MOVIE Warcraft (von Duncan Jones)

Bill Westenhofer has signed on as visual effects director for the Warcraft movie, fresh from winning a 2013 Academy Award for Life of Pi.

Blizzard executive Nick Carpenter announced the news via Twitter, commenting that he had had his first meeting with Westenhofer and the film is “in good hands”.

Westenhofer is a visual effects supervisor at Rhythm and Hues Studios. His work has appeared in a wide variety of works, including The Golden Compass, which won a Bafta and Academy Award in 2008; The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which was Oscar-nominated; Men in Black 2; Stuart Little; and much more.

The long stymied cinematic project seems to be making progress at last. The long wait on the project saw the exit of director Sam Raimi, who later said Blizzard has “mismanaged” the negotiations. Moon director Duncan Jones, a self-described fan of the property, stepped up to take his place, and rumour has it Johnny Depp may be on board, although we’ve heard nothing official.

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Holy crap, there was a big surprise at the Legendary/Warner Bros. panel just now. We saw the-first ever teaser for the World of Warcraft movie, in which a mighty armored warrior goes head-to-head with a huge green orc.

The footage showcased an alien-looking landscape full of rocky outcroppings, where a sweaty unshaven figure in armor is drinking water from a leather pouch. There's a cage with rocks in it, a squeaking noise, green lightning in the sky. The man tosses the water pouch on the ground, and draws his sword with a loud ringing sound. He takes a shield from an armored skeleton, and bangs his sword against it.

And then you see the massive arm of a... creature... heading towards him. We glimpse the green skin and some of the armor, and then finally we get an extreme closeup of the orc as it raises its axe and brings it down onto the man's head.

And director Duncan Jones came out and told the crowd that he always wanted to make movies where "you delve into fantasy" — and this project is a dream come true, because he gets to create a whole world. And he announced that he starts filming in early 2014.

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Slashfilm reports Legendary and Universal Pictures announced the cast list today, confirming Ben Foster (The Messenger, 3:10 To Yuma, X-Men: The Last Stand, Six Feet Under); Travis Fimmel (Vikings); Paula Patton (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Precious, Hitch); Toby Kebbell (Wrath of the Titans, War Horse, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes); and Rob Kazinsky (True Blood, EastEnders, Pacific Rim).

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