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why won't GW allow 40k Movies or Horus Heresy movies?

Because, they're expensive and the IP isn't big enough.

EDIT: I was wrong. Here's a totally legitimate trailer for the new Horus Heresy movie in theaters November 31st, 2017.

Who said they wouldn't?

Because there is so much that happened, you would not be able to fit it into a 3 movie trilogy without glossing over a bunch of stuff.

There was that Ultramarines movie. So while not great its at least happened before.

Personally I don't see this happening.

Games Workshop and the way they handle (read: control) their IP doesn't meld with the way Hollywood works. This is assuming you're talking about a live-action, normal budget film. Major film producers/companies have a large say in what and how a script reaches the screen for mass consumption. This includes directors and editors having their say, adjusting/abusing IP material and often reducing a film's original script to "fit" a modern length requirement (currently 90-95 minutes is pretty common).

When a studio considers a script it often comes with a large list of "buts". I don't see GW bowing enough to let any large genuine studio produce a live IP.

The only likelihood of a film would be another semi-independent CGI based film. Now, that said, Ultramarines was crap. It was panned in almost all the reviews I've seen...and was borderline comically bad for the time it was produced (i.e. 2004 computer graphics bad). If GW is smart they'll support/not condemn more independent films like the Inquisitor film (clever in that it's being produced using video game animation software and not normal CGI materials).

Consider how bad this is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsvCLG1QZjs

Compared to this video game cut-scene intro from before then:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNFGJQIW5ZM

I think if we see anything, it'll be another CGI attempt. Hopefully, actually good this time.

Okay, um... Essentially GW doesn't make enough money to afford it, and WH40k is not popular enough to warrant it.

Blizzard was making over a billion dollars a year from their millions of WoW subscribers, for something like 10 years in a row.

Took them, what, 22 years from the release of Warcraft: Orcs and Humans in 1994, to the release of the Warcraft movie earlier this year?

Also... you're probably not going to like a Horus Heresy movie. It's going to have a drastically-different story to the one you know.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Verviedi wrote:
Because, they're expensive and the IP isn't big enough.

EDIT: I was wrong. Here's a totally legitimate trailer for the new Horus Heresy movie in theaters November 31st, 2017.

I think you mixed up links there. That's a link to a good song, not a link to the movie trailer.

 Pouncey wrote:
Okay, um... Essentially GW doesn't make enough money to afford it, and WH40k is not popular enough to warrant it.

Blizzard was making over a billion dollars a year from their millions of WoW subscribers, for something like 10 years in a row.

Took them, what, 22 years from the release of Warcraft: Orcs and Humans in 1994, to the release of the Warcraft movie earlier this year?

Also... you're probably not going to like a Horus Heresy movie. It's going to have a drastically-different story to the one you know.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Verviedi wrote:
Because, they're expensive and the IP isn't big enough.

EDIT: I was wrong. Here's a totally legitimate trailer for the new Horus Heresy movie in theaters November 31st, 2017.

I think you mixed up links there. That's a link to a good song, not a link to the movie trailer.

The link is a joke, I can't say if you are sarcastic or not, on the internet. It is an old joke.

 godardc wrote:
The link is a joke, I can't say if you are sarcastic or not, on the internet. It is an old joke.

Oh, you mean he was trying to rickroll people?

I didn't think people still did that anymore, except as a reference to how the Internet used to do that.

 Pouncey wrote:

 godardc wrote:
The link is a joke, I can't say if you are sarcastic or not, on the internet. It is an old joke.

Oh, you mean he was trying to rickroll people?

I didn't think people still did that anymore, except as a reference to how the Internet used to do that.

No clue what you're talking about, that is absolutely a legitimate link. You may want to click it again.
And rick rolling is an immortal joke, I don't know what makes you say that. Here's a link that explains it.

If Hollywood were to get involved the setting would be butchered and altered to suit the views of producers to such a degree that it no longer fits in with what we know and love.

Chances are, we'll be getting something like this..

A 40k film that went back to its goofy Rogue Trader roots wouldn't necessarily be so bad.

As long as it's a decent film and not just some videogame cutscene battle-fest, I'm all for adaptations and liberties.

Unless they get that Disney money, don't even bother.

It needs at least the budget of the last star wars or avengers movie to be even remotely worth seeing.

Where did this come from ?

I'd rather see an Eisenhorn Trilogy. Much more limited storyline, much more appropriate for the genre (group of heroes who fight and infiltrate in roughly equal measure, with set villains to fight in each set), and thus much more likely to come across without substantial changes.

It also has more grounded characters and arguably more relatable ones, and wouldn't require a budget nearly as intense as that required by the Horus Heresy.

The heresy is to big to squish into 6 o 9 hours worth of Film. What could work is a channel like HBO giving it the game of thrones treatment.

LightKing wrote:
why won't GW allow 40k Movies or Horus Heresy movies?

Who says they're not allowing anything? The thing is, movies are expensive, and GW is tiny (in Hollywood terms). At their size, unless you get the one in a million chance of everything coming together just right. Because making a movie almost always means you have a lot of people who get to have a say in the eventual end product, and most of them are much higher up the command and influence rank than GW would be. It's how you end up with things like I, Robot or World War Z who share little more than a title in common with their original works.

And even if everything goes right in getting the film into production, the Warcraft movie shows how that might not be enough. Blizzard had the money, presence, and clout to do things their way, but the end product was... only adequate. GW has nowhere near the amount of money to throw around, or ability to control production. Trying to capitalize on cinema productions is probably considered just too big of an endeavor to get into.

Also, considering how dismal GW's efforts to do their own movie turned out, probably better to stick with audio books.

Hollywood would screw it up. In their hands anything grimdark would only be used as a contrast to a noblebright ending rather then the proper 40k setting where anything noblebright is a setup to be swamped by a grimdark ending.

Test audiences didn't like the ending where the Emperor (Tom Hardy) was condemned to the Golden Throne, so it got changed so that he and Eldrad Ulthran (Scarlett Johanssen) get together as a couple and ride of heroically into the sunset on a Jetbike.

GW's annual income is lower than the price tag of one Hollywood A-list actor.

Because the protagonist would have to be Guillian, he is the only one who gets a vaguely happy ending (except he didn't show up to the most important part).

 Unusual Suspect wrote:
I'd rather see an Eisenhorn Trilogy. Much more limited storyline, much more appropriate for the genre (group of heroes who fight and infiltrate in roughly equal measure, with set villains to fight in each set), and thus much more likely to come across without substantial changes.

It also has more grounded characters and arguably more relatable ones, and wouldn't require a budget nearly as intense as that required by the Horus Heresy.

As long as they can get Mark Strong to play Eisenhorn, the Eisenhorn game is bad, but the narration is just amazing.

 BrookM wrote:

 Unusual Suspect wrote:
I'd rather see an Eisenhorn Trilogy. Much more limited storyline, much more appropriate for the genre (group of heroes who fight and infiltrate in roughly equal measure, with set villains to fight in each set), and thus much more likely to come across without substantial changes.

It also has more grounded characters and arguably more relatable ones, and wouldn't require a budget nearly as intense as that required by the Horus Heresy.

As long as they can get Mark Strong to play Eisenhorn, the Eisenhorn game is bad, but the narration is just amazing.

Oh man, Mark Strong would be perfect.

 Verviedi wrote:
Because, they're expensive and the IP isn't big enough.

EDIT: I was wrong. Here's a totally legitimate trailer for the new Horus Heresy movie in theaters November 31st, 2017.

The IP is plenty big. Licensors don't like dealing with Games Workshop.

A friend of mine works in product marketing with Warner Brothers. As a Licensor for creative properties, they don't start with a movie, they start with stuff like kids cups and backpacks to estimate market potential.

Apparently, there are things that make the brand attractive but not feasible as a franchise. He told me their due diligence discovered drawbacks revolving around creative control of the IP and whether or not trademarks can be enforced internationally. The way he described it, there is a lot of other IP that's easier to work with, which is why we have Power Rangers instead of Space Marines.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 ProwlerPC wrote:
Hollywood would screw it up. In their hands anything grimdark would only be used as a contrast to a noblebright ending rather then the proper 40k setting where anything noblebright is a setup to be swamped by a grimdark ending.

Not Hollywood. More like MTV or Showcase, who have made a lot of money on things like this before. It would not start with a huge movie, it would be some sort of an animated series with a non-traditional plot. Think depressing Russian novel with sci-fi effects.

The only thing that I could imagine working would be a 40k movie that focuses mostly on the Imperial Gua...... I mean Astrawhateverthefeth (TM) plus something like Sisters of Battle defending against a Chaos invasion. Not needing pure CGI and being able to have real human characters unlike Space Marines which are generally lacking in the emotional depth department. With Chaos being the primary baddy they can use real actors for things like cultists or traitor guard while sprinkling in some daemons or CSMs into the mix which would be more CGI demanding. Also having guardsmen/sisters as the main characters would work well as most guardsmen are fairly ignorant to the warp, chaos, and life in general outside whatever backwater planet they came from. Pitch it as a gritty war epic like Saving Private Ryan but with far more sci fi elements.

But as others have said GW is not the best at working with other companies and they are too protective of their IP to know how to cash in big on their gold mine of a brand while potentially growing their business by leaps and bounds.

For 40k movies, surely Inquisitors are where the intriguing plots are?

As much as I would love to see a big budget movie based in the 40k setting I don't think it'll ever happen.

There is far too much to cover in the 30k setting to make even a trilogy so your only real chance is in the 41st millennium.

The problem they would always have, even if it got to the stage of writing a script, would be providing enough depth to the movies to appease the current fan base (something that is difficult enough just with writing lore) whilst still keeping it "dumbed down" enough for it to be accessible to people not already familiar with the universe.

Another problem I think has already been identified is in the tone of the film. Any production studio would struggle to approve any script where the entire endeavor of a fight for a survival being entirely pointless as everyone is doomed to a life of pain and suffering before a slow or fast and violent, but either way painful death.

The other major issue they'd have is trying to get their most recognizable and profitable IP into the story without an undue amount of explanation.

One way this may work is by focusing on the story of a hiver or resident of an underhive on a planet facing an ork or tyrannid invasion. starting with a run through of the young mans life with flashbacks of being told of the myths and folk stories about giant angels of death descending from the skies in flames heralding the end of all life... at the end of the film, after a PDF and sisters resistance crumbles, the space marines drop pod in to strike a vital blow to the invading force unintentionally saving the protagonists life in the process. Very Hollywood up to the point at which the true nature of the 40k universe is revealed as the marines leave as quickly as they arrived, leaving the planet ruined by the war and (more fittingly with an ork invasion) decide to subject the planet to exterminatus by atmospheric incineration rather than spend time and effort trying to rid the place of the infection of the ork spores....

the protagonist standing on a ruined building overlooking the devastation whilst in the distance torpedoes drop from orbit and detonate before a rolling fireball expands in the blink of an eye would be an epic ending.

All this being said it would be dependent on GW actually engaging constructively with a third party (the studio) and drastically relax their grip on the use of their IP and I honestly think that if Hollywood got involved in any joint project the allowances for artistic license would end up being abused and the film would end up to far removed from the setting we recognise.

HH needs to be a series. Too long and too complex for a movie.

Ciaphas Cain and Eisenhorn would be excellent introductions to the IP, and not overly expensive. If they go well, Armageddon could be the big hit.

Why would you ever want to? Remember Ultramarines? That's what happens when GW decides to try making a movie.

nareik wrote:
For 40k movies, surely Inquisitors are where the intriguing plots are?

Or the daily toils of a bunch of scribes on Earth

or orks sending their grots to engage in a cold war of trying to sabotage each other's vehicles before the big race

or tau diplomats juggling a dozen meetings to work out trade rights within a sector



You can set pretty much any kind of film about anything in the 40K universe and have it work if you just make a good film. There's no need for grim war spanks because that's what the games already do.