MUMBAI: Legendary Pictures and Atlas Entertainment are casting up Warcraft, the movie adaptation of the hit Blizzard video game World Of Warcraft that Duncan Jones will helm. Word has it that Paula Patton is negotiating for a lead role and that another lead has been offered to Colin Farrell. Jones is testing other actors for the major roles. Production will begin in January and Charles Leavitt has written the script.

The role-playing game takes place in a medieval-like setting where players control avatars that take on gryphons, dragons, zombies, werewolves and elves. Time travel and alien worlds also are part of the mix. The project is one of Legendary’s biggest and was supposed to be made at Warner Bros. Since Thomas Tull’s financing/production company moved over to Universal Pictures, it’s expected that the film will be relocated there as well.

Patton is the lead in the upcoming Fox Searchlight film Baggage Claim and is coming off the hits 2 Guns and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. Farrell stars with Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson in Disney’s upcoming Oscar-season film Saving Mr. Banks and then the Akiva Goldsman-directed adaptation of the Marc Helprin novel Winter’s Tale.