Collider recently interviewed Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull to talk about several movies including Warcraft, Pacific Rim, Superman’s Man of Steel, 42 and Godzilla.
There was no direct quote, but Collider mentioned Thomas Tull added that we’ll soon be hearing updates regarding the production status, script, and release date.
Thomas Tull said we will learn more about the Warcraft film “soon”. It’s hard to say if it is “soon” or “soon™” (Blizzard-style). Unless we see this new wave of info via Press Release, I see no other avenue other than BlizzCon — to be held on November 8-9th. By the way, if your calendar says April 24 then BlizzCon ticket sales are today at 7pm PDT and Saturday, April 27 at 10 a.m. PDT.
Collider: Something that I think a lot of fans have been waiting for is the first kick ass video game movie. You guys at Legendary have partnered up with Warner Brothers to deliver some of the best comic book movies that have ever been made, so what’s it going to take to make the best video game movie that’s ever been made?
Tull: I think first of all is to lose the fact that it’s a video game movie and just concentrate on do you have a story that’s worth telling? Because if you look back to the 80’s, comic book movies were not anywhere near what they are today.
They weren’t given the resources and you didn’t have the level of directors that you have today working on these things. I think with video games it’s just become much more sophisticated storytelling, hard to do a movie off of Pong, but today when you have stuff like Mass Effect, you have things like Warcraft, you have things like Skyrim where very cool worlds have been created, that’s what we’re attracted to.
We took our time with Warcraft because just saying “How many people play the game? Well then that means X number of people will buy a ticket.” That’s a death trap, that’s the surest way to make a crap movie, and that’s not an option. So we took our time wanted to make sure that we used all the canon that’s been built up over years and years by Blizzard. We’re huge believers in Duncan Jones, and I think what we’re going to bring to screen and to bear with Duncan, he is going to break that mold because it’s going to have the resources, the talent around it, and a Field General in Duncan Jones. It’s, again, the reason we took our time, made sure we had the right guy, the right person to make the movie, and then it will speak for itself when it comes out. — source: Collider
Rumor: Ao Tong (a Blizzplanet fan) buzzed us the IMDB listed Bill Westenhofer as the Warcraft film visual effects supervisor. Back in time in memory lane, Bill Westenhofer is the World of Warcraft guild leader who won an Oscar back in 2008. Bill plays a mage in the Kil’jaeden server.
I want to make crystal clear it’s not confirmed that Bill Westenhofer is the Warcraft film visual effects supervisor. This is set as a rumor until confirmed. For experience, not everything I have seen in IMDB is true. I am waiting for response on this matter to confirm or debunk the IMDB listing. Stay tuned to the front page.
Bill Westenhofer – Bios
Academy Award winner Bill Westenhofer is leading the Rhythm & Hues creative team for “Life of Pi,” directed by Ang Lee for 20th Century Fox. Most recently, Bill served as the vfx supervisor on “The A-Team” and “Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief” for Fox, and the comedy adventure “Land of the Lost” for Universal Pictures.
In 2008, Bill received the Academy Award® for Achievement in Visual Effects for overseeing the work of hundreds of R&H digital artists on “The Golden Compass.” He also won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for Special Visual Effects for the same film. Bill was previously Oscar nominated for “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” Bill’s other supervisory credits include “Elf,” “The Rundown,” “Men in Black II,” “Cats & Dogs,” “Stuart Little” I and II, “Frequency” and “Babe: Pig in the City,” the latter a BAFTA nominee.
Beginning as a technical director with Rhythm & Hues in 1994, Bill’s lighting and effects animation work was featured in “Batman Forever” and numerous commercials. He was promoted to CG supervisor for “Speed 2: Cruise Control,” and continued in that role for “Spawn,” “Mouse Hunt,” “Kazaam” and “Waterworld.”
Bill holds a Masters Degree in Computer Science from George Washington University, where he studied the use of dynamics in physically based animation. He also earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from Bucknell University.
