Blizzard’s Lore Master on WoW Movie: “I Have Nightmares about Screwing it up”

Posted 04/29/2010 at 12:36am | by Nathan Grayson

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Videogame movies, right? They’re all the same, every one of them. Each flecks of corn on the same festering pile of dung. Or are they? Between Spiderman director Sam Raimi, Dark Knight producer Legendary Pictures, and “Saving Private Ryan” screenwriter Robert Rodat, the Warcraft movie’s assembled a dream team that most major motion pictures only, well, dream of. Actually, you might want to pinch yourself too, because Blizzard’s resident lore master Chris Metzen – the man behind the worlds of Diablo, Starcraft, and of course, Warcraft – is heavily involved in the project as well. When asked about the movie’s progress, Metzen told VG247:

“I wouldn’t say ‘considerable’ at all just yet. We’ve been through a number of story meetings, and we’re still kind of getting it together with Raimi and his team and jamming on themes that we want to chase. We’re kinda getting a lot of  values together – what kind of story we want to tell, what do we want people to feel, what is the best way to look at this big franchise.”

“My intention with the feature is that it is as close as possible to what people have experienced and what they know of our canon, but we’ll have to see the way it plays out. And I don’t mean that facetiously – we’re still trying to figure it out.”

Unsurprisingly, Metzen acknowledged that the Warcraft movie won’t adhere to its source material 100 percent. However, he likened it to Spiderman’s organic web shooters in the movies, versus his mechanical ones in the comics. Slight, mostly inconsequential changes, in other words. Don’t think, however, that Metzen has forgotten about the fans who rallied around Warcraft in the first place. Turns out, they’re priority number one. 

“I have… from the day we decided it would be a good idea to have a movie in any shape… I worry about [disappointing the fans] constantly,” he admitted. “Hell, I worry about it on the games side. It’s all so complicated and fast moving – I have nightmares about screwing it up or just missing the mark. Even a movie that’s 85% good; that’s not 100% good, and our fans are very particular. But the point where we are today, with Sam and his crew – we’re still feeling it out and I think everyone shares that."