With movies based on branded entertainment and licensed product, it’s never about just one movie. When "Warcraft" opens this summer, both Universal and Blizzard Entertainment are hoping the video-game adaptation will become a franchise, and even director Duncan Jones has visions of a trilogy dancing in his brain.
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"When working on this film, we worked incredibly closely with Blizzard, and I personally got the chance to work with Chris Metzen, who does a lot of the storytelling at Blizzard. And we worked out if we did get the chance to do three films to tell a story, this would be the first piece, and we kind of have an idea of what we would do with 2 and 3. I want to be the guy to deliver that," he told press at Comic-Con last summer (via The Verge). "I feel very privileged, uniquely privileged, that I got the chance to start a franchise of films — if we get the opportunity to make more. There are other franchises that are out there that I’d be incredibly privileged to do, but I love the idea that this is a universe that I’m helping realize from the start, and to me that’s something special."
However, the first hurdle he’ll have to leap over is selling this movie to audiences who aren’t familiar with the game. And thus far, the reception of the promos for "Warcraft" have been mixed, with the blend of humans, orcs, and other creatures, and heavily CGI sequences failing to make a big impression, and also looking familiar to "The Lord Of The Rings" and similar fantasy pictures. But perhaps this new trailer will course-correct the opinion that’s out there.
"Warcraft" opens on June 10th. Watch the new trailer below and let us know what you think in the comments section.