The Warcraft movie rumors just keep coming...
It looks as though the movie is well on the way to climbing out of the seventh stage of development hell (wish I could say the same for Ghostbusters 3, but anyway). The latest whisperings about the supposed Warcraft movie are finally moving away from behind the scenes staff, and looking at just who might be tackling some on screen roles of Blizzard's RTS based saga.
According to Deadline, "Paula Patton is negotiating for a lead role and that another lead has been offered to Colin Farrell." We've seen Farrell in far flung roles before, as a a neighborhood bloodsucker in "Fright Night," or the amnesia-laden Quaid in the "Total Recall" revamp, but "Warcraft" would be the actor's first foray into an on screen fantasy title, as well as his first movie based on a video game series. Patton on the other hand has more recently been seen playing Jane Carter in "Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol," a role she's rumored to reprise in the next MI flick.
Patton seems to be a lock, but Deadline's sources claim that Farrell's involvement is 50/50, and perhaps with good reason. The Warcraft movie's been a tough one to reign in, especially after Sam Raimi vacated the director chair, citing mismanagement from Blizzard as the primary reason, telling Vulture, "Blizzard had veto power, and we didn't know that. And they had never quite approved the original story we pitched them. Those reservations were their way of saying, 'We don't approve this story, and we want to go a different way,' so after we had spent nine months working on this thing, we basically had to start over. And Robert did start over, but it was taking too long for the people at Blizzard, and their patience ran out. Honestly, I think it was mismanagement on their behalf, not to explain to us that the first story was vetoed long ago."
If the studio can't get Farrell, it would be another disappointment, but the movie would still more than likely be on track. While World of Warcraft's player base has been dropping, there's still an enormous built-in audience that would fork over all the gold in Azeroth to see a live action movie.
Besides Farrell and Patton, it's also reported that "Prisoner's" Paul Dano, Anson Mount of AMC's "Hell on Wheels," and Star Trek's Anton Yelchin are also on a short list for other roles in the "Warcraft" movie.