Alodia Gosiengfiao in Talks for Warcraft Movie

A fine Filipina is bypassing the grind of Philippine showbiz and paving her own path to Hollywood — and it’s a uniquely geeky path. Filipina cosplay queen Alodia Gosiengfiao recently attended the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con, one of the biggest pop culture festivals on the planet. She wore various costumes to the convention, one of which won the Hall Costume Award from the prestigious Costume Designers Guild.

Alodia’s trip was documented by Oscar-nominated director Morgan Spurlock, famous for his groundbreaking documentary Super Size Me. Alodia is one of five Comic-Con attendees featured in Spurlock’s upcoming documentary Comic-Con Episode Four: A Fan’s Hope, in theaters 2011.

Apparently, Spurlock was so impressed with Alodia’s cosplay that he recommended her to his colleagues for a much, much larger project — one that also involves fantasy costumes.

Legendary Gamer

Legendary Pictures, the studio behind such box-office blockbusters as 300, The Dark Knight, and Inception, is currently developing a film based on the Warcraft video game franchise. The potential audience for a Warcraft movie is massive: 11.5 million people around the world play the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft, the latest game in the franchise.

Alodia herself is an avid gamer, and her passion for video games shows in her cosplay. Her first breakthrough cosplay character came from the hit Japanese role-playing game Final Fantasy X-2, way back in 2003. She’s even cosplayed professionally for game publishers. This gamer girl has been immersed in video games since before she was born: Alodia’s mom was playing Super Mario Bros. when she went into labor.

Alodia also used to play World of Warcraft. You can see where this is going.

A Fan’s Hope

Legendary Pictures founder and CEO Thomas Tull is producing Spurlock’s Comic-Con documentary. That’s why Spurlock was able to recommend Alodia for a role in the upcoming Warcraft movie.

“We met with Legendary about that movie,” Alodia told gaming blog Kotaku after her meeting with Tull, “and they’re considering me for one of the characters.” Alodia used to play a blood elf in World of Warcraft, and she hopes to do the same in the Warcraft movie.

The Philippines has a longstanding performance arts culture and a rising geek culture, both of which contribute to a strong cosplay culture. How fitting, then, that a fine Filipina should be the first cosplayer in the world to star in a major motion picture.

Engagement Over Reach

Alodia’s also an anime fan who serves as a VJ for Southeast Asian anime cable network Animax. By casting Alodia in the Warcraft movie, Legendary Pictures would do what Animax did when they recruited Alodia: hire a fan to engage fans. That move worked quite well for Animax, and it should work just as well for Legendary Pictures.

Alodia’s path to Hollywood fame is quite nontraditional: her fanbase is mostly online, and she focuses on fan engagement over reach. Fortunately, the exact same things can be said about World of Warcraft. That’s why this fine Filipina gamer is perfect for the project.

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