Crafty conflict between film and game

Warcraft will be screened in China on June 8, which the director says will draw both gamers and moviegoers. [Photo provided to China Daily]

He changed the script to pitch the storyline on conflicts between humans and orcs－or "the first invasion", as he defined it.

In 1994, the first Warcraft game, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, featured two feuding races－humans ruling the peaceful land of Azeroth and the invading orcs of the Horde.

Blizzard developed the game into a decadeslong franchise, including five core games and dozens of novels. Its universe covers a wide range of characters and timelines.

"The original script is more like a human story. My change was to rebalance the film," explains Jones, who was in Beijing alongside actor Daniel Wu and actress Paula Patton.

If the film was made complex by too many characters, it would have to spend a lot of time explaining things to audiences, he says.

Now the story looks somewhat easier to follow.