Ben Foster Leads The Cast Of Duncan Jones' WARCRAFT

Warcraft, the ever popular fantasy game franchise from Blizzard Entertainment (also makers of Starcraft), has been set to come to the big screen for nigh on half a decade now thanks to the folks at Legendary Pictures. Once set to roll with Sam Raimi at the helm, the film is now in the entirely capable hands of one Duncan Jones. With the film set to roll before cameras (and at the desks of visual effects artists) early next year, now is as good a time to announce a cast as ever.

While some of them could eventually end up being elves, and others orcs, Jones and co. decided to cast actors who are at least initially of the human variety. The most interesting name among them being Ben Foster, recently seen as the kind deputy in Ain't Them Bodies Saints, also remembered quite fondly for his work in The Messenger. In fact, I'll go on record and say Foster makes most movies a little better merely by his presence. He'll soon be seen as Lance Armstrong in Stephen Frear's still untitled biopic of the cyclist.

Moving on, young Brit thesps Toby Kebbel (The Counselor) and Rob Kazinsky, most widely seen in Pacific Rim (also EastEnders and True Blood), are also set to take lead roles... as an archer and a mage? A paladin or one of them peons/peasants? Plot details are non existent at this point, so it's anyone's guess as to who these guys are going to be other than heroic or villainous types in a fantasy film. As someone who used to play the Real-Time Strategy games in the series (never the MMORPG WoW) I will say I'm intrigued to see what Jones can do with this. Beyond the engaging gameplay, those Warcraft games had some exciting stories, great voice work and arguably the best cut scenes in 90s PC gaming -- all with a sense of humor to boot.  

Meanwhile, Dominic Cooper (Captain America: The First Avenger) is in talks for what is presumably a lead role, and probably a lead bad guy role, since he seems to get cast as cocky jerks quite often.

Warcraft is currently set for release on March 16 2016