Orc inspiring
Fantasy adaptation Warcraft: The Beginning could be a game-changer for the reputation of hulking green beasts…
Director Duncan Jones
Starring Travis Fimmel, Toby Kebbell, Rob Kazinsky, Paula Patton
ETA 3 June
Duncan Jones describes his pitch for Warcraft: The Beginning as “essentially a war story where the story is told from both sides, and both sides can be empathised with”. As magnificent as Peter Jackson’s Lord
Of The Rings trilogy is, the orcs are never really more than a faceless army of sword-fodder to be dispatched by the humanoid heroes. In Warcraft, the fanged brutes will be striving for audiences’ sympathies as much as the humans.
Set in the fantasy realm of Azeroth, Warcraft is the first of three planned movie adaptations (hence that The Beginning subtitle) of the online game with a fanbase of millions. While the mythology could seem offputting to anyone who hasn’t poured hours of ‘research’ into the game, Jones has boiled the complex world down to a clash between humans and orcs, after the latter are displaced from their homeland. While that might sound simple enough, the line between good and evil is going to be far more complicated.
The orcs themselves are being portrayed via performance-capture, so it’s handy that they’re led by Toby Kebbell, who had lessons in the hi-tech art from Andy Serkis on Dawn Of The
Planet Of The Apes. Kebbell plays Durotan, the
level-headed chieftain of the ostracised Frostwolf Clan, as concerned for the safety of his wife and child as he is for his people’s survival. “It’s nice to play an orc that isn’t just a pure beasty, evil warrior,” admits Kebbell.
Rob Kazinsky, who plays Durotan’s righthand warrior, Orgrim Doomhammer, concurs. “There’s no evil here,” he says. “There’s just different motivations for us. You’re going to be torn between these two sides.” Not that this’ll be a particularly new theme for director Jones. “That’s kind of what both my previous films [Moon and Source Code] have been about,” he reasons, “finding the humanity in situations that are very dehumanising.” Prepare to have your allegiance tested.
In Warcraft, the fanged brutes will be striving for audiences’ sympathies as much as the humans