BlizzCon 2013 – Warcraft Movie Presentation Panel w/ Duncan Jones – Transcript

Westenhofer: (###)

Pardo: So thank you for outing that to everybody. I think everyone really appreciates that. And hopefully everyone can be on the internet pleading that Duncan doesn’t get fired. So that this way we can keep him on the film, but Chris, maybe you want to talk a little bit about Durotan — and Lothar and kind of the back lore for maybe people who don’t know much about them.

Metzen: Now I’m worried about getting fired. So how do you do that without saying too much. I would say without saying too much, I would say for you guys who are dialed in with the lore, you might immediately go huh? Wait, did Lothar ever meet Durotan? We haven’t actually covered that. But the shape of the vision that Duncan has been playing with, is just — yeah, these guys were tailor made for each other. They both represent ideals that are the highest ideals for each of these races. Lothar for his soldiery and his loyalty; and this guy who has been burdened with protecting his kingdom, Stormwind, for a very long time. Potentially throughout the time of peace. And you have Durotan — you can classically, while we technically in the RTS games back in the day, we didn’t really see him. He was a character introduced a little later. But Durotan as well really represents the highest ideals of the orcs — when they are not crazy. That family and clan are the highest ideals. This is a guy that believes in his people, that believes in their future. And he is ultimately horrified by the idea of them getting into some dark cursed areas. And ultimately — without totally spilling the beans or whatever — both of these men are going to find themselves at this crosspoint of history and they will be put to the test.

Duncan: Both of them are protectors of their peoples. I think that in an impending war situation you just know it is coming and you can’t seem to find a way out of it. I think both of them want to do the right thing for the people that they are responsible for.

Pardo: I think one of the exciting things about exploring the storyline that we are is that the early games weren’t really a great mechanism for telling this story. So it really allows the movie a lot of flexibility to kinda do the ultimate version of Warcraft history.

Metzen: We’ve talked about these ideas — the Ultimate Spider-Man comics, I don’t know if you know about the “Ultimate” line. It was an opportunity in the comics world to kind of retelling classic stories — really keeping all the details and all the vibe, but just tightening the bolts after years and years of the fictional development, so kinda working with these two characters and the vector of the story allowed us to tighten a lot of bolts and tell these things just in a much tighter way than we have been able to tell before through the game series. So it has been an incredibly rewarding process. So we are looking at these ideas. Is this thing cutting in and out? (refers to the microphone signal) All good? I WILL JUST SPEAK LOUDER, THEN!

(Crowd laughs)

Metzen: So you know, as Duncan was saying earlier, I mean, especially through the character of Durotan, really embodied the nobility and power and the huge-heartedness of the orcs that are not corrupt was really, really a fun thing to see, kind of come into play. Boy, I’m struggling to not say anything that would be too complicated.

Pardo: Well the other thing I think is really interesting when you look at where the history of World of Warcraft started is that those games actually told parallel stories.

Metzen: Yea, specially the RTS series story has always been very binary, right? You played the human campaign and then you played the orcs campaign. And in the early game, they were kind of — contiguous, so we had to decide as we started Warcraft II — who won Warcraft I? Right? Well, you know, the orcs got the better of them that time. We had to kind of fudge the continuity as we went, because they were really built to be one or the other. Looking at the structure for this film has been really fun. Obviously, somebody has got to win, somebody has got to lose. But in a weird way it is kind of like — I don’t know, everybody loses at least a little bit.

Duncan: I think it is a hell of a thing really that we’re getting a chance to make the movie this way. For any film or any franchise, I think to tell a story where you’re really honestly telling it from both sides, especially a war film is unusual. And I think the fact that we have been kind of given the opportunity to do that really on a story-telling level is breaking a few barriers in — certainly for a big film like this. I don’t think you are going to see many films that have this kind of structure.

Pardo: Well, and especially when you are telling it from a side, from what I think a lot of non-geeky movie-goers will view as the monster side. I think everyone here understands that is not who the orcs are, but it is going to be really unique to try to — I don’t want to say humanize them — but to really make — empathize them with a broader audience. Alright, I’ll let you guys ask a few questions. Understand that we can’t probably reveal more than what we have already dragged out of Duncan. Have any of you guys got questions for anyone in the panel? Or want to hear anymore about the history, how to make movies or anything like that — we are gonna take some questions.

Fan 1: Can you blink once for yes and twice for no? If the movie is going to tie-in with the ending of Warlords of Draenor?

Duncan: I can not tell you any more than what I have said, but what I will say is that I also can not tell you where we will be shooting the movie — which is fairly obvious (Duncan looks at his own T-shirt which says: Vancouver Canucks — Note: it was revealed on August 29th the film is going to be shoot there. Analyzing this last comment of Duncan he is clearly hinting that it is obvious the movie ties-in with Warlords of Draenor)

(Everyone laughs)

Metzen: Well played.

(Next fan holds a small paper that reads: “Jaina was right.”)

Fan 2: There are war movies, and then there are war movies. Is this going to be more like The Golden Compass or the war scene in The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe (2005), or is this going to be like The Patriot (2000), Braveheart? What kind of rating?

Westerhofer: Gladiator. Really gritty. Muddy. Down to the dirt covered in grime.

(Crowd cheers)

Fan 3: We have talked about the epicness of the world, and the characters. What about the music?

Duncan: That’s a very good question.