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The debate on whether to have a 40k film has gone on for decades, many support the idea but certain events *cough*Ultramarines*cough* discourage others.

But let's put aside that debate.

GW has finally decided to team up with a proper film's studio and the have asked YOU (yeah I know, crazy right?) to choose the setting. Will you choose to follow an entire campaign from the first battle to the last weapon fired? Or will you choose to follow an individual soldier as they struggle to survive in a deadly battle? Or perhaps you will choose to follow a more domestic route, such as the plot to the Lord Inquisitor?

Personally, I would go for the first war of Armageddon: there is enough action to draw enough of the regular populis in but it also contains a unique and horrific insight into the benevolence of the Inquisition (if you don't know what I am talking about here go read about the first war NOW), IMO this would set up the universe nicely for future films so that less has to be explained to those who are not familiar with the franchise.

What about you, Dakkanaught, what do you suggest as the first main stream 40k film that will introduce people to our sleesy dungeon wonderful community?

Personally, the one I'd most like to see would be the Seige of Terra, along the perspective of movies like A Bridge Too Far, The Longest Day or Tora!Tora!Tora. You get to see both sides, mostly from the upper eschelons actually engaged in the battle, but with a few notable subplots giving you glimpses into the typical soldiers point of view. So, while we'd see it mostly from the Emperor, Horus and the other present primarch's point of view, we might also get to follow the story of, say, a damaged Titan's crew exploits in part of the battle, and follow a loyal marine unit's struggle and ultimate sacrifice at holding the gates to the palace.

Personally, I think something with Guardsmen or essentially human (not space marine) characters would be the best starting point.

The enemy had best be Orks if xenos must be in ,I know this sounds silly, but I believe with the large numbers of "Orcs" out in the much more known fantasy genre such as Warcraft, LoTR and so on, might give them a very slight edge in being "recognize -able" or something... maybe... to those who are utterly unfamiliar to 40k as a whole. Giant Green warlike brutal monsters are staple in other media, so it may help.

Perhaps the 2nd War of Armageddon would be a good place to start. Exposition dumps will be everywhere, but it shouldn't take too much to get the absolute basics in.

"Imperium of man, "good", xenos and chaos = "evil", Emprah, space marines" done ya know?

Like a 2 minute little bit about "We are the Imperium of Man, forged by the God Emperor of Mankind from Terra. Mighty Space Marines are His spear, while the numberless Guardsmen are his Hammer. We are beset by foul Xenos at every turn, and worse....... Chaos Heretics who worship the 4 gods of chaos (don't even need to name them). We Fight to preserve humanity whatever the cost".

blah blah blah, etc.

Then we would have to get into Imperial citizen life of our main characters who are thrown into the war. Much glory is had (cheer). They follow Yarrick and win (YAY!).

stuff like that....

Eisenhorn.

Live action? There's only one team man and woman enough to take that challenge. The Last Chancers! 40k is otherwise too huge to reasonably get across in a good 40k storyline. The Last Chancers make sense because you can have a relatable hero or heroine that joins the Last Chancers after performing some kind of crime, and the character becomes a vessel for the audience to experience the introduction to the 40k universe at the same time as the character.

Like, woman on a modern-type world like earth does some major crime-stuff. People tell her not to or else the Imperium will send her to war. She ignores it and, surprise surprise, gets captured. She discovers that all the criminals are shipped off-world, and that the Imperium is real. She now has to fight for the Emperor alongside the Last Chancers to defeat something. She discovers redemption through sacrifice, making it seem like everything's going to be okay. But the last story she heard about the Imperium is how they destroy planets for less than nothing, and moments after giving a speech about her sacrifice, Colonel Schaffer reports to the Inquisitor, and the big red button is pushed.

You need a normal human to give a perspective to the audience. Guardsman, maybe stormtrooper, inquisitorial henchman. If a space marine, a scout.
In the latter case, you can start the movie as a standard fantasy and the soon-to-be-scout is a promising young hero... but then there is a reveal about the world outside.
This is a first act of the movie to set the tone, the character, and the universe up.

The second act will involve a struggle - the new knowledge clashes with the character moral, he will struggle with his peers (say, a stormie in the schola). Some true enemy will be met here too (say, a preliminary mission against orks).

When this is well set up, you put him in the third act. He will have to use his knowledge gained in the first and second act, plot points and character interaction will be solved.
The third act could be part of a big event like armageddon. The third act will give, too, a broader scope of the universe with these huge battles.

You can even finish marvel style, with a marine called to enter the deathwatch or a stormie contacted by an inquisitor a the end. So next time is not orks but Chaos. The second act in the second movie will involve eldar and gaining reciprocal trust on this menace. This will be solved in the third movie, with new friends and old enemies that have to defeat a tyranid fleet. A more faceless enemy is perfect for the third act, because gives more screen to the protagonists of the three movies all together.

Alternatively, you can go full marines from minute 1 but then you have to have the balls to do a 300 with space marines (that could work).

The Third War for Armageddon would be cool.

BUT GW would be better off doing a completely new story so the fans would have a harder time nit picking the crap out of the plot.

The event between Mortarion and Draigo, with the latter portrayed by Liam Neeson. Don't ask why, I just feel it adds up.

Lord Kragan wrote:
The event between Mortarion and Draigo, with the latter portrayed by Liam Neeson. Don't ask why, I just feel it adds up.

Do you think the general public will take the signature of the heart as well as 40k fans did?

I think Ragnar Blackmane's story has plenty of humanity and is a solid story to start a person unfamiliar with the 40k universe.
That said I personally would love to see the big E's story as a live action.

The Horus Heresy. It's the single most important event, and could be covered in basically the first three books. It covers the rise, the fall of Horus, and the massacre at Isstvan III.

 Eldarain wrote:
Eisenhorn.

This.

I've just read the first Eisenhorn book and was really impressed with the style and pace after reading the first 10 HH books. It's almost like it was written to be made into a film. It's primarily humans, so is a little more accessible, but does feature marines and Chaos marines to give a taste to those new to the setting.

I also think the main HH story arc (the first 4 books probably) would make a good TV series. Too much for a film, but generally TV is better than films at the moment anyway!

The Inquisition War trilogy. It hits most of the original major core factions, covering characters as august as the Emperor himself all the way down to Squat mechanics, and hits all the big 40k narrative themes, and has a good old fashioned 40k "everything sucks and then you die bad end" ending that really reflects the whole "there is only war/laughter of thirsting gods/you will.not be missed/etc" theme.

By far the best choice.

The Heresy I think would actually be a poor choice. Its too big, all the major characters are superhuman near gods with little relatability, and quite frankly tons of it is painfully cliche and rehashed.

Ciaphas Cain and focus on the Ork storylines to begin with.

You get humour, action, orks and all the exposition we need. We just have to sacrifice a little of the grimdark.

A film version of the game Space Marine. Intelligent, characterful ork enemy. Fallen Inquisitor to showcase the domestic side of the Imperium along with the insidious nature of Chaos. Strong female lead with no forced romantic or sexual subplot. And despite everything, the hero doesn't really win because he gets carted off for possible corruption.

As a film it showcases the Imperium and its enemies clearly, its fun and dramatic and with enough intelligence to not just be boring bolter porn writ large.

The life of a bomb squig. I would watch it and I am sure that I am not the only one.

Just replace the theme of the recent Judge Dredd movie from judges to the inquisition and MawMaw and her gang with Chaos Cultists. Practically the same movie, would be just as if not more awesome.

I'd go with the Horus Heresy to give people the perspective of the universe it takes place in. other then that the 3rd. war of Armageddon, its bloody, its ugly and it has it all in it.

Dawn of War could have some potential for movie storyline

SoB are my favorite faction so I'm a bit hesitant to choose something where'd I'd have to watch ~2:30 hrs of them getting wiped out, but... I'd absolutely watch a horror movie based on Sanctuary 101.

Just imagine, the movie starts just basically going through their routine of gear up, run drills, pray to big E, but oh wait one Sister never showed up for drill, that's odd. So first third of the movie is her squaddies trying to figure out where she is, but they cant find a trace.

Second third, they finally found her but oh wait shes missing an outside (totally not flayed ones). Now more Sisters start going missing and hell is bresking loose. Just keep building up the tension.

Bam, last bit! Spooky metal men come bursting out of the ground. We watch an entire shrine world make a last stand as the main character tries desperately to help some civvies, priests, and Hospitallers off world. Doesn't go so well.

but lets face it if GW makes a movie it will be SM vs. Tyranids.

Rynn's World Incident

ooh i'm thinking they will do the Tyranid invasion of Ultramar.

nothing like GW to show off their flagship Space Marines and a monsterous alien.

Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy but adapted to spaaaaaace. The beauty of the novel is that it takes a massive event (World War III...) and tells it from the perspective of a few characters. The book has a cast of millions, but it follows a Russian General, some Russian air force dudes, some American pilots, a few ship and sub captains, a tank commander, and a weather technician. By minimizing the outside story, it keeps the reader involved and focused on the smaller aspects of global warfare.

Now switch those people up for their 40k equivalents. An imperial Navy commander of a cruiser, a Commissar, a Leman Russ commander, a squad of IG vets, some Thunderbolt pilots, and an Inquisitor on one side. On the other, a chaos sorcerer, a traitor Titan crew, some cultists, maybe a greater demon, and a chaos fleet commander. The war is on Imperial Planet XYZ and the reason for the war isn't really clear because there is only war... Throw in some Elder manipulating the war to their own ends and you've got yourself a 40k movie.

The trailer will involve fleet battles and orbital bombardments, a Titan being felled by a wall of tanks, close range firefights, and a Commissar executing conscripts fleeing a Bloodthirster, only to draw his chainsword and charge the massive demon in melee. It is being narrated by an old British sounding woman, who is eventually revealed to be an Elder farseer.

All you need is a $400 million budget to make it look good...

Asterios:

The Rynn's World Incident (followed the WAAAAAGH of Snygrod) has both elements:

Marines + aliens.

Betrayal at Calth. Include the parts from no know fear with the word bearers and Ultramarines that did get along until the end.

War for Armageddon 2 or 3.

Battle for Macragge if you want just Space Marines looking badass and killing hordes of Xenos.

The first Tyrannic war.

Start with Tyran being attacked. Opening credits while the mechanicum digs up the black box.

Highlight of the movie should be the last 50 of the first company defending the power generators at the north pole.

Give each brother 20 seconds of slow-mo screen time as they fall one by one.

Just imagine... that's just over 15 minutes of over the top action that could be illuminated only with lenses and muzzle flares within a sea of tyranid bodies. In 3D!

12 year old kid from Terra circa 2016 discovers a magic warp portal in his closet and is whisked away to M41! There he meets the God-Emperor of Mankind who has scoured space and time for the finest tactical minds humanity has to offer to command the armies of the Imperium in their Darkest Hour. And the 13th general is... you! But I'm not a general! Very soon... you will be.

It turns out he was selected based on his skill at tabletop wargames. They take him to a strategium where he has to command forces on a tactical readout that looks suspiciously like a Citadel Realm of Battle. Except this time it's for real! His skills will be put to the ultimate test. Can he outwit the lords of Chaos, save the Imperium from the forces of Abaddon the Despoiler, and learn to believe in himself? Coming soon to a theater near you!

 Eldarain wrote:
Eisenhorn.

Very much this. Followed by Gaunt's Ghosts.

Yes, Space Marines are awesome, but I don't think many of the Marine-centric books would make a good movie. A decent brainless action/splatter movie maybe, but nothing I'd actually want to watch.

Eisenhorn would be a good choice, but it'd also be nice if GW did an original storyline; there'd be great potential for a story following a Rogue Trader, or a common human Pirate who gets caught up in something much larger - almost like Guardians of the Galaxy, but with Boltguns and whatnot Would certainly get the general public more involved if the storyline is more easy to follow for newcomers.