Warcraft: The Beginning, the summer blockbuster movie based on the popular international video game World of Warcraft, is a week away from premiering in China, and actor Daniel Wu is in China to promote the film.
Joining Wu is fellow actor Paula Patton and director Duncan Jones. Wu portrays the evil orc leader Gul'dan, while Patton plays the half-orc, half-human, orc assassin Garona Halforcen.
The promotional tour took Wu and his colleagues to the Beijing Film Academy, where the trio held a Q&A session with students.
Wu posted a selfie with Patton on his Instagram, writing, "Just finished our Q&A at the prestigious Beijing Film Academy. It was awesome to share our experiences with all those students. They are the future of Chinese film."
In the movie, Wu's character leads a hoard of orcs from their dying homeland to the realm of Azeroth, where they eventually clash with humans.
The Chinese-American heartthrob said of his character, "Gul'dan thinks magic is what they need to insure the survival of their species. He has to take souls - humans, other animals - and feeds off them."
Wu said the souls are Gul'dan's "fuel. Even though it's corrupting and makes [the orcs] turn into huge monsters, he thinks that's the only way to go."
According to China Film Insider, presale numbers of the fantasy film is currently on pace to potentially break a record, at RMB 22 million (USD 3.3 million) and rising.
Warcraft: The Beginning so far has received mixed reviews.
The Jakarta Post praised the "above-average acting performances in a movie that is adapted from a video game," but qualified the compliment, stating that "unfortunately, the performances come mostly from the computer-generated characters instead of those played by human actors."
Wu is one of the actors in the film whose character is a computer-generated image.
