Warcraft became the most successful film adaptation of a video game of all time, although the $160-million film only made roughly $47 million in the U.S. (and over $386 million overseas, proving especially popular in China). The lopsided revenue has led to rumors that a Warcraft sequel may release in theaters overseas but go straight to streaming in the U.S. If that does happen, it’s safe to speculate director Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) is still along for the ride.
Jones discussed a potential sequel, fights with the studio, the film’s massive success overseas, the cynicism of American audiences, and more in a frank interview with Thrillist, filled with interesting and honest talk about the difficulty of taking three and a half years to make a studio film set in a fantasy realm. And, yes, he’s still interested in doing the crazy process all over again:
“If there were an opportunity for us to make another film in the Warcraft universe I really feel like we did the hard work in the first movie as far as setting the table. I would love to capitalize on three and a half years of hard work and be able to have some fun in that world now that I’ve done the hard work. [So] who knows? Maybe I’m just being a masochist.”
Jones also said “There will never be a director’s cut” of Warcraft, because the special effects weren’t completed on scenes that were cut. He even likened the cuts to torture:
“Trying to make a movie like Warcraft, and trying to do it in a unique way… you get killed by a death of 1,000 cuts. Not just editing cuts. It’s little changes that seem really innocuous. […] When you make a little change it doesn’t seem like a big deal. When you keep making those little changes, especially over three and a half years, suddenly you’re basically spending all of your time trying to work out how to patch up what has been messed around with.”
He was refreshingly candid about what didn’t work:
“A lot of people have criticized the jumpiness of the pacing. Trust me, if anyone is frustrated about the pacing of the film and how that turned out, it’s me. It’s not because I didn’t know what was happening, but as I said, death of 1,000 cuts. […] Parts of it, I think, work, but it also drives me crazy that I wasn’t able to push through everything that I knew needed to happen in order to make the film I knew it could be.”
Jeez, and he still wants to make a sequel? Maybe he really is a masochist.
(Via Thrillist)
