Warcraft Movie Is "Avatar and Lord of the Rings At The Same Time"

The upcoming Warcraft movie will feature lots and lots of special effects, director Duncan Jones said today during a presentation at Blizzcon. Jones, who previously directed Moon and Source Code, described the movie as "Avatar and Lord of the Rings at the same time" as it relates to special effects.

The special effects for Warcraft are being handled by award-winning Star Wars studio Industrial Light & Magic. The movie will feature a combination of live-action and CGI, and the overall presentation has been previously described as "gritty and real."

Filming on the Warcraft wrapped up in May 2013, and a rough cut of the final film has already been screened to Blizzard management. The final version of the film will come to theaters on March 11, 2016.

Further casting details for Warcraft were also revealed today at Blizzcon. We already knew that Travis Fimmel (Vikings) would appear in the movie, but we now know he's playing Lothar. Blizzard also revealed various other character images from the game, which you can see at the bottom of this post.

Also during the panel, Jones claimed that Spider-Man director Sam Raimi's version of the Warcraft movie was too human-centric, and it put the Orcs too much in a bad light. Jones, of course, stepped in to direct the film after Raimi dropped out to pursue other projects.

Now that Jones has come aboard to direct the Warcraft movie, he assured fans that his version of the movie will show both sides--Orcs and Humans. Specifically, the Warcraft movie will focus on two main heroes: Durotan (the orc) and Lothar (the human).

Raimi has been critical of Blizzard's handling of the Warcraft movie, saying in a 2013 interview that Blizzard "mismanaged" the film.

Finally, Blizzard announced today that it has launched two special fansites for the Warcraft movie. You can visit them today at fightforthealliance.com and fightforthehorde.com.