Academy Award winner Bill Westenhoffer has been signed as the visual effects director for the long-in-development film adaptation of World of Warcraft.
The announcement came from Nick Carpenter, Blizzard's vice president of art and cinematic development, who confirmed the development on his Twitter account: "Had my first meeting with the VFX Director on the film. We are in good hands. Welcome aboard Bill Westenhofer!," Carpenter tweeted.
The long-overdue movie project appears to be making some progress finally, and with Westenhofer on board, the film should feature some spectacular visuals. Westenhofer is a visual effects supervisor at Rhythm and Hues Studios and his film career includes large projects such as The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Elf and Men in Black 2 and more, where he supervised hundreds of digital artists. Westenhofer and his team won both the BAFTA and the Academy Award for the 2007 release The Golden Compass and 2012's Life of Pi.
Moon and Source Code director Duncan Jones was earlier confirmed as the Warcraft movie's director and its filming is scheduled to begin later this year for a 2015 release. The movie was in the news for many reasons, including its prolonged delay and of course for the famous exit of veteran filmmaker Sam Raimi, who was originally attached to the project. Raimi later said that Blizzard has mismanaged the negotiations.
