Download MP3 In today's episode Nate and Austin compare Duncan Jones' best and worst rated films, Moon (2009) and Warcraft (2016), respectively. We all hated the acting in Warcraft (and pretty much everything else), Nate is seriously confused, and Spencer keeps squeaking his chair. Check back next Sunday at 7pm PST where we will compare Robert Zemeckis' Forest Gump (1994) and Beowulf (2007), his best and worst rated films.
Also check out some behind the scenes pictures from Warcraft: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuXSH6msnjM
Warcraft Notes
Worst Rated
PLOT: As an Orc horde invades the planet Azeroth using a magic portal, a few human heroes and dissenting Orcs must attempt to stop the true evil behind this war. - Ratings: IMDb 7.4 | RT 29% C / 78% A
- Released: 2016
- Director: Duncan Jones (Source Code)
- Writer(s): Charles Leavitt, Duncan Jones
- Cinematographer: Simon Duggan
- Notable actors: Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, Ben Schnetzer, Robert Kazinsky, Clancy Brown, Daniel Wu, Ruth Negga, Callum Rennie
- Budget: $160 million
- Box office: $430.2 million
- Fun Facts:
- Director Uwe Boll contacted Blizzard about directing the film, but Blizzard refused. As quoted by MTV news Uwe Boll stated: "I got in contact with Paul Sams of Blizzard, and he said, 'We will not sell the movie rights, not to you... especially not to you. Because it's such a big online game success, maybe a bad movie would destroy that ongoing income, what the company has with it."
- The source for the movie adaptation is being taken from the books "Rise of the Horde", which tells how the Orcish Horde was formed; as well as "The Last Guardian", which shows the human side and reaction to Orcish invasion.
- The film was going to be released in December 2015 but was pushed back to May 2016 to avoid the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015).
- Duncan Jones said that the original script was very one sided in terms of the two factions (Horde and Alliance). after signing on to direct, he made major edits to the story, as well as the script, so both factions could tell their side of the story.
- Bill Westenhofer, the lead visual effects supervisor for the film, is a long time World of Warcraft player and has mentioned getting up at 2 AM to raid with his guild while on film sets. Robert Kazinsky is also a die hard Warcraft player and recalls producers telling him to turn the game off while on the set of Pacific Rim (2013).
- An Orcish dialect was created specifically for the movie.
- When a fan asked Duncan Jones where he would be shooting the film during a Blizz-Con Q&A he was not allowed to answer but did hint at the shirt he was wearing that said "Vancouver"(where the film was shot)
- Lifesize weapons and suits of armour were built for the orcs despite the orcs being played by actors via motion capture. This was mainly for photographic references and so that they could use them as props on the set.
Moon Notes
Best Rated
PLOT: Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet's power problems. - Ratings: IMDb 7.9 | RT 89% C / 89% A
- Released: 2009
- Director: Duncan Jones (Source Code)
- Writer(s): Duncan Jones (story), Nathan Parker (written by)
- Cinematographer: Gary Shaw
- Notable actors: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey, Dominique McElligott, Kaya Scodelario
- Budget: $5 million
- Box office: $9.8 million
- Fun Facts:
- Kevin Spacey read the script and agreed to voice Gerty but when the film was finished and only if he liked it. Having loved it, he recorded his lines in half a day.
- Outdoor moon scenes were shot using practical effects (small models). Shooting took place over 8 days according to Cinefex magazine July 2009.
- The film was written for Sam Rockwell, who Duncan Jones wanted to cast in a different film, but Jones and Rockwell could never come to an agreement on which part he should play. Because he wanted to work with Rockwell so much, he created this film for him.
- As part of the presentation of the movie at NASA, the director was asked about the sturdy, bunker-like design for the base. The director explained that he thought that astronauts would build the base using material dug out of the moon itself, instead of bringing a habitat with them and placing it on the surface. As it happened, one of the other audience members was working on "mooncrete", which as she explained to the director is a concrete-like material that could be made out of rocky "regolith" on the lunar surface.
- Shot in 33 days.
- Duncan Jones directorial debut.
Intro music: Calm The Fuck Down - Broke For Free / CC BY 3.0
Check out this episode!