Jones talks about the changes he had to make to the final cut, what he aimed to do with the film and its themes, and shares David Bowie’s thoughts of early footage.
Warcraft: The Beginning has been in development for over a decade, and will finally release in just a few short weeks – but for director Duncan Jones the film has consumed three and a half years of his life.
In an interview with The Daily Beast, Jones spoke about the cultural phenomenon that is Warcraft (he himself played World of Warcraft), and how he felt that he could use that to try and break away from the Tolkien-like qualities that most cinematic fantasy follows.
Jone’s previous films Moon and Source Code were both science fiction, and he lamented that sci-fi could be so much broader than fantasy – he tried to keep Warcraft more about familial bonds, for example, than epic quests.
The family note rings deeply for Jones, whose father David Bowie passed away earlier this year. He spoke of showing some early footage of Warcraft to his dad, who was happy that his son was doing what he loved – a theme dear to the hearts of many gamers.
He also saw some parallels in the film to current events – the Orcs, he notes, are basically refugees trying to escape their world and immigrate to Azeroth.
Jones also revealed that he was forced to cut 40 minutes from the film, which now runs for 2 hours. On Twitter, he said that if the film did well, the cut footage might be restored for the DVD release.
Warcraft: The Beginning opens June 9th. See the most recent trailer for the film below.
