As the background is visually rich it seems the idael subject for a movie, so why has no one made one for the cinema?

There has been, actually. It was called Ultramarines, and it was garbage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultramarines:_A_Warhammer_40,000_Movie

Yup, seemed very low budget. Definitely only watchable if you're a big fan, even then I wouldn't recommend it.

I think OP is talking about a proper, high-budget, live-action movie. I could easily see 40k movies equaling Avatar in scale and visuals, and, the story and concept art is already there for screenwriters to convert to script and directors to construct films around (as well as a huge fan-following: aka guaranteed profit). I really don't see why A-list directors and production houses aren't considering it - and, instead, are simply rehashing stories like Beauty and the Beast in live-action format.

Comic book movies have become a huge trend in Hollywood, so, there is clearly a market for films centered around the 40k universe. As I said earlier, most of the pre-production has already been done.

Lancelot185 wrote:
I think OP is talking about a proper, high-budget, live-action movie. I could easily see 40k movies equaling Avatar in scale and visuals, and, the story and concept art is already there for screenwriters to convert to script and directors to construct films around (as well as a huge fan-following: aka guaranteed profit). I really don't see why A-list directors and production houses aren't considering it - and, instead, are simply rehashing stories like Beauty and the Beast in live-action format.

Comic book movies have become a huge trend in Hollywood, so, there is clearly a market for films centered around the 40k universe. As I said earlier, most of the pre-production has already been done.

Because Comic Book movies don't have a theocratic british nazi empire as the GOOD guys.

The 40k universe is, as the slogan says, pretty grim. That's one of it's defining, and appealing factors. GoT, for example, is also pretty grim, with the majority of central characters having done bad and immoral things. It's also one of the most famous TV shows ever made. I think it would simply add to the depth of any 40k film to highlight the immorality and evil within the good guys (it's also understandable, given the state of the universe). After all, evil overlords and white knights are an outdated concept in mature films. Anti-hero's are the new craze. People like flaws, and they like redeemable qualities.

Mostly because the universe is primarily interesting as a setting rather than because there are particularly compelling characters or stories in it. Even fans of the IP are typically more invested in what's commonly called "lore" rather than in the setting's characters as characters. Further, virtually all existing 40k writing is very, very bad. Finally, the IP has basically no broader cultural cachet.

Compare to comic books. These are extremely character-focused, being concerned with the adventures and growth of particular heroes. They're basically ready-to-make movies -- starting with an origin story you can just lift whole comic arcs and put them on film, and they work as-is. Often the ideas in a comic book are at least potentially interesting -- the X-Men movies have made the most of this -- and, while execution can vary, the basic sort of Spiderman story is a solid one. Most importantly, comic characters have very broad appeal far beyond comic readership. Literally everyone knows who Superman is.

40k also doesn't really lend itself to the tone that people seem to want in blockbusters nowadays. Marvel's movies are basically without exception very fun; they're light, there are lots of jokes, they're very colorful, the violence is spectacular but not brutal, etc. There's lots of this even in Fox's X-Men movies, and I note that everyone agrees that the best thing they've done is Deadpool. The Dark Knight is really the only serious comic movie that's been well-received, and trying to match that tone with Man of Steel and Batman v Superman has not worked out well for Warner Bros. This isn't a new phenomenon.

40k probably works as a Metallocalypse-style parody of the sort of thing it is, maybe, though this might still only appeal to existing fans. But that's a low-budget cartoon, not a major blockbuster.

 JJ wrote:
Yup, seemed very low budget. Definitely only watchable if you're a big fan, even then I wouldn't recommend it.

Yep. Picked it up on release, even though I wasn't super optimistic over how it looked before the fact...

Really disappointing, especially when you consider it had John Hurt in it and it was written by Dan Abnett...
Seriously, what happened?

There has been no 40k movie because the IP has zero value. The 40k brand has limited recognition outside of a niche market that can't buy enough tickets to make it profitable, and anyone who thinks that the 40k concept has value can just rip off the same sources that GW ripped off and make their own "grimdark space war" movie that is virtually identical to 40k as far as non-fanboy audiences are concerned.

Aside from the licensing issues 40k just isn't good movie material. It's great as a setting for writing your own stories and fighting your own battles, but the stories are mediocre at best. Characters are dull and seldom developed beyond a cliche or two and a listing of their equipment and combat skills, the plots are rarely more than straightforward military campaigns, and large parts of the fluff (especially since 5th edition) are just plain stupid. And to even attempt to turn this mediocrity into a story you have to spend vast amounts of effort establishing what the 40k setting is so that an unfamiliar audience has any clue what's going on. So you end up with a bloated mess of a movie that puts most of the audience to sleep before you get anywhere near the "good" parts, and the payoff is probably little more than a CGI effects demo reel. Or you cut out most of the setting and simplify it to something like "space marines vs. tyranids on a space hulk", in which case why pay GW for the IP when you can just make your own Starship Troopers and/or Alien clone?

I found the original Ragnar books pretty compelling. I could see them becoming a movie. The first one would be (relatively) cheap, as there are no far-flung planets, just a single Hoth world.

Dionysodorus wrote:
Mostly because the universe is primarily interesting as a setting rather than because there are particularly compelling characters or stories in it. Even fans of the IP are typically more invested in what's commonly called "lore" rather than in the setting's characters as characters. Further, virtually all existing 40k writing is very, very bad. Finally, the IP has basically no broader cultural cachet.

Compare to comic books. These are extremely character-focused, being concerned with the adventures and growth of particular heroes. They're basically ready-to-make movies -- starting with an origin story you can just lift whole comic arcs and put them on film, and they work as-is. Often the ideas in a comic book are at least potentially interesting -- the X-Men movies have made the most of this -- and, while execution can vary, the basic sort of Spiderman story is a solid one. Most importantly, comic characters have very broad appeal far beyond comic readership. Literally everyone knows who Superman is.

40k also doesn't really lend itself to the tone that people seem to want in blockbusters nowadays. Marvel's movies are basically without exception very fun; they're light, there are lots of jokes, they're very colorful, the violence is spectacular but not brutal, etc. There's lots of this even in Fox's X-Men movies, and I note that everyone agrees that the best thing they've done is Deadpool. The Dark Knight is really the only serious comic movie that's been well-received, and trying to match that tone with Man of Steel and Batman v Superman has not worked out well for Warner Bros. This isn't a new phenomenon.

40k probably works as a Metallocalypse-style parody of the sort of thing it is, maybe, though this might still only appeal to existing fans. But that's a low-budget cartoon, not a major blockbuster.

There's no reason that gripping narratives and exceptional characters can't be made for the film(s) - they wouldn't simply have to fixate on the one-dimensional characters written in the lore. And, if those characters are present, there is far more room to develop them in a film.

Rogue One was a tremendous success, with brand new hero's and a story that was only briefly touched upon in the OT (so, new characters, and a fleshed-out narrative). It's also much more serious than any other Star Wars film, and people applauded it for successfully depicting the war that was being fought - it gave a sense of immersion that the other movies didn't, due to it's maturity. Look at the LOTR films, Avatar (I know, I said it earlier), GoT, Harry Potter (it got a lot darker from around film 4/5 - both in narrative and colour), they're all critically-acclaimed and absolutely iconic - far more so than any fun spiderman film. I do believe that there is a a huge market for a 40k series, as long as it's not approached in the light-hearted, lightly entertaining way that most comic book movies are. Serious movies win oscars and are venerated throughout film history. Whilst fun, but, ultimately shallow movies are forgotten, or kept as cheap entertainment - until a new version is made, with updated visuals.

Edit: Imagine a horus heresy series. The possibilities for character development, exploration of morality and fellowship, of betrayal and mystery, are simply incredible. A good screenwriter could adapt the novels (which are, undeniably, very well-written - with very good dialogue), and turn it into an incredible story that anyone could appreciate. Market it as a new epic fantasy franchise, with a universe as dense as Tolkein's.

I think it is because for 4 reasons:

- very expensive. GW isn't that big of a company to invest money on film-making.

- IP protection. GW would want the adaptation to be as faithful as possible to the base material; but, as we know, studios will want to make the product more marketable (which imply changes).

- grimdark. GoT has hope; you know, in the end, the white walkers won't win. What's the point of showing series where everyone loses? Even zombie-themed movies have the main protagonist escaping/winning/etc.
In 40k, on the other hand, the Imperium (the most relatable of factions) have no hope at all. Beset by all sides - internally or externally - it's just decades from crumbling apart, piece by piece. Even if a battle is won here, many others are lost somewhere else. It's overwhelming in despair and unimportance for the common man. Generally, people don't want to see that.

- The 40k fanbase. It isn't that big to award a production like GoT. It's too niche.
40k needs heaps of popularity increase to at least reach a level that studios would be interested in it.
I think Fantasy is more marketable and easier to adapt to the screen.

Dionysodorus wrote:
Mostly because the universe is primarily interesting as a setting rather than because there are particularly compelling characters or stories in it. Even fans of the IP are typically more invested in what's commonly called "lore" rather than in the setting's characters as characters. Further, virtually all existing 40k writing is very, very bad. Finally, the IP has basically no broader cultural cachet.

Compare to comic books. These are extremely character-focused, being concerned with the adventures and growth of particular heroes. They're basically ready-to-make movies -- starting with an origin story you can just lift whole comic arcs and put them on film, and they work as-is. Often the ideas in a comic book are at least potentially interesting -- the X-Men movies have made the most of this -- and, while execution can vary, the basic sort of Spiderman story is a solid one. Most importantly, comic characters have very broad appeal far beyond comic readership. Literally everyone knows who Superman is.

40k also doesn't really lend itself to the tone that people seem to want in blockbusters nowadays. Marvel's movies are basically without exception very fun; they're light, there are lots of jokes, they're very colorful, the violence is spectacular but not brutal, etc. There's lots of this even in Fox's X-Men movies, and I note that everyone agrees that the best thing they've done is Deadpool. The Dark Knight is really the only serious comic movie that's been well-received, and trying to match that tone with Man of Steel and Batman v Superman has not worked out well for Warner Bros. This isn't a new phenomenon.

40k probably works as a Metallocalypse-style parody of the sort of thing it is, maybe, though this might still only appeal to existing fans. But that's a low-budget cartoon, not a major blockbuster.

I agree 40k universe is just too grim and lacks charismatic heroes to make it work in a proper live action movie.

But actually the universe has MUCH to offer IF they'd put some work into Characters.

Lord Inquisitor is a really good start i think:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZc6cr6G2E4

Stories evolving around a charismatic Inquisitor (he doesnt have to be THAT bad as in the "Lord Inquisitor" Prologue!) has a lot of potential.
Story should NOT focus on wars with Alien races or big Chaosdemon Invasions, with lots of gore, it could focus on more subtle demon infiltrations for example with a charismatic Inquisitor(ess?) hunting them down.

Well written, this could turn out more as a grim dark Bladerunner-cyberpunk-kind-of-thriller than a stupid Spess Marehns!ChainswordOrkMassacre.

The "theocratic british nazi empire" Bacon described(perfect ) has a lot of space to let characters evolve and progress to different levels of moral principles questioning their own behaviour and/or that of the whole Empire.
Viisually, it is perfect to draw attention to people who are just into "usual sci-fi"
Heck, you could even add crowd-pleasers for the mainstream in form of henchman, add a cocky smartass and a dumb idiot whos talking big and you are good to go, perfect Hollywood trio together with Ms. Inquisitoress(which looks hot OFC!)

Well, if that happens 50% of fanboys will cry that it is not a "true 40k" movie cuz dismembered Orks and chainswords are missing ;_; , but i would actually like this approach much more.

Lancelot185 wrote:
There's no reason that gripping narratives and exceptional characters can't be made for the film(s) - they wouldn't simply have to fixate on the one-dimensional characters written in the lore. And, if those characters are present, there is far more room to develop them in a film.

Rogue One was a tremendous success, with brand new hero's and a story that was only briefly touched upon in the OT (so, new characters, and a fleshed-out narrative). It's also much more serious than any other Star Wars film, and people applauded it for successfully depicting the war that was being fought - it gave a sense of immersion that the other movies didn't, due to it's maturity. Look at the LOTR films, Avatar (I know, I said it earlier), GoT, Harry Potter (it got a lot darker from around film 4/5 - both in narrative and colour), they're all critically-acclaimed and absolutely iconic - far more so than any fun spiderman film. I do believe that there is a a huge market for a 40k series, as long as it's not approached in the light-hearted, lightly entertaining way that most comic book movies are. Serious movies win oscars and are venerated throughout film history. Whilst fun, but, ultimately shallow movies are forgotten, or kept as cheap entertainment - until a new version is made, with updated visuals.

Sure, if you strip away basically everything about 40k which is characteristic of it you could maybe make a serious-ish movie/series that kind of looks like 40k if you squint. I mean, obviously Space Marines are right out. You want a more easily-differentiated cast and you definitely want some women, and you really don't have any reason to waste time on all of this genetically engineered, super-tall, black carapace bs. If you're going to have sentient aliens they really have to all be willing to talk to each other, and you want some clear good guys or at least anti-heroes with understandable personal motivations (that is, not loyalty to an evil empire).

So given that you've got this thing and it's pretty good, why would you ever attach the 40k brand to it? That's not a prestigious association.

Edit: I would also say that of your examples, Harry Potter and Star Wars are primarily known as fun properties. Harry Potter starts off downright whimsical. Sure, it gets darker later but that's after people get attached. Of course, LotR and Harry Potter were household names before they got movies. I am not sure that anyone now cares about Avatar even a little, and it was primarily sold as a 3D CG extravaganza. Certainly no one cared about the plot.

Lancelot185 wrote:
One was a tremendous success, with brand new hero's and a story that was only briefly touched upon in the OT (so, new characters, and a fleshed-out narrative).

Sure, but it had the advantage of existing in the Star Wars setting. That's guaranteed profit from obscene ticket sales (plus all the toy sales), no need to explain the basic concepts of the setting, and an audience that already has a stake in the outcome of the movie. None of that exists for 40k, you'd be starting over from the beginning. And Rogue One without the Star Wars IP would not have been anywhere near as big.

Edit: Imagine a horus heresy series. The possibilities for character development, exploration of morality and fellowship, of betrayal and mystery, are simply incredible. A good screenwriter could adapt the novels (which are, undeniably, very well-written - with very good dialogue), and turn it into an incredible story that anyone could appreciate. Market it as a new epic fantasy franchise, with a universe as dense as Tolkein's.

Yes, I can imagine a Heresy series. I can imagine a bloated mess like the novels have become, attempting to sell to an audience that doesn't already love 40k. I can imagine a spectacular failure on the scale that seriously risks destroying any company dumb enough to invest in it.

Sci fi in general has always had a hard time breaking out of any niche audience and into the mainstream. Star Trek did it mostly due to timing (being something unique on early color TV when there were only three channels), and Star Wars made it because of its unique mix of Cowboy Western and Greek Epic (and having a very simple and easy to understand story).

Honestly, I'm not sure if there's anything in the 40k universe that a general audience could latch onto. While there are many interesting characters, their stories and origins are so wildly different than anything in reality that it would be hard for any audience member to relate. The setting is way to wildly different than any era in history. Most sci-fi, despite having extravagant technologies, base the average lifestyle of its characters on either modern day or something else general audience know (eg. Medieval or Western).

40k is just too different imho. It's not a bad thing, it just means we won't see any movies/HBO miniseries in the setting.

Grim dark is not the problem. The problem is that there is no POV faction everyone can root for. They're all the bad guy. Even still, there are so many factions that you would need more than one movie to justify their existence and 40K isn't going to be a trilogy. If anything, 40K would be better off as a series. You could focus on a faction's struggle every episode and still manage to have a cohesive storyline.

Arcanis161 wrote:
Sci fi in general has always had a hard time breaking out of any niche audience and into the mainstream. Star Trek did it mostly due to timing (being something unique on early color TV when there were only three channels), and Star Wars made it because of its unique mix of Cowboy Western and Greek Epic (and having a very simple and easy to understand story).

Honestly, I'm not sure if there's anything in the 40k universe that a general audience could latch onto. While there are many interesting characters, their stories and origins are so

I'd disagree here. Scifi movies have made into the mainstream, and various "geek movies" making obscene amounts of money have made it clear that we aren't talking about a tiny niche market. Sure, plenty of scifi movies and shows fail, but plenty of action/romance/etc movies and shows fail just as badly. The problem with 40k is that it's 40k, not that scifi is inherently doomed.

Sure, if you strip away basically everything about 40k which is characteristic

It's defining characteristics are that it's grim, and everyone is varying degrees of immoral. That's a perfectly viable foundation from which to build a narrative (foundation is the key word), and it wouldn't diminish the 40k universe to do so.

So given that you've got this thing and it's pretty good, why would you ever attach the 40k brand to it?

You attach it to the 40k brand due to the universes unique art-style, complexity, comprehensiveness and opportunity to grow. 40k is a massive universe, with innumerable places to construct a good narrative, and iconic architecture, species etc that are clearly identifiable as 40k. You attach it to the 40k brand, because so much of the world-building has already been done for you. All you need do is put characters into the world and pick a storyline (or make your own). You don't need to spend years building a brand new, self-sufficient universe.

Sure, but it had the advantage of existing in the Star Wars setting

Star Wars began somewhere. And, it began with far less than any 40k film would. No sprawling, massive universe. No visual style. No prior fan-following. Nothing.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Type in "40k" in google images. That's why you attach it to the 40k brand. Anyone with a half-decent imagination can look at any one of those pictures and come up with stories. Furthermore, everything in those pictures already has backstory and concept art. It's a screenwriters playground.

Mutant Chronicles had a movie, not very good but at least John Malkovich is in it!

 Peregrine wrote:
There has been no 40k movie because the IP has zero value. The 40k brand has limited recognition outside of a niche market that can't buy enough tickets to make it profitable, and anyone who thinks that the 40k concept has value can just rip off the same sources that GW ripped off and make their own "grimdark space war" movie that is virtually identical to 40k as far as non-fanboy audiences are concerned.

Aside from the licensing issues 40k just isn't good movie material. It's great as a setting for writing your own stories and fighting your own battles, but the stories are mediocre at best. Characters are dull and seldom developed beyond a cliche or two and a listing of their equipment and combat skills, the plots are rarely more than straightforward military campaigns, and large parts of the fluff (especially since 5th edition) are just plain stupid. And to even attempt to turn this mediocrity into a story you have to spend vast amounts of effort establishing what the 40k setting is so that an unfamiliar audience has any clue what's going on. So you end up with a bloated mess of a movie that puts most of the audience to sleep before you get anywhere near the "good" parts, and the payoff is probably little more than a CGI effects demo reel. Or you cut out most of the setting and simplify it to something like "space marines vs. tyranids on a space hulk", in which case why pay GW for the IP when you can just make your own Starship Troopers and/or Alien clone?

QFT (in my opinion)

The characters suck, the cliche-ridden stories are boring; they make for good stories for people who already are involved in the games but mass-market appeal that would be necessary for a big-budget, hollywood style movie.....no way.

The only decent movie that could come out of the 40k universe would be about guardsmen and it would be so depressing that it would make movies like saving private ryan and dunkirk look like the happiest movies ever made.

You can't make a movie about space marines because it would be so boring since their portrayed as invulnerable, walking tanks of doom that can wipe out entire cities by themselves. /sarcasm

A 40k movie does not have to show the utter Grimdarkness of the whole settings at the start.
Look at how the Dredd movie toned down a lot of the 'Dredd-ness', and got on with the movie. Most people who wanted a full-on Judge Dredd movie got something. Coming at it from having no clue, it probably worked, too.

Start in a hive world, with a gang encountering a Genestealer cult.
An Agri-world family struggling to get by, and a call to war.
An IG outpost with an early warning of Orks.
Keep the big picture out of it, and you'll have a chance of a viable movie. Make the Grimdark happen in the background.

 Skinnereal wrote:
A 40k movie does not have to show the utter Grimdarkness of the whole settings at the start.
Look at how the Dredd movie toned down a lot of the 'Dredd-ness', and got on with the movie. Most people who wanted a full-on Judge Dredd movie got something. Coming at it from having no clue, it probably worked, too.

Start in a hive world, with a gang encountering a Genestealer cult.
An Agri-world family struggling to get by, and a call to war.
An IG outpost with an early warning of Orks.
Keep the big picture out of it, and you'll have a chance of a viable movie. Make the Grimdark happen in the background.

This. A 40k movie need not depict constant, massive battles with no discernible goal, and equally boring characters.

 Skinnereal wrote:
A 40k movie does not have to show the utter Grimdarkness of the whole settings at the start.
Look at how the Dredd movie toned down a lot of the 'Dredd-ness', and got on with the movie. Most people who wanted a full-on Judge Dredd movie got something. Coming at it from having no clue, it probably worked, too.

Start in a hive world, with a gang encountering a Genestealer cult.
An Agri-world family struggling to get by, and a call to war.
An IG outpost with an early warning of Orks.
Keep the big picture out of it, and you'll have a chance of a viable movie. Make the Grimdark happen in the background.

The newest dredd flick was pretty grim.
And enjoyable.
Background grimdark sure.
Servo skulls however need to be front and center alongside cyber cherubs and an inquisitor.
Should be a series first a la Dr. Who but with MOAR SKULLZ!

The traditional narratives of WH40k (poorly explained warfare, overly dramatic/bloated characterization of leaders, etc) would be absolutely, positively, undeniably wretched as a movie.

That said, WH40k's universe is vast, and there's undeniably a story line in there somewhere that would
A) be universally intriguing enough that the studio wouldn't have to rely on the 40k brand to bring people in;
B) have a specific point of view from which the story could be told; and
C) remain focused on the grim, dark nature of the 40k universe.

My money would be on following the Inquisition, and particularly Gregor Eisenhorn.

Inquisitorial mysteries, great overarching evils, corruption from within the government itself, enemies without... there's a lot for just about any viewer to latch on, and if done right, could properly portray the Imperium as the horrifying, fascist/nazi government that is is while being entirely necessary for the Imperium to continue to exist at all - that sort of controversial portrayal would be an excellent marketing tool.

Inquisitors are also, almost by definition, exceptional people surrounding themselves with exceptional help, which means you can easily add the sort of awesomesauce action scenes that would be necessary to attract the Michael Bay crowd, and Inquisitors interact with just about EVERY other aspect of the Imperium (Eisenhorn pretty much does exactly that - the administratum, the ministorum, the adeptus mechanicus, Space Marines, Guard, and (of course) other Inquisitors/inquisitorial hierarchy.

That would allow the movies to touch on almost all aspects of the Imperium (good for making WH40k fans happy) without focusing on any of them (good for not boring non-WH40k fans), and it combines the grimdark nature of WH40k with the sort of overarching mystery/story arch, filled to the brim with character development (probably subject to different emphases - I expect the Bequin/Eisenhorn thing would be more at the forefront) and driven as much by the characters themselves as the story pushing them along.




That said, it is unlikely to be done right, so even if an Eisenhorn trilogy could be potentially possible, I still find it unlikely (particularly because GW would be throwing hissy fits every time a single character's hair is out of place, metaphorically speaking).

 Skinnereal wrote:
A 40k movie does not have to show the utter Grimdarkness of the whole settings at the start.
Look at how the Dredd movie toned down a lot of the 'Dredd-ness', and got on with the movie. Most people who wanted a full-on Judge Dredd movie got something. Coming at it from having no clue, it probably worked, too.

Start in a hive world, with a gang encountering a Genestealer cult.
An Agri-world family struggling to get by, and a call to war.
An IG outpost with an early warning of Orks.
Keep the big picture out of it, and you'll have a chance of a viable movie. Make the Grimdark happen in the background.

So then why would you bother attaching the 40k IP to this? 40k is already not a huge deal, and only a small fraction of the people who are already interested in 40k are going to care about these kinds of things. That's not what's bringing most people to the IP -- there's a reason that the Dawn of War games are about Space Marines and ultraviolence. Why not just use an original IP, or better yet an IP that's more suited to this kind of story and which is actually popular?

Like, if the question is "Why has there never been a 40k movie" along these lines, then the answer seems obvious. Movie executives are not that dumb.

Done properly, and with a suitable scope and focus, a movie or mini-series (I personally see this working out a lot better than a feature film) is totally possible.

Everyone here is complaining how the characters are "lame and boring" but this is a massive universe, and creating a new inquisitor or new space marine protagonist would be the easiest thing in the world. For a mini-series, the story could easily take its time to fully flesh out without bombarding an unfamiliar audience with dozens of abstract things. Start slow with a few characters, some background, and then slowly widen the scope of the universe. It could be done.

Look at mini-series like American Horror Story and GoT - gritty, dark, violent, with the perfect cast and a slow build-up for each storyline. It could work with the right people developing and writing for it. Will it ever happen? I really doubt it.

Because it doesn't have tons of brand recognition with the mainline consumer, and (despite what space marine players claim), space marines are a terrible human face for a movie hero. They're utterly unrelatable emotionless god-humans.

But then what about the imperial guard? Sure, but there are a bunch of other franchises with better name recognition for an imperial guard style story that don't have the baggage of being strapped to the space nazi empire. Star wars. Starship troopers reboot. Aliens marines. And if you can't get brand recognition, you just go the Edge of Tomorrow and just take the aesthetics without having to be shackled to the whole brand. "Hey look, we can have an IG vs Tyranids movie with badass chainsaw wielding power armor babes and we don't have to adhere to some stupid existing universe OR pay royalties, we can just do whatever we want? Great!"

What sells movies these days is "I KNOW what that IS!" 40k doesn't have that with the average consumer.

The thing that killed Ultramarines for me (I could forgive some of the flaws, just not this one) was the degree to which they insisted on making everything look exactly like the models. The end result was awkward, wildly uncanny-valley, and distracted from any effort to make anything make sense on screen by just looking disturbing and wrong all the time (especially when the Daemon Prince shows up and is very obviously just the old metal one with the giant backpack struts skittering around like some amateur's first animation project).

If GW wanted to make a movie that didn't look like crap they'd have to make the effects on screen better than the models, and while I will acknowledge it's possible (see: conversation cutscenes in the Space Marine video game) I don't think GW's current tunnel-vision focus on only portraying things that happen on the tabletop would permit them to do it.

There are people who would go to a theater to watch a two-hour fight scene with terrible character animations, overblown special effects, impossibly cheesy '80s dialogue, no relatable characters, no women, nigh-constant bizarre religious ranting, and enough racist/fascist overtones to get the film boycotted by almost everyone, but I doubt there would be enough to make it a profitable endeavor.

W40k would probably suck as a movie. Movies are about plotlines, storytelling and characters. W40k lore is almost exclusively background and exposition, simply because that is what is needed in a game.

If somebody made the Godfather, Pulp Fiction or Citizen Kane into a tabletop game, that game would probably suck big time and for the same reasons.

Yeah, a 40k movie has to be about Imperial Guard or Inquisitor characters. No Space Marines, no Xenos, no Chaos, etc... those aren't relatable at all.

The Inquisitor is the best bet because with the "Inquisitor retinue" excuse as AnomanderRake said, you can put basically everything on it. Even a Jokaero, to be the funny companion of the team!

The reason is actually that gw holds onto the reins too tightly they for example won't allow american actors to play a space marine.

This sat poorly with Hollywood types and after the first attempt no one bothered again because gw left such a poor impression.

This was all pre social media but at one point there was interest.

Of course after that CGI mess they made perhaps its for the best.

A 40k movie would have to be dark and brutal. I could imagine a Tyranid invasion of a hiveworld, end of the world-type scenario. We follow a brave imperial guard squad with interesting characters and possibly some homosexual romance. Beginning right before the invasion, the story would detail their losing battle all the way back to their last fortress. Betrayal by the local inquisitor taking off in the last space vessel could play a part. Close to the end there could be a blatant ripoff of the mist's ending, complete with space marines dropping from the sky.

Or something of that sort. I think that such a story could be appealing, sort of like letters from iwo jima.

I could see a Horus Heresy movie.

Whatever they do, it has to be about Space marines at some point. Not because I like them much but it's the most basic aspect of 40k. Everything in that universe is basically only a setting in which we see Space Marines doing their thing.
If the movie is good it will show how messed up the imperium is and that those "heroic" Space Marines defend a fascist nightmare.
As opponents I could see classical Eldar, Orks or Chaos. We've seen Tyranids in Alien and Starship Troopers already, we've seen Necrons in Terminator and we've seen Tau in all the other Sci-Fi movies. Space Elves and Space Orks are a special thing of 40K.

Of course, if they are low on budget it could also simply be Death Korps of Krieg vs. Renegades, but that would be a missed chance.

GW should have taken the chance and supported the Lord Inquisitor movie.

sossen wrote:
A 40k movie would have to be dark and brutal. I could imagine a Tyranid invasion of a hiveworld, end of the world-type scenario. We follow a brave imperial guard squad with interesting characters and possibly some homosexual romance. Beginning right before the invasion, the story would detail their losing battle all the way back to their last fortress. Betrayal by the local inquisitor taking off in the last space vessel could play a part. Close to the end there could be a blatant ripoff of the mist's ending, complete with space marines dropping from the sky.

Or something of that sort. I think that such a story could be appealing, sort of like letters from iwo jima.

And yet, Hollywood can do the same thing but more effectively and without licensing with a generic setting, just borrowing the elements they want/like.

Your scenario is pretty much the setup of Edge of Tomorrow, except that because it's not tied to the 40k mythos they can set it close to the present day, so you have a setting and set pieces that the audience recognizes, and you can work in the whole time travel plot with the possibility of an ending that isn't a downer.

It is really really really hard to make a sci fi military movie where people give a single crap about the conflict if the audience has nothing familiar to relate to. If the whole movie is going to center around the battle, and you're not going to spend half the film setting up WHY we should care about what's being fought over (See: Avatar, John Carter of Mars, etc) then you need to have it set in locations the audience already knows and understands. And that means earth, at least semi-recognizable.

Otherwise, you get the Star Wars Episode 3 battle scenes. CGI robots fighting CGI clones in a CGI alien planet filled with CGI alien weirdos we don't know or care about, with nothing at stake and no emotional investment from anyone.

Imagine an entire Michael Bay transformers movie with zero human characters, set on the planet of Cybertron, where none of the transformers changed into any recognizable earth vehicle. Just 90 minutes of walking junyards punching each other on a weird alien planet with "WhooshclankpewpewpewGRIIINDclank LOOK OUT swishclankWUBWUBWUBzapswoosh I WILL DESTROY YOUR GUYS".

That's how much it would appeal to the average person with no knowledge of the universe.

Cause it will fail to deliver profit just like warcraft movie. Which was pretty decent as a movie itself imo.

Let's be honest, GW (as big as it is) is a tiny speck compared to some of the major money computer game franchises.

Also, the way GW runs its IPs, they'd never, EVER get along well enough with a major producer/director/financiers to ever produce a movie they would give a thumbs up to. They could definitely get away with a straight to DVD CGI film, like the last one (but, ya know, good?).

There are a lot of authors and screenwriters who spend 5-10 years trying to find a producer or production house which will let them actually present the film the way they want to. GW would never manage it, I don't believe. I think their grip and fear of their IP is far too strong to ever trust or relinquish enough design control to have a film made.

There are a few issues, IMO, with a potential 40k movie. It has to be distinct enough from other sci-fi stuff that its not seen by those unfamiliar with the setting as a rip off. So that puts guard v nids out the question as people will inevitably compare it with Starship Troopers. We've seen humanoid robot killing machines in Terminator and the Tau technology has a number of similarities to other sci fi tech we've seen elsewhere. Now people have seen Orks before in LotR and the Hobbit but 40K greenskins are an entirely different animal. Their ramshackle vehicles/walkers and tech sets them apart from other Ork-like renditions a cinema audience has seen before.

The idea or using Orks would also be a better idea when looking at the need for background padding for those not already indoctrinated into the 40k universe. Any use of Chaos or Genestealer cults being hunted by Inquisitors realizes the problem of having to explain the Inquisition itself and where it sits within a very complicated Imperium. Using the Space marines as the protagonists also raises too many issues about having to explain what they are and where they come from (that's even ignoring what others have said about their impersonality) and even the guard are not that great a protagonist because there is still a lot to learn for a newcomer to the scene around the culture in the guard that is to one degree or another a microcosm of humanities culture at large.

The Horus Heresy novels would make a great series but the problem there becomes the one dimensional characters that are the Primarchs at times.

There is, however, I think a way around this. We've learnt from novels before that a Guard Regiment will often be granted leave to remain on a world and populate it after a pacification or extended conflict if the Imperium does not see it as effective to move what remains after a major conflict to a new warzone. Additionally, in cases where succession or rebellion has occurred and/or mass genocide of sections of a planetary population is still fresh on the minds of a planets population these off worlders are not always welcomed with open arms. A la Salinas in "The Killing Ground".

What if a guardsman has retired after the end of a long campaign and as an off worlder has decided to live outside of any major hives and lives km's away on a farmstead, hunting and living by subsistence. Give him a wife and a couple kids and maybe his memories of war and the conflicts and galactic enemies he has seen we can learn about through his telling of war stories to his son?
What if he sees changes to the forests while out hunting and grows concerned and after the closest town is turned into a ghost town by an unseen host of greenskins the family get word to evacuate to the nearest hive. As they get closer we see more and more teachnology and hints at the gothic imagery we are used to already until finally the grav train they are being evacuated on breached the edge of a forest and we get the first glimpse of the hive and audiences unfamiliar with the setting are eased in that way but with a visual punch. The remainder of the story is then his drafting back into the guard as a veteran (where we see the real threat as the so far unseen ork invasion emerges around the walls of the hive and battle ensues) coupled with his families fight to get off planet.

To me this could really make a great movie. Especially if the Astartes drop in pods during the final 5-10 minutes to smash the Orks and give the defenders hope only before realising that they have come to rescue a sacred artifact before themselves leaving.

Why has it not been done?
Because GW will not give up the rights to sell the associated merchandise which makes up a vast amount of the revenue produced by sci fi movies.

'tis a shame.

Dionysodorus wrote:

 Skinnereal wrote:
A 40k movie does not have to show the utter Grimdarkness of the whole settings at the start.
[....]
Keep the big picture out of it, and you'll have a chance of a viable movie. Make the Grimdark happen in the background.

So then why would you bother attaching the 40k IP to this? 40k is already not a huge deal, and only a small fraction of the people who are already interested in 40k are going to care about these kinds of things. That's not what's bringing most people to the IP -- there's a reason that the Dawn of War games are about Space Marines and ultraviolence. Why not just use an original IP, or better yet an IP that's more suited to this kind of story and which is actually popular?

Like, if the question is "Why has there never been a 40k movie" along these lines, then the answer seems obvious. Movie executives are not that dumb.

Once a movie has been made, and stands up on its own, expand that into the wider 40k universe. If there is enough happening in the background of the first go, the 2nd will use it as a prequel.

A potential 40K movie should incorporate humans as the main characters as other posters already pointed out. But SM fanboys don´t have to sit this one out. If the gak hits the fan at the end of the movie, the ubiquitarian inquisitor opens the trunk of his futuristic armoured Ferrari, dons his power armour and can duke it out like Iron Man in those marvel slugfests.
Another approach could be a catachan jungle fighters squad trying to liberate POWs from a communistic ork kommando camp. When the squad fails in his duty, Colonel Straken assigns Sly Marbo the mission. Now comes the best sequence of the movie:
Sly puts on his red bandana, explains the importance of blue light to the audience and crafts his combat knife while becoming war itself. What then follows is epic popcorn cinema indeed. Sadly we will never see stuff like this.

its simple, for it to be true to the source material, it would have to be an 18, but its gonna be a pg13 at best, so it will be utter gak with a terrible story that doesnt make sense by a director that doesnt give a gak.

There's plenty of stories that would be fantastic for movies. The obvious is the Horus Heresy, which can spawn enough movies to give the MCU a run for it's money.

There's also:

The Battle for Macragge, where the Ultramarines face off against Hive Fleet Behemoth.

The Damocles Crusade, where the Imperium fights the Tau

Any of the Wars for Armageddon

Every Cadian gate battle

The trials and tribulations of Inquisitor Kryptmann in fighting off Kraken and Leviathan

The Iron Cage incident

etc..

The problem is most blockbuster films are fiancial losses (not flops, those are even worse). Most of the cash they make back from them are usually in the merchandise. 40k, as it stands, already makes much of it's money from merchandise, which includes the shovelware license games that are coming out, so there's little need financially for a big-name movie. This is not even getting into the fact that 40k has to compete with something mainstream like the Avengers, Justice League, Transformers, or anything with Chris Nolan/James Cameron's name attached to it.

One of the big issues is that 40k is not really big enough, and any story that would be compelling in 40k would probably be served just as well in another fantasy Property.
D&D would be just as good a setting for a lot of the ideas presented, and has magnitudes more brand recognition and even more to pull from.

But i do think there is value in something for GW, But it would have to be done Well.
You could do a first 1 hour special following an enforcer unit dread style into a potential cult, Show a manipulating demon with some of the iconography and leave a lot of the background in the background for interested people.
It would serve the brand and not bog it down to much, can show a functioning imperial world and a potential threat for latter.
It can also be done relatively cheap(as far as this sorta thing goes) It wont blow anyone away unless it is fantastic, But it could be worth it for GW.
The setting has some things to offer, But i think it would do best if it was to stay as far away from space marines as possible. Avoid escalation Until latter on Would probably serve it best.

Would honestly love to see a netflix series inquisitor.

Any other faction would probably be the most boring thing to watch in existence.

GW said it themselves. Licensing issues. Every movie company approached wants the toy rights as you can see that would be problematic as they are in that business.

 Desubot wrote:
Would honestly love to see a netflix series inquisitor.

Any other faction would probably be the most boring thing to watch in existence.

you could probably make a interesting show out of eldar and tau, But it would be a hard sell.
Could both be introduced in the story easy enough with an inquisitor or though political means.
I think at least with elder the way GW has gone about giving them culture has been mind numbing stupid, seeming to make unique as there character and forgetting to give them real character of there own.

 Gamgee wrote:
GW said it themselves. Licensing issues. Every movie company approached wants the toy rights as you can see that would be problematic as they are in that business.

That's a cop-out. They could craft an agreement that exempts the items that they produce or plan to produce during the license period. Only poorly crafted licenses last forever (i.e. Fox and the xmen/spiderman license)

Apple fox wrote:
One of the big issues is that 40k is not really big enough, and any story that would be compelling in 40k would probably be served just as well in another fantasy Property.
D&D would be just as good a setting for a lot of the ideas presented, and has magnitudes more brand recognition and even more to pull from.

But i do think there is value in something for GW, But it would have to be done Well.
You could do a first 1 hour special following an enforcer unit dread style into a potential cult, Show a manipulating demon with some of the iconography and leave a lot of the background in the background for interested people.
It would serve the brand and not bog it down to much, can show a functioning imperial world and a potential threat for latter.
It can also be done relatively cheap(as far as this sorta thing goes) It wont blow anyone away unless it is fantastic, But it could be worth it for GW.
The setting has some things to offer, But i think it would do best if it was to stay as far away from space marines as possible. Avoid escalation Until latter on Would probably serve it best.

With respect, no it would not, 40k is unique in "current" sci fi and fantasy, it has no heroes and the bad guys ALWAYS win, even when they lose, sure there are similarities to some other settings, but none of them bring it all together in such a mad way, DnD certainly does not.

I agree with the rest of what you have said though, it would have to be done properly. but it wont, the money is with the family audience and any 40k film would cater to them, not the the real fans, as such it would suck arse.

Also I've actually studied film school movies (and briefly been in) and your not going to win people over by making big epic movies. A movie has ot be about stories and character first.

I would focus on one man and his family and it would be almost more of a horror movie in a just destroyed city. Off in the distance you can hear vague signs of fighting once in awhile and strange horror noises.

Power failure at the doors means they can't get out and are stuck in the hab complex with something that got in during the fighting.

Slowly but surely this thing is picking them off one by one and they pray to the Emperor for his angels to save their world to no avail and so he begins to get that grit any hero would. He wants to try and kill this deamon from beyond to save his family.

We don't see anything big except the city that surrounds the area and maybe a brief glimps of some shooting in the distance. This movie is intimate and we get to know thi sman and his families problems they had even before now.

Your regular audience member has no idea how much this universe sucks and what better what to do that than by showing an every man.

Against all odds he confronts this deamon and by the end of the movie and at a high cost to his family and in managed to slay it but he is all alone now and sad. Food and water is running out and the air is becoming poisonous.

Then at the very end of the movie he is ready to die in this grim dark universe just another forgotten man. The hab doors are forced open and we see an Inquisitor with a team of acolytes greets him and is astonished seeing the man had managed to kill a deamon. Then he is taken away and the only thing the Inquisitor will say is that it is clear the Emperor has marked him for a different fate.

Then as the movie series goes on we get bigger and bigger. It's been many years since that first encounter and a long time of service to his mentor and savoir. The second movie is him being a high ranking acolyte and now he is interacting more with Imperial society in this movie. HE is trying to uncover who would have even summoned such deamons in the first place. We might see statuary of space marines at this point and perhaps brief glimpses on posters but alas they still will not show up to save them. By the end of the movie it's clear that a chaos space marine was causing the cults to form and he has already called his friends. The Inquisitor dies at this point and only one or two of the acolytes survives. He appoints the hero as the new Inquisitor and tasks him with saving the world.

The third film is only a year or two later when the full scale invasion begins. He hopes his warnings got out in time and that a dead inquisitor was sufficient evidence of the severity of the situation. For most of the movie it's just the IG and the Inquisitor and one badass commissar trying to hold back the invasion of deamons and cultists. In the second movie we seen the power of a single chaos space marine and now entire war bands have arrived and intend to summon a greater deamon.

In the third act in their last final stand they finally get a communication from the heavens. Reinforcements are on the way and we get to see the drop pods of the space marines making first contact with the enemy. We see massive landers bringing in more IG than you can shake a stick at and some Thunderhawks screaming overhead shooting down deamons.

This way we don't bombard the audience too much with world building. Look at the dark universe movie as an example of how not to do this. Movies need to be very focused and small set pieces.

You have to slowly build up into a cinematic universe the public is familiar with. You need to earn it like marvel.

Then once all of that is done we can go bigger more often, but again you don't always want to bombard the audience with that. Look at how bad the warcraft movie was it tried to be too epic too fast and no one knew what was going on except the warcraft fans.

Also never add too much villains and bad guys into a movie. It really dilutes it. Look at amazing spider man 2.

Audiences need to always care about who they are cheering for or hating on (memorable villains needed).

Anyways those are my hypothetical 40k movies I would make to kick off the universe.

 Gamgee wrote:
GW said it themselves. Licensing issues. Every movie company approached wants the toy rights as you can see that would be problematic as they are in that business.

Sounds like something they could get around. A 40k film wouldn't be the first movie based on a toy line: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_based_on_toys
The LEGO Movie is probably the most successful of them, and I don't think the LEGO-company sold the rights to produce LEGO-bricks either.

 Skinnereal wrote:
A 40k movie does not have to show the utter Grimdarkness of the whole settings at the start.
Look at how the Dredd movie toned down a lot of the 'Dredd-ness', and got on with the movie. Most people who wanted a full-on Judge Dredd movie got something. Coming at it from having no clue, it probably worked, too.

I think that would be the way to do it. Focus on a simple story and a small number of characters. Keep the 40k universe as a background, and don't get bogged down trying to showcase every single bit of obscure fluff.

LEGO is a huge toy company and one of the largest brands with tons of money and clout. GW is a minnow in an ocean.

 Formosa wrote:

Apple fox wrote:
One of the big issues is that 40k is not really big enough, and any story that would be compelling in 40k would probably be served just as well in another fantasy Property.
D&D would be just as good a setting for a lot of the ideas presented, and has magnitudes more brand recognition and even more to pull from.

But i do think there is value in something for GW, But it would have to be done Well.
You could do a first 1 hour special following an enforcer unit dread style into a potential cult, Show a manipulating demon with some of the iconography and leave a lot of the background in the background for interested people.
It would serve the brand and not bog it down to much, can show a functioning imperial world and a potential threat for latter.
It can also be done relatively cheap(as far as this sorta thing goes) It wont blow anyone away unless it is fantastic, But it could be worth it for GW.
The setting has some things to offer, But i think it would do best if it was to stay as far away from space marines as possible. Avoid escalation Until latter on Would probably serve it best.

With respect, no it would not, 40k is unique in "current" sci fi and fantasy, it has no heroes and the bad guys ALWAYS win, even when they lose, sure there are similarities to some other settings, but none of them bring it all together in such a mad way, DnD certainly does not.

I agree with the rest of what you have said though, it would have to be done properly. but it wont, the money is with the family audience and any 40k film would cater to them, not the the real fans, as such it would suck arse.

That really is not all that unique to 40k it does have its own little special, But its not out and out Unique. And the story form the literature takes doesn't really follow that at all.
Why i bring up D&D is you could take the planescape setting and run wild with it, This isnt to say there isnt something that 40k has that is special to its own. But that for money, there are other settings that would serve the purpose outside investment would look at first.
This is more an expansion to my thoughts, rather than disagreement.

40k has something to offer, and i do not even think it would be bad for the fans if it was to be made. I just do not think any one with money would look at 40k as anything special that could not be served otherwise. (i actually worry more about a movie made for the fans being bad than otherwise)

Yeah I just don't think it would work. I mean what story are you going to tell that doesn't require way too much background building or hasn't/couldn't be told without the 40k IP?

Horus Heresy? Too many characters, needs too much world building to make a good movie. What are space marines? Primarchs? Why is the universe in said state? Why are some of the primarchs falling? What is chaos. Maybe you could do it with a big budget TV series with time to develop these concepts, but a feature film just doesn't work.

Space hulk type move = Aliens
IG vs aliens of some type = starship troopers.
Space Marines vs aliens = you would be better served using Halo for brand recognition.

etc.

Essentially the stories only work if you have already bought into the setting, which is not great for a movie. If you are just having the setting be far in the background, why use 40k at all as it really has nothing to offer but the setting.

Breng77 wrote:
Yeah I just don't think it would work. I mean what story are you going to tell that doesn't require way too much background building or hasn't/couldn't be told without the 40k IP?

Horus Heresy? Too many characters, needs too much world building to make a good movie. What are space marines? Primarchs? Why is the universe in said state? Why are some of the primarchs falling? What is chaos. Maybe you could do it with a big budget TV series with time to develop these concepts, but a feature film just doesn't work.

Space hulk type move = Aliens
IG vs aliens of some type = starship troopers.
Space Marines vs aliens = you would be better served using Halo for brand recognition.

etc.

Essentially the stories only work if you have already bought into the setting, which is not great for a movie. If you are just having the setting be far in the background, why use 40k at all as it really has nothing to offer but the setting.

Honestly the best way to go about it is the mini series like they are doing with castlevania

Eldar origin story would totally be an HBo Show

 Gamgee wrote:
LEGO is a huge toy company and one of the largest brands with tons of money and clout. GW is a minnow in an ocean.

Which in turn is a Hasbro company, who also owns Magic The Gathering...enough said. It is a corporate behemoth. So yes, I agree with you.

 Desubot wrote:

Breng77 wrote:
Yeah I just don't think it would work. I mean what story are you going to tell that doesn't require way too much background building or hasn't/couldn't be told without the 40k IP?

Horus Heresy? Too many characters, needs too much world building to make a good movie. What are space marines? Primarchs? Why is the universe in said state? Why are some of the primarchs falling? What is chaos. Maybe you could do it with a big budget TV series with time to develop these concepts, but a feature film just doesn't work.

Space hulk type move = Aliens
IG vs aliens of some type = starship troopers.
Space Marines vs aliens = you would be better served using Halo for brand recognition.

etc.

Essentially the stories only work if you have already bought into the setting, which is not great for a movie. If you are just having the setting be far in the background, why use 40k at all as it really has nothing to offer but the setting.

Honestly the best way to go about it is the mini series like they are doing with castlevania

Eldar origin story would totally be an HBo Show

yes a gritty animated show would be by far the best and most cost effective means of doing something like horus heresy. It would still be somewhat tough simply because the background of the setting is a little complicated. But you could do it that way. I just think for a movie it would fail because not enough interest and it would require a huge budget to be passable.

 BaconCatBug wrote:

Lancelot185 wrote:
I think OP is talking about a proper, high-budget, live-action movie. I could easily see 40k movies equaling Avatar in scale and visuals, and, the story and concept art is already there for screenwriters to convert to script and directors to construct films around (as well as a huge fan-following: aka guaranteed profit). I really don't see why A-list directors and production houses aren't considering it - and, instead, are simply rehashing stories like Beauty and the Beast in live-action format.

Comic book movies have become a huge trend in Hollywood, so, there is clearly a market for films centered around the 40k universe. As I said earlier, most of the pre-production has already been done.

Because Comic Book movies don't have a theocratic british nazi empire as the GOOD guys.

This is the exact reason that there will never be a high budget 40k movie, unless the 40k universe is seriously altered. Those who hold the purse strings of Hollywood and the like wouldn't like to portray the good guys like they are portrayed in 40k.

 Otto von Bludd wrote:

 BaconCatBug wrote:

Lancelot185 wrote:
I think OP is talking about a proper, high-budget, live-action movie. I could easily see 40k movies equaling Avatar in scale and visuals, and, the story and concept art is already there for screenwriters to convert to script and directors to construct films around (as well as a huge fan-following: aka guaranteed profit). I really don't see why A-list directors and production houses aren't considering it - and, instead, are simply rehashing stories like Beauty and the Beast in live-action format.

Comic book movies have become a huge trend in Hollywood, so, there is clearly a market for films centered around the 40k universe. As I said earlier, most of the pre-production has already been done.

Because Comic Book movies don't have a theocratic british nazi empire as the GOOD guys.

This is the exact reason that there will never be a high budget 40k movie, unless the 40k universe is seriously altered. Those who hold the purse strings of Hollywood and the like wouldn't like to portray the good guys like they are portrayed in 40k.

I mean they did do judge dread which is close to it

and a whole dystonia future thing is pretty in vogue right now.

 Skinnereal wrote:
A 40k movie does not have to show the utter Grimdarkness of the whole settings at the start.
Look at how the Dredd movie toned down a lot of the 'Dredd-ness', and got on with the movie. Most people who wanted a full-on Judge Dredd movie got something. Coming at it from having no clue, it probably worked, too.

Start in a hive world, with a gang encountering a Genestealer cult.
An Agri-world family struggling to get by, and a call to war.
An IG outpost with an early warning of Orks.
Keep the big picture out of it, and you'll have a chance of a viable movie. Make the Grimdark happen in the background.

Some orks break into an abandoned imperial garage. A shaft of light shines down from a hole in the ceiling and illuminates...a cabinet full of duct tape (queue angelic chorus). The orks drop their weapons in shocked reverence and charge forward towards their destiny.

Three scenes later you see a red orkified rhino covered in duct tape from stem to stern charging towards an IG battle-line driven by our inept heroes. It promptly gets blown up.

This stuff writes itself!

I cannot believe no one has mentioned doing a movie staring Commissar Ciaphas Cain as a solid option that would off set the "grim dark" a bit.

Cast him properly and have him team up with some Space Marines and you could have both the "grim dark" of the 40K universe along with the lighter comedic end that a lot of the super hero movies have now. It would also allow them to explore both the Imperial Guard and Space Marines in the same movie.

But as has been addressed above, Hollywood movies cost to much to make now, they aren't generally in the business of taking a chance on a new properties, which is why we're on like the 6th Transformer movie now.

 Gamgee wrote:
Also I've actually studied film school movies (and briefly been in) and your not going to win people over by making big epic movies. A movie has ot be about stories and character first.

Spoiler:

I would focus on one man and his family and it would be almost more of a horror movie in a just destroyed city. Off in the distance you can hear vague signs of fighting once in awhile and strange horror noises.

Power failure at the doors means they can't get out and are stuck in the hab complex with something that got in during the fighting.

Slowly but surely this thing is picking them off one by one and they pray to the Emperor for his angels to save their world to no avail and so he begins to get that grit any hero would. He wants to try and kill this deamon from beyond to save his family.

We don't see anything big except the city that surrounds the area and maybe a brief glimps of some shooting in the distance. This movie is intimate and we get to know thi sman and his families problems they had even before now.

Your regular audience member has no idea how much this universe sucks and what better what to do that than by showing an every man.

Against all odds he confronts this deamon and by the end of the movie and at a high cost to his family and in managed to slay it but he is all alone now and sad. Food and water is running out and the air is becoming poisonous.

Then at the very end of the movie he is ready to die in this grim dark universe just another forgotten man. The hab doors are forced open and we see an Inquisitor with a team of acolytes greets him and is astonished seeing the man had managed to kill a deamon. Then he is taken away and the only thing the Inquisitor will say is that it is clear the Emperor has marked him for a different fate.

Then as the movie series goes on we get bigger and bigger. It's been many years since that first encounter and a long time of service to his mentor and savoir. The second movie is him being a high ranking acolyte and now he is interacting more with Imperial society in this movie. HE is trying to uncover who would have even summoned such deamons in the first place. We might see statuary of space marines at this point and perhaps brief glimpses on posters but alas they still will not show up to save them. By the end of the movie it's clear that a chaos space marine was causing the cults to form and he has already called his friends. The Inquisitor dies at this point and only one or two of the acolytes survives. He appoints the hero as the new Inquisitor and tasks him with saving the world.

The third film is only a year or two later when the full scale invasion begins. He hopes his warnings got out in time and that a dead inquisitor was sufficient evidence of the severity of the situation. For most of the movie it's just the IG and the Inquisitor and one badass commissar trying to hold back the invasion of deamons and cultists. In the second movie we seen the power of a single chaos space marine and now entire war bands have arrived and intend to summon a greater deamon.

In the third act in their last final stand they finally get a communication from the heavens. Reinforcements are on the way and we get to see the drop pods of the space marines making first contact with the enemy. We see massive landers bringing in more IG than you can shake a stick at and some Thunderhawks screaming overhead shooting down deamons.

This way we don't bombard the audience too much with world building. Look at the dark universe movie as an example of how not to do this. Movies need to be very focused and small set pieces.

You have to slowly build up into a cinematic universe the public is familiar with. You need to earn it like marvel.

Then once all of that is done we can go bigger more often, but again you don't always want to bombard the audience with that. Look at how bad the warcraft movie was it tried to be too epic too fast and no one knew what was going on except the warcraft fans.

Also never add too much villains and bad guys into a movie. It really dilutes it. Look at amazing spider man 2.

Audiences need to always care about who they are cheering for or hating on (memorable villains needed).

Anyways those are my hypothetical 40k movies I would make to kick off the universe.

This.

DC had the right idea with Man of Steel, and got ahead of themselves in Batman Vs. Superman. Don't do that. Don't go too big too fast, and use the grimdark as a backdrop rather than as a focus. Make the movies about people trying their hardest to be points of light in darkness, and make sure there is always hope. If you focus on the grimdark above all else, you won't get a good story. It's part of the reason Warhammer 40k has so many crappy novels.

A 40k Movie needs to NOT be about 40k. It needs to be about people in the 40k universe.

And no, I don't think they could adapt any existing novels. Even the Eisenhorn novels were crap.

Any 40k movie would have to feature a completely new cast. No "famous cameos" of known characters. And the stakes would have to be small. Localized. If it were me I'd start the film on an idealized world rather than some overdeveloped, dark hell-scape of a hive world. Make the world look like an idealized earth in 100 years if we didn't totally mess up the environment.

Honestly, if I were in charge, I wouldn't even worry about the 40k universe backdrop. Make sure the films are cognizant of where they take place, but save most of it for the finale. I'd use Alien and Aliens as a model.

The first movie would be a horror film featuring normal people in extraordinary, horrifying circumstances.
The second movie would be an action-thriller film featuring capable, above-average heroes in over their heads (did I hear someone say, "kill-team"?).
The third movie would be the balls-to-the-wall war film featuring 40K in all it's glory. However, it would still focus on the trials of the main character from the first film as (s)he tries to salvage whatever was possible of their old life while the bombs were dropping.

I'd personally make the films about a Tyranid invasion. I think they're less confusing than chaos daemons. And you'd be able to draw parallels to much more popular films than Event Horizon and the game Doom (there was no movie. It never happened)

A movie about a bunch of survivors dealing a necron invasion would be interesting. Or a film about an investigation about a cult.
I think the focus on space marines is to the settings detriment in terms of narration, tbh, because it will always be about supermen doing supermen things.

The focus should have been on the Imperial Guard, ordinary humans who have to deal with horrible crap to survive.

 Arandmoor wrote:

 Gamgee wrote:
Also I've actually studied film school movies (and briefly been in) and your not going to win people over by making big epic movies. A movie has ot be about stories and character first.

Spoiler:

I would focus on one man and his family and it would be almost more of a horror movie in a just destroyed city. Off in the distance you can hear vague signs of fighting once in awhile and strange horror noises.

Power failure at the doors means they can't get out and are stuck in the hab complex with something that got in during the fighting.

Slowly but surely this thing is picking them off one by one and they pray to the Emperor for his angels to save their world to no avail and so he begins to get that grit any hero would. He wants to try and kill this deamon from beyond to save his family.

We don't see anything big except the city that surrounds the area and maybe a brief glimps of some shooting in the distance. This movie is intimate and we get to know thi sman and his families problems they had even before now.

Your regular audience member has no idea how much this universe sucks and what better what to do that than by showing an every man.

Against all odds he confronts this deamon and by the end of the movie and at a high cost to his family and in managed to slay it but he is all alone now and sad. Food and water is running out and the air is becoming poisonous.

Then at the very end of the movie he is ready to die in this grim dark universe just another forgotten man. The hab doors are forced open and we see an Inquisitor with a team of acolytes greets him and is astonished seeing the man had managed to kill a deamon. Then he is taken away and the only thing the Inquisitor will say is that it is clear the Emperor has marked him for a different fate.

Then as the movie series goes on we get bigger and bigger. It's been many years since that first encounter and a long time of service to his mentor and savoir. The second movie is him being a high ranking acolyte and now he is interacting more with Imperial society in this movie. HE is trying to uncover who would have even summoned such deamons in the first place. We might see statuary of space marines at this point and perhaps brief glimpses on posters but alas they still will not show up to save them. By the end of the movie it's clear that a chaos space marine was causing the cults to form and he has already called his friends. The Inquisitor dies at this point and only one or two of the acolytes survives. He appoints the hero as the new Inquisitor and tasks him with saving the world.

The third film is only a year or two later when the full scale invasion begins. He hopes his warnings got out in time and that a dead inquisitor was sufficient evidence of the severity of the situation. For most of the movie it's just the IG and the Inquisitor and one badass commissar trying to hold back the invasion of deamons and cultists. In the second movie we seen the power of a single chaos space marine and now entire war bands have arrived and intend to summon a greater deamon.

In the third act in their last final stand they finally get a communication from the heavens. Reinforcements are on the way and we get to see the drop pods of the space marines making first contact with the enemy. We see massive landers bringing in more IG than you can shake a stick at and some Thunderhawks screaming overhead shooting down deamons.

This way we don't bombard the audience too much with world building. Look at the dark universe movie as an example of how not to do this. Movies need to be very focused and small set pieces.

You have to slowly build up into a cinematic universe the public is familiar with. You need to earn it like marvel.

Then once all of that is done we can go bigger more often, but again you don't always want to bombard the audience with that. Look at how bad the warcraft movie was it tried to be too epic too fast and no one knew what was going on except the warcraft fans.

Also never add too much villains and bad guys into a movie. It really dilutes it. Look at amazing spider man 2.

Audiences need to always care about who they are cheering for or hating on (memorable villains needed).

Anyways those are my hypothetical 40k movies I would make to kick off the universe.

This.

DC had the right idea with Man of Steel, and got ahead of themselves in Batman Vs. Superman. Don't do that. Don't go too big too fast, and use the grimdark as a backdrop rather than as a focus. Make the movies about people trying their hardest to be points of light in darkness, and make sure there is always hope. If you focus on the grimdark above all else, you won't get a good story. It's part of the reason Warhammer 40k has so many crappy novels.

A 40k Movie needs to NOT be about 40k. It needs to be about people in the 40k universe.

And no, I don't think they could adapt any existing novels. Even the Eisenhorn novels were crap.

Any 40k movie would have to feature a completely new cast. No "famous cameos" of known characters. And the stakes would have to be small. Localized. If it were me I'd start the film on an idealized world rather than some overdeveloped, dark hell-scape of a hive world. Make the world look like an idealized earth in 100 years if we didn't totally mess up the environment.

Honestly, if I were in charge, I wouldn't even worry about the 40k universe backdrop. Make sure the films are cognizant of where they take place, but save most of it for the finale. I'd use Alien and Aliens as a model.

The first movie would be a horror film featuring normal people in extraordinary, horrifying circumstances.
The second movie would be an action-thriller film featuring capable, above-average heroes in over their heads (did I hear someone say, "kill-team"?).
The third movie would be the balls-to-the-wall war film featuring 40K in all it's glory. However, it would still focus on the trials of the main character from the first film as (s)he tries to salvage whatever was possible of their old life while the bombs were dropping.

I'd personally make the films about a Tyranid invasion. I think they're less confusing than chaos daemons. And you'd be able to draw parallels to much more popular films than Event Horizon and the game Doom (there was no movie. It never happened)

A nid invasion would be cool for that trilogy. Gene stealers in a system, followed by deathwatch coming in to try and clean it up, then an epic battle as the sky rains nids. i think nids would be easier for normal people to understand for sure.

Even horizon was an awesome movie.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:
A movie about a bunch of survivors dealing a necron invasion would be interesting. Or a film about an investigation about a cult.
I think the focus on space marines is to the settings detriment in terms of narration, tbh, because it will always be about supermen doing supermen things.

The focus should have been on the Imperial Guard, ordinary humans who have to deal with horrible crap to survive.

So, basically the last Terminator movie.

 Desubot wrote:

 Arandmoor wrote:

 Gamgee wrote:
Also I've actually studied film school movies (and briefly been in) and your not going to win people over by making big epic movies. A movie has ot be about stories and character first.

Spoiler:

I would focus on one man and his family and it would be almost more of a horror movie in a just destroyed city. Off in the distance you can hear vague signs of fighting once in awhile and strange horror noises.

Power failure at the doors means they can't get out and are stuck in the hab complex with something that got in during the fighting.

Slowly but surely this thing is picking them off one by one and they pray to the Emperor for his angels to save their world to no avail and so he begins to get that grit any hero would. He wants to try and kill this deamon from beyond to save his family.

We don't see anything big except the city that surrounds the area and maybe a brief glimps of some shooting in the distance. This movie is intimate and we get to know thi sman and his families problems they had even before now.

Your regular audience member has no idea how much this universe sucks and what better what to do that than by showing an every man.

Against all odds he confronts this deamon and by the end of the movie and at a high cost to his family and in managed to slay it but he is all alone now and sad. Food and water is running out and the air is becoming poisonous.

Then at the very end of the movie he is ready to die in this grim dark universe just another forgotten man. The hab doors are forced open and we see an Inquisitor with a team of acolytes greets him and is astonished seeing the man had managed to kill a deamon. Then he is taken away and the only thing the Inquisitor will say is that it is clear the Emperor has marked him for a different fate.

Then as the movie series goes on we get bigger and bigger. It's been many years since that first encounter and a long time of service to his mentor and savoir. The second movie is him being a high ranking acolyte and now he is interacting more with Imperial society in this movie. HE is trying to uncover who would have even summoned such deamons in the first place. We might see statuary of space marines at this point and perhaps brief glimpses on posters but alas they still will not show up to save them. By the end of the movie it's clear that a chaos space marine was causing the cults to form and he has already called his friends. The Inquisitor dies at this point and only one or two of the acolytes survives. He appoints the hero as the new Inquisitor and tasks him with saving the world.

The third film is only a year or two later when the full scale invasion begins. He hopes his warnings got out in time and that a dead inquisitor was sufficient evidence of the severity of the situation. For most of the movie it's just the IG and the Inquisitor and one badass commissar trying to hold back the invasion of deamons and cultists. In the second movie we seen the power of a single chaos space marine and now entire war bands have arrived and intend to summon a greater deamon.

In the third act in their last final stand they finally get a communication from the heavens. Reinforcements are on the way and we get to see the drop pods of the space marines making first contact with the enemy. We see massive landers bringing in more IG than you can shake a stick at and some Thunderhawks screaming overhead shooting down deamons.

This way we don't bombard the audience too much with world building. Look at the dark universe movie as an example of how not to do this. Movies need to be very focused and small set pieces.

You have to slowly build up into a cinematic universe the public is familiar with. You need to earn it like marvel.

Then once all of that is done we can go bigger more often, but again you don't always want to bombard the audience with that. Look at how bad the warcraft movie was it tried to be too epic too fast and no one knew what was going on except the warcraft fans.

Also never add too much villains and bad guys into a movie. It really dilutes it. Look at amazing spider man 2.

Audiences need to always care about who they are cheering for or hating on (memorable villains needed).

Anyways those are my hypothetical 40k movies I would make to kick off the universe.

This.

DC had the right idea with Man of Steel, and got ahead of themselves in Batman Vs. Superman. Don't do that. Don't go too big too fast, and use the grimdark as a backdrop rather than as a focus. Make the movies about people trying their hardest to be points of light in darkness, and make sure there is always hope. If you focus on the grimdark above all else, you won't get a good story. It's part of the reason Warhammer 40k has so many crappy novels.

A 40k Movie needs to NOT be about 40k. It needs to be about people in the 40k universe.

And no, I don't think they could adapt any existing novels. Even the Eisenhorn novels were crap.

Any 40k movie would have to feature a completely new cast. No "famous cameos" of known characters. And the stakes would have to be small. Localized. If it were me I'd start the film on an idealized world rather than some overdeveloped, dark hell-scape of a hive world. Make the world look like an idealized earth in 100 years if we didn't totally mess up the environment.

Honestly, if I were in charge, I wouldn't even worry about the 40k universe backdrop. Make sure the films are cognizant of where they take place, but save most of it for the finale. I'd use Alien and Aliens as a model.

The first movie would be a horror film featuring normal people in extraordinary, horrifying circumstances.
The second movie would be an action-thriller film featuring capable, above-average heroes in over their heads (did I hear someone say, "kill-team"?).
The third movie would be the balls-to-the-wall war film featuring 40K in all it's glory. However, it would still focus on the trials of the main character from the first film as (s)he tries to salvage whatever was possible of their old life while the bombs were dropping.

I'd personally make the films about a Tyranid invasion. I think they're less confusing than chaos daemons. And you'd be able to draw parallels to much more popular films than Event Horizon and the game Doom (there was no movie. It never happened)

A nid invasion would be cool for that trilogy. Gene stealers in a system, followed by deathwatch coming in to try and clean it up, then an epic battle as the sky rains nids. i think nids would be easier for normal people to understand for sure.

Even horizon was an awesome movie.

So, Rogue 1 with bugs instead of Empire, including the terminatus destruction of the planet.

 agnosto wrote:


So, Rogue 1 with bugs instead of Empire, including the terminatus destruction of the planet.

What and how so?

id think its more like cloverfield mixed with men in black

 Desubot wrote:

 agnosto wrote:


So, Rogue 1 with bugs instead of Empire, including the terminatus destruction of the planet.

What and how so?

id think its more like cloverfield mixed with men in black

Yeah, I was thinking that too. But then my brain ran forward to the end with the planet getting blown up.

To quote Sigourney Weaver from Aliens; "I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure."

Make a movie about an Inquisitor, in the vein of Se7en.

 Arandmoor wrote:

 Gamgee wrote:
Also I've actually studied film school movies (and briefly been in) and your not going to win people over by making big epic movies. A movie has ot be about stories and character first.

Spoiler:

I would focus on one man and his family and it would be almost more of a horror movie in a just destroyed city. Off in the distance you can hear vague signs of fighting once in awhile and strange horror noises.

Power failure at the doors means they can't get out and are stuck in the hab complex with something that got in during the fighting.

Slowly but surely this thing is picking them off one by one and they pray to the Emperor for his angels to save their world to no avail and so he begins to get that grit any hero would. He wants to try and kill this deamon from beyond to save his family.

We don't see anything big except the city that surrounds the area and maybe a brief glimps of some shooting in the distance. This movie is intimate and we get to know thi sman and his families problems they had even before now.

Your regular audience member has no idea how much this universe sucks and what better what to do that than by showing an every man.

Against all odds he confronts this deamon and by the end of the movie and at a high cost to his family and in managed to slay it but he is all alone now and sad. Food and water is running out and the air is becoming poisonous.

Then at the very end of the movie he is ready to die in this grim dark universe just another forgotten man. The hab doors are forced open and we see an Inquisitor with a team of acolytes greets him and is astonished seeing the man had managed to kill a deamon. Then he is taken away and the only thing the Inquisitor will say is that it is clear the Emperor has marked him for a different fate.

Then as the movie series goes on we get bigger and bigger. It's been many years since that first encounter and a long time of service to his mentor and savoir. The second movie is him being a high ranking acolyte and now he is interacting more with Imperial society in this movie. HE is trying to uncover who would have even summoned such deamons in the first place. We might see statuary of space marines at this point and perhaps brief glimpses on posters but alas they still will not show up to save them. By the end of the movie it's clear that a chaos space marine was causing the cults to form and he has already called his friends. The Inquisitor dies at this point and only one or two of the acolytes survives. He appoints the hero as the new Inquisitor and tasks him with saving the world.

The third film is only a year or two later when the full scale invasion begins. He hopes his warnings got out in time and that a dead inquisitor was sufficient evidence of the severity of the situation. For most of the movie it's just the IG and the Inquisitor and one badass commissar trying to hold back the invasion of deamons and cultists. In the second movie we seen the power of a single chaos space marine and now entire war bands have arrived and intend to summon a greater deamon.

In the third act in their last final stand they finally get a communication from the heavens. Reinforcements are on the way and we get to see the drop pods of the space marines making first contact with the enemy. We see massive landers bringing in more IG than you can shake a stick at and some Thunderhawks screaming overhead shooting down deamons.

This way we don't bombard the audience too much with world building. Look at the dark universe movie as an example of how not to do this. Movies need to be very focused and small set pieces.

You have to slowly build up into a cinematic universe the public is familiar with. You need to earn it like marvel.

Then once all of that is done we can go bigger more often, but again you don't always want to bombard the audience with that. Look at how bad the warcraft movie was it tried to be too epic too fast and no one knew what was going on except the warcraft fans.

Also never add too much villains and bad guys into a movie. It really dilutes it. Look at amazing spider man 2.

Audiences need to always care about who they are cheering for or hating on (memorable villains needed).

Anyways those are my hypothetical 40k movies I would make to kick off the universe.

This.

DC had the right idea with Man of Steel, and got ahead of themselves in Batman Vs. Superman. Don't do that. Don't go too big too fast, and use the grimdark as a backdrop rather than as a focus. Make the movies about people trying their hardest to be points of light in darkness, and make sure there is always hope. If you focus on the grimdark above all else, you won't get a good story. It's part of the reason Warhammer 40k has so many crappy novels.

A 40k Movie needs to NOT be about 40k. It needs to be about people in the 40k universe.

And no, I don't think they could adapt any existing novels. Even the Eisenhorn novels were crap.

Any 40k movie would have to feature a completely new cast. No "famous cameos" of known characters. And the stakes would have to be small. Localized. If it were me I'd start the film on an idealized world rather than some overdeveloped, dark hell-scape of a hive world. Make the world look like an idealized earth in 100 years if we didn't totally mess up the environment.

Honestly, if I were in charge, I wouldn't even worry about the 40k universe backdrop. Make sure the films are cognizant of where they take place, but save most of it for the finale. I'd use Alien and Aliens as a model.

The first movie would be a horror film featuring normal people in extraordinary, horrifying circumstances.
The second movie would be an action-thriller film featuring capable, above-average heroes in over their heads (did I hear someone say, "kill-team"?).
The third movie would be the balls-to-the-wall war film featuring 40K in all it's glory. However, it would still focus on the trials of the main character from the first film as (s)he tries to salvage whatever was possible of their old life while the bombs were dropping.

I'd personally make the films about a Tyranid invasion. I think they're less confusing than chaos daemons. And you'd be able to draw parallels to much more popular films than Event Horizon and the game Doom (there was no movie. It never happened)

1st film: A scavenger crew from a mining world locates a Space Hulk entering the system. They leap into action to be the first to explore its dark, cramped corridors for lost technology. Slowly, they are picked off one by one. They are not alone. Film ends in a mad dash back to a still-active lifeboat with a horde of Genestealers in hot pursuit. The last two survivors begin the long journey home to Ghosar Quintus.
2nd film: growth of the Genestealer cult.
3rd film: Tyranid invasion of Ghosar Quintus.

Sorry. Only able to flesh out the first film to any degree at this time. I'll think more one how 2 and 3 could develop. Feel free to add.

Robert Downey Jr. as Ciaphas Cain?

 Retrogamer0001 wrote:
Robert Downey Jr. as Ciaphas Cain?

Escape from Armageddon?

licclerich wrote:
As the background is visually rich it seems the idael subject for a movie, so why has no one made one for the cinema?

For it to be good it would require an immense budget, solid director and cast...the chances of all those things coming together for an overall kind of obscure universe is not likely right now. Maybe in 10-20 years when movies are even more burnt out than they are becoming...maybe by then people will be tired of avengers, JL, and superheroes being regurgitated over and over.

 Thargrim wrote:

licclerich wrote:
As the background is visually rich it seems the idael subject for a movie, so why has no one made one for the cinema?

For it to be good it would require an immense budget

Never true.

The most amazing films are made by directors with nothing but a neat idea, a ton of passion, a good cast, and a budget large enough to make a movie, but small enough to force them to be creative. It's why I point to Alien as a template film.

 Thargrim wrote:

licclerich wrote:
As the background is visually rich it seems the idael subject for a movie, so why has no one made one for the cinema?

For it to be good it would require an immense budget, solid director and cast...the chances of all those things coming together for an overall kind of obscure universe is not likely right now. Maybe in 10-20 years when movies are even more burnt out than they are becoming...maybe by then people will be tired of avengers, JL, and superheroes being regurgitated over and over.

Not necessarily true. As pointed out you could have a planet near earth like as the setting just with some minor gothic architectural nods here and there to show something is off about this world.

Alternatively it could be a small farming village and in the distance you can see the massive towering cities and gothic architecture of the main city and it's just never explained really. This way the CGI budget would be really low as you only need to have a few establishing background shots. Once the war starts and darkness comes maybe some shots of the city on fire, but those are relatively speaking easy things to do from a budget perspective.

From then on it wouldn't take too much to get some old 80's cars and tractors and mod them up a little to look Imperial in design with some icons. Then some props for around the small farming community so maybe a small shrine they prey too. After that you could easily film it in grungy dirty buildings and make people think it's the grim dark home. The cast would also be small, but I would try and get one bigger actor perhaps for the Inquisitor role near the end to build up to the bigger franchise.

The biggest budget sink would then be left to the alien or deamon. Personally I think a futuristic space deamon is a lot more memorable than just another movie with an alien invasion in it. It's a unique take science fiction compared to now and one of the selling points from a movie perspective (as much as I like my Tau).

 Arandmoor wrote:

 Thargrim wrote:

licclerich wrote:
As the background is visually rich it seems the idael subject for a movie, so why has no one made one for the cinema?

For it to be good it would require an immense budget

Never true.

The most amazing films are made by directors with nothing but a neat idea, a ton of passion, a good cast, and a budget large enough to make a movie, but small enough to force them to be creative. It's why I point to Alien as a template film.

Maybe as a type of arthouse movie on a smaller scale, but when I thought 40k movie the first thing that came to mind was thousands of warriors on screen and immense CGI titans and an epic story spanning 2+ hours akin to something from the horus heresy. The thing is it has to convincing, whereas a low budget 40k movie could end up feeling like cosplay on a quite elaborate set. Space marines aren't going to work that well as human bodies in a costume without some changes made. Guardsmen would work, mechanicus could be rigged up in a practical way. I'm not saying it needs 100-200 million dollars but at least 5-10 million at minimum...maybe a little more...otherwise it could be like a non CGI version of that ultramarines movie. One of the bigger hurdles it would have to overcome is the script and dialogue, i've found some of the stuff in 40k novels to be cringe inducing.

We already have a movie about a planet with minor gothic architectural nods, its called Alien 3...the look of the sets and style of that prison is IMO the kind of look i'd want to see.

They made a mutant chronicals movie, they could do a 40k flick. Just needs to not be marines.

Movies cost too much and don't give enough time to explain the world a series is the way to go, something that can be related to
My first thought would be a raw guard unit newly deployed as they encounter each new enemy for the first time the viewers can be introduced to them as well.
any marine presence should be very light with no direct interactions have them talked about almost as rumours a friend of a friend met someone who saw one.

Necromunda would be the way forward I think. You get to set it in the 40K universe but you're dealing with relateable humans. You can have baddie totalitarian arbites keeping the underworld gangs down and whatnot. You'd be getting close to a lot of films that have been made before but it'd be doable.

You could also do an inquisitor thing, pitched like a sci-fi film noir, or a film about guardsmen finding themselves hopelessly outmatched by a xenos threat, and they could be good movies, but you're basically just making Blade Runner or Aliens at that point.

Having a Necromunda gangster style film would be cool.
Something like Scarface.

I like the way this thread is heading! Which successful movies would work well reskinned as 40k?

This would give an idea of what 'real' 40k movie could be made.

40K is a very niche product, without the fan base to support a major motion picture.

Descent of Angels as a movie series would work.

Kids becoming Knights to fight creatures larger than life on a relatable but distinctly alien Death World. These same men learning of the Lion and his Super Human abilities that he himself has issues with in terms of relating or understanding how different he really is. The Dark Angels abruptly landing and changing their world forever.

Rebellions, mystery, and Sci-Fi Medieval mash-up would provide a solid environment for a series, movie, or any content.

Edit: You don't need an existing fan base for a movie. This helps movies be more successful but an original storyline, or unique perspective on an existing storyline, done right works. Examples like Alien, Avatar, Event Horizon, etc. are tremendously original properties that could be repurposed to Grim Dark.

What you need is a script, a director and producer who believes in the property, and GW to work with the studio on what boundaries within the story need to be maintained or added to fulfill the commercial needs of the film.

For example, very little of the Lion in film for GW, tell it from the perspective of the youth growing up and turning into a Marine so the audience can relate through the entire ordeal. To fulfill the required love back-drop use a girl who loses her childhood love to Knighthood (still able to relate, and have emotional connection, passing by in the halls) and the Imperium (total disconnect by male role due to the process, unrelateable by female role due to being a native of the planet and alien nature of the Imperium).

100% possible.

Ultramarines was actually a decent film! I've watched it about a dozen times now. It's enjoyable enough if you're not expecting it to be the next Godfather. Had the ending been more dramatic, with a bigger fight once Proteus recovers and saves venfor, people would probably be more forgiving.

Oh and the plot hole as to why they couldn't just stop the ship from leaving.....


As for the story.......it was the exact. same. story. as Aliens. So don't fault that.

 Retrogamer0001 wrote:

 Gamgee wrote:
LEGO is a huge toy company and one of the largest brands with tons of money and clout. GW is a minnow in an ocean.

Which in turn is a Hasbro company, who also owns Magic The Gathering...enough said. It is a corporate behemoth. So yes, I agree with you.

Lego is not owned by Hasbro. It is a publicly traded company domicile do in Denmark, with the descendants of the founder holding 75% of the shares. I couldn't quickly google current values, but in 2012 it was the most valuable toy company ahead of Mattel. In 2013 it was worth almost 3 times the value of Hasbro at $14.6 billion vs $5.4 billion.

... as for the topics of 40K movies, I think a better bet would be to make a good animated series and build from there.

I have tons of reasons to want a 40k movie, from my obvious passion and decades worth of collecting to just a love for the 40k universe and dystopian future flicks in general. But all of that is absolutely dwarfed by 1 thing.

The massive freak out certain groups would have over even showing a literal fascist, xenophobic, fantastical authoritarian theocracy as the good guys lol. You could make vulkun the star and it would still be a giant collective uproar of objection.

I want to keep this on topic, but all it takes is looking at marvel and it's movies for a glimpse at the thought process in Hollywood. Just watch the new spider man and try and tell me if you think they would support a bunch of space nazis ethnically cleansing Xenos and purging degenerates lol

Do it like the ultimate satirical anti-war movie - follow some poor scrub as he gets conscripted into the Guard, follow his 'adventures' as he's shipped out to ever more hellish warzones, with the space marines only ever glimpsed as god-like beings in the far distance, and then he dies horribly at the end for some pointless objective or gets shot by his Commissar for cowardice. Job done.

 Carl wrote:
I have tons of reasons to want a 40k movie, from my obvious passion and decades worth of collecting to just a love for the 40k universe and dystopian future flicks in general. But all of that is absolutely dwarfed by 1 thing.

The massive freak out certain groups would have over even showing a literal fascist, xenophobic, fantastical authoritarian theocracy as the good guys lol. You could make vulkun the star and it would still be a giant collective uproar of objection.

I want to keep this on topic, but all it takes is looking at marvel and it's movies for a glimpse at the thought process in Hollywood. Just watch the new spider man and try and tell me if you think they would support a bunch of space nazis ethnically cleansing Xenos and purging degenerates lol

Not sure. Starship Troopers exists. The Forever War is getting made. Loads of Vietnam films are pretty blatant about thinking everyone is a villain.

Sure ST is satire (though plenty people still manage to take it at face value somehow), and most Vietnam films (and The Forever War is essentially a Vietnam story) have likeable central characters even if they paint the US as the villain, but you can do that with guardsmen or underhive gangers, too.

We should pool together and get A1 pictures to make a 40k anime. Kawaii Desu~ Sisters of Battle anyone?

You all I think are missing a major point here. Chaos themed horror movie would be a great entry into the mainstream movie market. Going straight for the blockbuster is a bit much. I doubt Nurgle would be received well, and Slaneesh might get to raunchy for keeping it rated R. Khorne and Tzeentch though are begging for it. A descent into the madness of chaos, coupled with a tragic story and semi decent acting would be awesome.

Although many ideas in this thread sound pretty nice, I find most of them rather uninspiring.
Nobody needs Starship troopers 4 branded 40K, or Judge Dredd, or Alien, or Event Horizon, or The Walking Dead (Nurgle), or Terminator - I could go on.
I think one would have to think about what makes 40K special, not what similarities 40K has to other franchises. Of course you could easily make a Star Wars or Riddick rip-off set in the 40K universe - but why bother with a bad copy?
We've had threads in this forum debating what's actually original about 40K and often they came to the conclusion that there are only few things unique to 40K. If a movie wants to be a 40K movie and not "just another Sci-Fi movie" it'd have to highlight what's special about that universe. For me that would still be the grimdarkness of the Imperium, or the "Fantasy in spaace"-vibe.
I could also see it as a satire as basically that's what 40K is: Put all Sci-Fi und fantasy tropes together, brand it grimdark and put supermaskuline 80's heroes in.

nfe wrote:

 Carl wrote:
I have tons of reasons to want a 40k movie, from my obvious passion and decades worth of collecting to just a love for the 40k universe and dystopian future flicks in general. But all of that is absolutely dwarfed by 1 thing.

The massive freak out certain groups would have over even showing a literal fascist, xenophobic, fantastical authoritarian theocracy as the good guys lol. You could make vulkun the star and it would still be a giant collective uproar of objection.

I want to keep this on topic, but all it takes is looking at marvel and it's movies for a glimpse at the thought process in Hollywood. Just watch the new spider man and try and tell me if you think they would support a bunch of space nazis ethnically cleansing Xenos and purging degenerates lol

Not sure. Starship Troopers exists. The Forever War is getting made. Loads of Vietnam films are pretty blatant about thinking everyone is a villain.

Sure ST is satire (though plenty people still manage to take it at face value somehow), and most Vietnam films (and The Forever War is essentially a Vietnam story) have likeable central characters even if they paint the US as the villain, but you can do that with guardsmen or underhive gangers, too.

I was thinking Starship troopers as well, possibly even some of the halo universe. I just don't think that in today's climate starship troopers would even get made.

I think that the major fluff storylines would make for a bad movie. A 40k movie would work better as a series of short stories focusing on individual characters...similar to the Sin City movies. That way the audience can be quickly immersed in the setting without an excessive amount of backstory. Explanatory elements of the setting can be introduced through the character e.g. say an Inquisitor or a Farseer explaining the nature of Chaos to an apprentice. Oh, and if it's isn't going to have an adult rating, don't even bother because it'll be worthless.

I could plot out a 40k movie in 10 minutes:

Act One

IG vs Orks, massive battle. IG are getting SLAUGHTERED. Platoon Leader calling for artillery strikes, heavy weapons teams laying down the dakka. Squad after squad gets overrun. A Commissar, pistol in hand, shouts encouragement to his troops. A few squads break and run. The Platoon Leader says "All squads fall back!" The Commissar shoots him, promotes the first soldier he sees to be the new Platoon Leader, and orders the platoon to stand fast.

The right flank finally collapses and the Orks begin to sweep around, flanking the platoon HQ. Just before the HQ is over run, out of no where the Space Marines dive into the Orks. Assault Marines with pistols & chainswords, tactical Marines hip firing Heavy Bolters, Flamers EVERYWHERE, A Space Marine Chaplain engages an Ork Boss in single combat. The Ork Boss dies as the IG cheer.

Cut to IG Army HQ. Space Marines Captain and IG General have the usual pissing contest, the Commissar and the Chaplain eye each other. "We won the battle FOR you" "We didn't need your help."

The Space Marines demand that the entire IG Brigade accompany them to Planet [i]Whatever{/i] to investigate reports of "strange happenings." The general refuses, the Captain questions loyalty, the Commissar and the Chaplain get into a Big Dick contest.

Eventually the General agrees to send one platoon, and orders the platoon that was just saved by the Space Marines to go. The brand new Platoon Commander is less than thrilled. The Commissar insists that he be allowed to accompany the Platoon, and the General agrees.

The Commissar and the Chaplain eye each other some more.

Cut to the Web Ways. Eldar leaders are discussing a secret mission deep into Imperial space to investigate rumors of "strange happenings." who knows what we will find on Planet [i]Whatever{/i].

Cut to Planet [i]Whatever{/i]. Meteors fall from the sky, break apart into smaller meteors, and land in remote places. We watch as a meteor hits the ground, smoulders, then breaks open. Small insect-like creatures jump out and then burrow into the soil.

Act Two

IG and Space Marines arrive. Character development for the IG Platoon Leader as he interacts with the Space Marine Captain. We grow to love the Platoon Leader, like the Captain, hate the Chaplain, and REALLY hate the Commissar.

The Eldar arrive on the planer in secret and find an ancient artifact, different from and far older than what they had anticipated.

Tryanids start to hatch and spread. They eat everything, and begin to move toward more populated areas.

Space Marine Tech Priests detect "emanations" from a remote location on the outskirts of the populated area. They and the IG go to investigate.

The Eldar discuss what the artifact might be. It is decided that it is probably dangerous. It is ALSO decided that, if that wanted to. they could probably activate it...

Act Three

The Space Marines land. Eldar ships decloak in orbit, cutting off all support. The Imperials encounter the Eldar on the ground, just as the 'Nids attack. Massive battle. The Eldar and the Imperials team up to destroy the 'Nids.

Just as the battle ends, a Necron Monolith erupts from the ground, opening portals that Necron Warriors pour out of.

Coming Next Fall - 40K Part II - The Quest For More Money!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
One thing to keep in mind - Movies these days exist to sell toys. GW HAS the toys. To get the kids to want the toys, the kids have to SEE the movie. That means PG-13.

Also, reading more posts in the thread, I agree that the movie really had to be ABOUT Platoon Leader - How he fell ass-backwards into a job he wasn't ready for simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. About how most of his people, even his sargents, really don't understand how their equipment works, and their Tech Priests are utterly ineffectual.

How the Cult of the Emperor is jammed down their throat constantly

stuff like that

Personally I think it comes down to GW not wanting to give up any rights to their product. The game may have a 'limited' following, but that hasn't stopped Hollywood from going after low interest things, just look at Guardians of the Galaxy. In fact many of the Superhero movies have avid followers that haven't read a comic book in their life. My wife is one of those people

If done right, a 40K movie would be huge, but I think it should be a TV series. There's so much story to tell, a GoT type series would work best.

Part of the issue is also that it's difficult to find an angle on the 40k setting and its stories that might appeal to a mainstream audience or a single source material that would convince studio execs that there was a big budget movie to be made out of it.

The appeal of the setting and all of its core ideas are pretty much as originally envisaged by Rick Priestley et al decades ago. Since then it's been padded out mostly with second rate genre fiction (even the stronger stuff like HH isn't that great...let's be brutally honest).

I fear that it's too much to expect that a writer would be able to get to grips with the setting and produce a screenplay that is true to and worthy of the setting. Most likely we would end up with a film that is utter garbage like the Warcraft movie. No thanks.

In the end, the setting is the backdrop. The movie has to be ABOUT the characters.

Using my plot outline from above, I'm re-imagining it as something similar to The Big Red One - Lee Marvin and his "wet noses" going from North Africa to Italy to Normandy, just trying to stay alive while World War II happens around them.

In my story you have an IG platoon and its instant Platoon Leader fighting Orks, dealing with Commissars & Space Marines, getting shipped out and dropped on another world to fight Tyranids, Eldar and Necrons.

I imagine a scene going something like this:

Private and Platoon Leader are on Planet Whatever, looking up at stars in the night sky.

Private: "Which one's your home?"

Platoon Leader: "Don't know."

P: "Which one's Earth?"

PL: "I'm not sure Earth is real."

P: "But... That's heresy! They can execute you for heresy!"

PL: "If they want to kill me they'll have to get in line. Right now Tyranids got dibs."