Duncan Jones Wanted Warcraft To Be A Rival of The Lord of The Rings

Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films set the bar high for fantasy films, and Warcraft director Duncan Jones and his crew wanted to give a "little bit of a rival" to the epic franchise with Blizzard's blockbuster. Although it seems to be doing fairly well overseas, already reaching $20 million with China pre-sales, it's a critical failure with a current 16% aggregate score in Rotten Tomatoes (Read our review here).

During a press conference, Geektyrant's Joey Paur had the chance to interview Duncan Jones, and the director talked about his goals for Warcraft and what he wanted to accomplish. On why he decided to work on the project and direct the film, Jones said:

"I think one of the things, science fiction in particular, has had a number of different sub-genres over the years. Whether you have a gritty film like Black Runner, 2001, A.I., or Adjustment Bureau. There's a big spectrum of what science fiction can be, and in fantasy the kind of gorilla in the room is The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The original one by Peter Jackson. It kind of feels like the spectrum of what is fantasy is much smaller than it is in science fiction. So I love the opportunity to maybe try and do a film, which would hopefully reach the same bar as Lord of the Rings, but give fantasy a little bit of a new voice and a new feel and that's what we tried to do with Warcraft."

While The Lord of the Rings is the film franchise that filmmakers look up to when producing an epic fantasy film, Jones wanted to make Warcraft differerent and stand on its own. Even Warcraft star Clancy Brown said that the orcs in Warcraft are more badass that the ones in The Lord of the Rings. Here's what Jones said about what he hoped Warcraft to be:

"The Lord of the Ring really set the bar as to what fantasy films should be. Like I said, I think fantasy has got a much smaller set of films which are really the things that you aspire to make when you make a fantasy film. Peter Jackson, I mean I've been out there, and the workshops the studio, everything there is just phenomenal, what's down there. And then obviously the landscapes in New Zealand lend themselves to this fantasy story telling. We wanted to find a way to do it differently. To give you guys a little bit of a rival. It would be nice if there was a little bit of a rival out there for fantasy films. So we just wanted to create a spectacle and give it an energy that was a bit different but hopefully achieved the same level of success."

Jones has accomplished making Warcraft stand on its own, but will the Warcraft film franchise last? While the first film may not do as well as fans hoped at the box office (It's expected to flop), it sounds like Jones already has big plans for the franchise.

So do you think Warcraft would eventually be considered a "rival" to The Lord of the Rings?

Warcraft is set to release in U.S. theaters on June 10.