What better place to discuss details about the upcoming Warcraft movie than BlizzCon? At a panel presentation and Q&A, Blizzard’s chief operating officer Paul Sams and Chris Metzen, Blizzard’s VP of creative development, discussed the upcoming film project with Thomas Tull, CEO of Legendary Pictures, and John Jashni, Legendary’s chief creative officer. Legendary is probably best known as the studio behind 300, Batman Begins and Superman Returns.

Sams began the presentation by saying Blizzard had been pursuing a movie deal for about five years, and was constantly rebuffed by Hollywood’s insistence that fantasy movies didn’t work. Eventually, the Lord of the Rings movies were released, not only proving that they did work, but that they had the capability of being huge box-office successes. Then, Hollywood’s line to Blizzard was that the Lord of the Rings movies set the bar too high.

As luck would have it, Sams and Metzen got connected with Tull and Jashni, and the two sides felt an immediate connection. Tull acknowledged that it’s a dangerous proposition to create a film based on a video game, and that they were determined to do it correctly. This meant that they were going to create an epic film that everyone would remember, with the goal of landing a spot on viewers’ top five lists.

It’s certainly a lofty goal, but Legendary and Blizzard seem primed to see it succeed. Tull said the Warcraft project is being seen as a tentpole film, with a budget north of $100 million. They have a preliminary script, and they’re shooting for a 2009 release. Tonally, Metzen sees the finished film as being a cross between 300 and Braveheart, at least tonally and in terms of impact.

So you have a huge franchise, with millions of fans. Where do you start? Metzen said that with films based on books and other serial source material, movies typically start with the first installment and move forward. Simple enough. With Warcraft, however, it’s slippery to determine which starting point should be used. Metzen said that the team originally thought about encapsulating the events of the first Warcraft game into the film, but eventually moved away from that idea. One reason is that he realized that most people are familiar with the world of Warcraft through, well, World of Warcraft.

With that in mind, Metzer says the film will take place a year before the events in World of Warcraft began. He said the story will use main plotpoints of those events, wrapped up into a two-hour film. Films like the X-Men movies and Batman Begins were cited as examples of movies that successfully had the same story beats and felt right, and Metzer is confident that the Warcraft film will succeed on those same levels.

Thematically, the story will be about Azeroth’s cultural conflicts, why those factions and races are fighting and what happens to people (and other beings) who live in this constant cycle of warfare and conflict. Thrall, General Proudmoore and Cairne Bloodhoof were all mentioned as characters we can expect to see in the film.

With that, the panel opened up the floor for a Q&A session. Here’s what we learned from that:

• Classes will be represented in the film. Metzer wants people to see familiar elements from the game, including armor sets, weapons and items as much as possible.

• It’s definitely going to be a live-action film. CG fans will have to be content watching those opening cinemas.

• No director or actors have been attached to the project yet, though the team is in talks with possible directors.

• The film will explore the perceptions—or misperceptions—of the Horde being evil and Alliance being good.

• It’s hard to predict a rating so early in the process, but the team is aiming for a minimum PG-13 rating. As Tull said, Lord of the Rings was intense and PG-13, while other movies with the same rating can be lame. Expect brutal action, whatever the rating—it’s World of Warcraft, not World of Pillowfighting, Sams added.

• Don’t expect to see an epic journey across the lands of Azeroth. This is a war movie, so you’re going to see huge powers moving and cultures grinding against one another.

• There’s no call yet on whether the Undead will be making an appearance. They’re still trying to determine if the film will be set before or after the Scourge align themselves with the Horde forces.

• The film will be told principally from the Alliance’s perspective. When the crowd booed, Metzer stood up and showed off his Horde belt buckle. He tried to explain that audiences might not empathize with Thrall, a huge green guy, when a heckler responded, “What about Shrek?” Much backpedaling ensued, but Metzer stood by the Alliance story hook.

• They’re not too concerned about building a franchise right now—they want to nail the first movie first, and then worry about others.

• The essential conflict between Horde and Alliance will be the focus, so don’t expect to see them high-five and pony for the big win, as Metzer put it.

• Lore will be respected, unsurprisingly.

• Humor is critical to the games, and the team is trying to figure out how best to incorporate that humor into the film.

• The director will have a strong hand in it, but the film will be grounded in the real world. Well, the real world of Azeroth. Don’t expect things to look like a CG dreamscape.

• The team isn’t aiming for huge Hollywood stars.

• The art and cinematic work from Blizzard’s teams will be used as inspiration, but the team hasn’t yet discussed how to incorporate their work in the film—if at all.

Finally, a concept painting of World Tree was shown. It was cool to see it for the first time, a titanic tree set against a violet moonlit sky. With the film being so early in the planning stages, a trailer—even a teaser—would have been out of the question. We’ll be following progress on this project, and we’ll keep you updated with more news and information as it becomes available.