Warcraft movie dated for Dec. 18, 2015

Legendary Pictures and Universal will release the feature film based on Blizzard's Warcraft universe on Dec. 18, 2015, the two companies announced today.

Directed by Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) and written by Charles Leavitt (Blood Diamond, K-PAX) and Jones, Warcraft is described by Legendary as "an epic adventure of world-colliding conflict." Blizzard senior VP of story and franchise development Chris Metzen will co-produce the film with Charles Roven and Alex Gartner for Atlas Entertainment and Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni for Legendary.

Warcraft is expected to begin shooting early next year. Jones showed a teaser trailer for the film adaptation at San Diego Comic-Con this summer, revealing a battle between an orc and a human warrior, a mix of live action and computer-generated effects.

Jones replaced the previously attached director, Sam Raimi, who dropped out of World of Warcraft to film Oz: The Great and Powerful.