In 2014, 2P and 17173 were invited to visit the filming location of Warcraft movie, and we did a series of interviews and coverage of this highly-anticipated film, but due to the confidentiality agreement, we can only release all these stuff after some delays. Today Duncan Jones will talk about why he wants to be involved in this film, and also share the stories of the whole filming process. The interview was taken at Energy Chamber of Karazhan. You can also find the Chinese version of interview
here.
Basically I understand you are a huge fan and that's why you want to be involved in this film. Could you talk about that?
Yea absolutely, I've been a computer game player most of my life. I have played through a lot of fantasy-based games and science fiction games so I started off making films in sci-fi world. And now I'm taking my opportunity to work on fantasy. I ran a clan for another game something called Ultima online a long time ago and then my whole clan transferred to world of Warcraft and I ended up playing Warcraft for about a year and a half before work became so busy and I was unable to keep playing at that level for that much time.
One thing I've been trying to figure out all day is because you are the guy who wrote the script. Can you just in a nutshell make a breakdown of what is the story about, told from this world?
Well I think one of the first things that we need to do is to find a way to take a huge - almost encyclopedia story, to find something that would work, to get into the essence of Warcraft. And back before there was World of Warcraft, there were some real time strategy games that Blizzard made, the worlds are called Warcraft, and one of them called orcs and humans, which is about the original introduction of orcs into Azeroth which is a world that was populated by many species but not orcs. So it's kind of the first contact. And it makes sense that if we are going to do a film for audiences of both players and people who are not familiar with the game. It was really important to tell a story that everyone could understand. Which is basically the first contact story.
On the Orcs side, you have the characters and actors are?
They have been working on getting this film made for a long time. When I was introduced to this project there was a script already in place, and I was asked to read it and I loved the idea of Warcraft film. But it immediately felt wrong to me because it was very human-centric. It was basically the humans against monsters, who were the bad guys, and I felt so wrong for what I loved about Warcraft. So when I came on board my immediate response was that: ‘Look I want to do this movie but I think you are approaching the wrong way. Let's treat it as a war movie, but as a grown-up thoughtful war movie. When you tell the story from both sides, and you can have good people, heroes on both sides, but finding themselves coming into a conflict because it doesn't seem to be any way around it.’
Briefly in terms of visual effects, mixing CGI and a lot, I understand you pushing the armor look there.
Yeah I mean, I'm working with a particular genius Bill Westenhofer who's our visual effect supervisor. He's won 2 Oscars already, for his most recent work being Life of Pie. He's phenomenally talented maker of films not just on the v-effect side. He also happens to be a very very experienced Warcraft player himself. So I'm sure if you got the chance talk to him you'll be aware of that. But Bill and I have been talking about for a while about how we want to approach it. There are so many areas where special effects coming into a movie like this, whether is the way we do the orcs themselves, the way magic works, what magic looks like, and how we expand and build this huge world and the environment. So he's really more than any other film I've done, hugely close collaborated to with me and how we realize this world.
Is there a difference between the CG work and that of video game, because we know that CG in video game is also involved a great work? Is the two on the same track or a little bit different?
I think when you look at cinematic in computer games, they are improving all the time and becoming almost the level of films. But because of what the film's focus is, the fact that we are here to tell a story, and to get the audience to get engaged with characters, and it's not just about gameplay. I think films are always going be a slightly ahead of where games on as far as how they create characters and make them believable. So there are things that we are doing which are in advance of anything you can see in the computer games. And especially because of the story I want to tell, where I'm telling the story of the orcs as much as I'm telling the story of the humans. And I want the audience to understand and care about the orcs. Their performance has to be completely believable and the audience has to care for them in the same way for the human characters.
Could you tell us just briefly about, you mentioned two leads of two different groups. Tell us about the actors and what they bring to the table?
Travis Fimmel playing Lorthar on the human side and he's been working on a show called Vikings for a while and he's incredibly charismatic guy. When I had the chance to meet with him I met with a lot of young handsome actors. But he's also very smart very funny. There are certain actors let you have instant sense that when you film them the audience just can't help but watch them, and Travis is one of those guys. He's just very watchable and also tough, but at the same time like the greats, he's someone the audience can still feel like they can relate to, even though they are hereos.
Toby is playing Durotan and he's had some experience doing mocap which is obviously the technology we use for our orcs. It's a new and challenging way for any actor to perform and I think having had already done a few films that way, he had the experience doing motion capture. What that means? I think having that experience he knows what works what doesn't work - you know someone like Andy Serkis has that experience and Toby is now kind of in the same realm of having the experience. Even in this live action work I just find him to be an excellent actor. He also comes from my home country and we get on very well. So we have very easy way to communicate.
Daniel plays Gul'dan and he and me actually have known about each other but not worked together for a long time. We have a very good friend of ours in common. So we kind of talk about each other with this friend for a long time and it's great finally have the chance to work together. I'm sure you know if you are Warcraft player, who Gul'dan is. But Daniel will be playing a character most people will not be expecting him to play. Normally he plays handsome heroic figures and in this film he's very different.
Why did you think Daniel could pull off?
Because I think any actor who is as enthusiastic as Daniel is has the opportunity to play something different than what he would normally play. When it's a good actor you gonna get them the opportunity. So I think his wife also plays a lot of world of Warcraft, so I think he is excited to have a chance to do that for her.
Daniel describes himself as the most famous American character that Americans don't know him (laughing), so would you be on a little risk to give him this main character?
Warcraft is such a unique film. I think. There are things we can do on this film that I don’t think many other films can afford to do. Because we have audiences who want to see this film because it’s Warcraft. We can cast interested actors instead of just going through these big names. We can mix up about, we can put them into these characters. We can take actors that no one knows or even put them into these characters. And all still works because I think still audiences want to see this movie. And as long as the performances are good, you know, people will be happy with the film.
What kind of film we in store for when the movie is up in 2016?
I truly believe you are in for something very different. It’s not even just in fantasy but in films in general war films, genre films. A film which is even handed, telling a war story on both sides. And really asking the audiences to see how things can be seen on the both sides of the conflicts. I think it’s very unique. And I think that makes it different. I think there are a lot more humor and action and drama than you would expect. It’s really a mixable of those thing. To me, it’s what you would call a full meal of the film. You know, it really gives you everything.
Would you mind explain why the movie is the mix of the Game of Thrones and Avatar, which mentioned in BlizzCon last year?
I mean It’s funny those two things and Lord of the rings as well. It almost like we are making all of those films at once. We have live action sets like this - this extraordinary place to shot and we are also using these incredibly, some of the next-generation technology that they used shooting Avatar. So we are really trying to use the best technics and to express the best way to make the film different from all these productions have done in the past.
How you express visually or aesthetically a little different from those films like Avatar, lord of the ring or Hobbit ?
I don’t know if I know yet. It’s uniqueness to Warcraft just in aesthetic of the game itself. And our challenge is always being to take a what feels like signature look of the game, and find a way to make that could exist in reality. So something like this is - it feels like Warcraft but it’s realistic depiction of Warcraft. And I think that has guided the way things looks like in the movie. The game is the caricature of this real world that we are building.
To me, it's huge to undertaking this job. Have you ever felt completely overwhelmed while making this?
At the very very beginning, when I didn’t know who my crew is going to be. But as soon as you surround yourself with the people that I have been able to surround myself, whether it’s Bill or production designer Gavin Bouquet, Myers Rubeo, who is doing the wardrobe customs. I surround myself with the truly talented amazing people. And once you get that kind of team around you, my job become choosing between the brilliant and the fantastic. It becomes much easier.
What is the biggest challenge you to prove yourself?
I think it was initial one of finding the story that make the game players feel like we are telling the story they knew and wanted to see. And at the same time telling the story that stood upon itself for audiences who are not familiar with the game.
You shot two films, kind of independent. This film, however, a little bit like "mainstreamed". So are you gonna to do this kind of film after or you plan to go back to the independent approach?
I’d like to do both. I’d like to do smaller ones, and then if this goes well, I would like to have the chance to tell more stories from Warcraft.
We have seen lots of gorgeous visual effect, characters, personalities from the story. Which part will be the focus of the whole movie?
Character. You know the story comes out from the characters, and visual are the wardrobe of the story. As long as I get my characters right, I think everything will flow out of that.
I think the only part we haven't talk about is music. What can we expect from the movie and is it will be take some part of the game?
What we are discussing right now and I do keep coming back with the producer and my editor. The thing I keep saying is the music is the opportunity to again allow the audiences who have played the game to feel some kind of ownership. So I would love to find a way to include some game music, some more inspiring music into the film some way. But at the same time, we have a unique story to tell so we need to find a composer who I trust, can deliver the emotion level of what the story is. And we are still working it out but it will feel right.
The movie will hit the big screen in 2016. Are you still working on that point?
I will be working up until that point. Hopefully, I will have the opportunity to do something at the same time. I’ll be fully board on this until the edited is locked. And I will be supervising on everything else as it continues.
What are the other iconic things we can see from the movie?
I think anyone who’s played the game will be excited when enter the Stormwind for the first time. That’s going to be a big moment for them. Flying on a Griffin is also a great experience when it first happens in the game. Those are two strong ones. And obviously for someone who played the Orcs. I think the Orcs themselves, when you see them as living, breathing personalities, that’s going to be a huge moment.
Is there any previews of the movie?
In this film? No. I think you have to wait and see. Some reveals will surprise you, you need to wait and to see the film.
Any famous weapons?
There are a couple of famous weapons. I mean, Orgrim Doomhammer, is one of our characters. Obviously, the famous weapons involved them. I can’t give you too much more.