The Source Code director has embarked on a quest to adapt the role-playing video game for the big screen. But can he succeed in this difficult realm?

It is a quest that many have attempted but few have successfully completed: the transformation of a hit video game into a movie that doesn't bore cinemagoers to death. Now the British science-fiction director Duncan Jones, seen as one of the brightest current hopes for genre film-making, is to take up the challenge after signing on to adapt a big-screen take on popular online fantasy game World of Warcraft.

The new film will be Jones's most ambitious yet in turns of scale and scope, with a budget exceeding $100m (£63m), according to the Hollywood Reporter. The director's most recent venture, the well-received 2011 techno-thriller Source Code, cost around a third of that, while his critically acclaimed 2009 debut Moon was made for just $5m.

World of Warcraft makers Blizzard Entertainment have been planning a film adaptation since 2006. Spider-Man director Sam Raimi signed up to take on the project in 2009 but left to focus on forthcoming fantasy prequel Oz the Great and Powerful.

Described as an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game), World of Warcraft has around ten million subscribers, suggesting a ready-made audience for Jones's film. It is set in a universe in which goblins, trolls, elves and humans exist alongside zombies, werewolves and even aliens.

Production company Legendary Pictures hopes to shoot the film, which is based on a screenplay by Blood Diamond's Charles Leavitt, this autumn for a 2015 release. Jones co-wrote Moon with Nathan Parker but showed himself to be adept at taking on the work of others with Source Code, which was based on a blacklisted script by Ben Ripley.

Jones, who is the son of David Bowie, was last year reported to be working on a "period action movie" about the creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming.