I am totally not making any assumptions nor triggering any speculation or rumor mills with this. Rob Pardo (Blizzard Entertainment Chief Creative Officer) posted this via Twitter, and anyone can read it.
Filmmaker Mark Andrews (Pixar) visited Blizzard Entertainment’s Irvine headquarters today. Andrews was story supervisor for The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), and most recently director of Brave (2012).
Recently, Rob Pardo and Chris Metzen visited the Pixar offices to talk about storytelling during an in-house panel.
Me? I’m just informing our audience ((don’t kill the messenger)) and I’ll zip my mouth, and — ((hmmff-hmf hmfff Wthoomfff?)
…. unzips mouth — Ok, I’m pretty bad at keeping my opinion to myself. I’m not particularly believing this Pixar/Blizzard visiting each other has something to do with the Legendary Pictures Warcraft film. It could merely be mutual discussions about storytelling and animation, consulting, exchanging ideas.
On the other hand, we could speculate there is something more beyond what appearances show. On top of the Warcraft film (with live actors), there could be other projects like a StarCraft or Warcraft animated film down the line after the Legendary Pictures Warcraft film. Who knows?
Update: Cameron Dayton (Blizzard Entertainment Writer, Story Developer, and Transmedia consultant) posted this via Twitter: “Story session with Pixar’s Mark Andrews at the Improv.”
The Improv is a comedy club franchise located at Irvine Spectrum Center (71 Fortune Drive # 841 Irvine, CA 92618 USA.)
I always thought CGI movies would be best for the art style and rending of Warcraft. A live action Warcraft wouldn’t do Blizzard justice.
A live film with real actors onscreen would definitely be the biggest and most ambitious budget film ever done considering all the CGI and large crews for epic battles, prop weapons and armor. Too expensive.
Huh? Lord of the Rings ring any bells?
Lord of the Rings doesn’t have Gyrocopters, Steam Tanks, Zeppelins, Mechano-striders, and elaborate WoW Tier-sets. Sorry, Lord of the Rings’ budget is child’s play compared with World of Warcraft. There’s no comparison.
Metzen & the Creative Team built a whole different beast.
We’re going to have to agree to disagree on this one. Lord of the Rings had trolls, siege weapons, dragons, walking tree ents, and massive battle scenes. If that doesn’t fit your fancy you can then go look at Avatar and what they were able to do with the special effects in that movie.
*removed post*
Back then I thought there were vague black armored StarCraft marines walking around in in the Wreck-It Ralph trailers at Game Central Station. But thinking now, those Pixar FPS marines might be more likely. – Eroldren
Pixar visits many institutions giving story and animation lectures. They go to other animation studios, schools, etc, so don’t speculate they are doing projects with them either. Pixar is filled with comicbook and video game fans so they probably appreciate Blizzard games, play them, and want to interact with their fellow storytellers. And with Pixar not making a single movie that wasn’t original property, conceptualized in house, why speculate that they are going to develop a partnership with Blizzard? I could go to another forum where instead of talking about Blizzard you could replace Starwars or Marvel
This is a “fan”-site. We are fans ourselves (Eldorian and me). We also voice what other fans say and think in our forums, or forums we visit.
We also know that “speculation” is in no way a fact.
The main topic of the page is “Pixar visits Blizzard Entertainment”. That’s a fact. It happened.
I also said in the article: “[I’m not particularly believing] this Pixar/Blizzard visiting each other has something to do with the Legendary Pictures Warcraft film. [It could merely be mutual discussions about storytelling and animation, consulting, exchanging ideas]”
Speculation is a good thing and a bad thing. On the good side, people are talking about Pixar and Blizzard. It sparks a good vibe and goes viral. It’s up to either entity to debunk, or to keep fans day-dreaming.