas Tull: You start with that exact question… I think, as a gamer myself, a lot of times what has happened in the past is, studios have said, ‘How many people play that game? Okay, then that means they’ll probably all go and buy tickets.’ That is an incredibly poor way to make a movie.
So for us, it’s [like], We don’t know how to make a movie out of Warcraft, the video game. [Instead], it’s the incredible story, and the war, and these races, and everything these guys at Blizzard [Entertainment] have come up with. They have 100 books, and just this incredibly rich world that they’ve created.
And so having Duncan Jones realize that for us was exciting. We’ve also taken our time, because we absolutely don’t want to screw it up. And I think we’re getting close to a place [where] we’re ready to go. And when the script is finished, and when we feel like, ‘Forget whether or not there’s a built-in audience. Does this stand on its own, and is it great?’ Then we’ll start filming. We’re not quite there yet, but we’re under suspicion of going there. And Duncan is one of those directors that you just [say], ‘This guy gets it.’
The next two years are going to be pretty exciting, I think. — source
