Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Now, sorry if this is in the wrong place and i am both blind, deaf and otherwise mentally unstable.

Personally, i think filmatizing the entire 40k universe, while sticking to the fluff, would have a huge appeal to the broader population. Of course, i don't count soccer moms and kids in as "broader population".

Of course, just personally i think making the plot center around an inquisitor, Quixos maybe even, becoming more and more corrupted with the use of Chaos artifacts, but becoming still more powerful and capable of doin da good stuff (WAAAGH! Kill em daemon boyz!) would be a totally mean storyline. Of course, getting Donald Sutherland to play our anti-hero (Seriously, have you ever seen him in Reign over Me. This guy is mean!) As our antagonist, Bruce Willis as Eisenhorn, hunting down Quixos and declaring him Hereticus Abominatus. Hey, they're both bald! What more do you need?
Alternatively, a storyline that centers around Grey Knight Brother-Captain Stern also has it's merits, but then again it's been done a zillion billion times, and so personally i'm quite tired of the whole uber-hero that nobody is allowed to hear about. :S

If you think i'm totally outa my mind here, or bordering on the heretical for wanting to filmatize the 40k universe, then post, humie!

I'm going to ignore your question and here for a minute:

There are two ways a 40k movie would happen: the epic and the "ground level" movie.

An epic would never work. Not enough time to explain without resorting to "Captain Exposition of the Plot Angels" syndrome which would annoy the base (40k nuts) and still not supply enough for the noobs. More over, there are impossibly few sympathetic characters. For example, at best what the Imperium does (genocide on a huge scale, xenocide on an epic one) is forgivable as a needed expedient to prevent much, much worse evils from breaking out but that justification is tough to portray on film. It would be a challenge to find good actors willing to portray roles that unsympathetic and without actors you get no money.

A movie made at "ground level" like 15 Hours could work but taking away the epic sweep of 40k makes it just a remake of every war movie ever with Orks rather than Germans/Japanese/whatever fascist baddie. More over, lacking a proper "happy ending" (sorry for that spoiler but 15 Hours is a lousy book anyway) would limit the star power (and therefore money) you would attract.

I know it seems like it would be cool like the LoTR movies (giving amazing visual form to stories my dad read to me when I was 6) but it would be much more likely to end up like the Cat in the Hat movies (which did the same thing but with... less successful and more horrifying results.)

This also doesn't take into account Games Workshop's compulsive need to control their continuity and fluff which I'm sure would present *no* problems with the director's artistic view and freedom, lol.

Also, to be even close to loyal to the fluff the set would need to be drenched in blood to an extent that makes Sweeny Todd look like Howard's End. You say in your OP that you would discount the Soccer Moms, I wouldn't do that because they'd all be forming a picket line in front of your theaters. Since GW's tactics these days seem to be based on catering to younger players with parent's disposable income (a valid if annoying choice, btw) this course of action is unlikely.

As for who would do what, Samuel L Jackson, doing anything would be win.

Lol. I was pretty much thinking the same. If GW could get rid of their incessant paranoia and we could find someone (!!!) sympathetic, which we all know is about as likely as a grot killing Abaddon in CC The blood drenching is of course what 40k is all about... Can't get around that. Perhaps something along the lines of Scary Movie with a completely nuts ork Waagh could be possible, but i would rather spill hydrochloric acid on my lap. That would do far less lasting damage! And with Samuel L. Jackson. Ok, the man makes any movie an instant seller, but seriously... As an inquisitor. Oh dear. Mutated Samuel. God no! Christopher Walken and Donald Sutherland already have that evil look, and Donald Sutherland in particular is adept at playing the morally bendy guy. It would be awesome, but still. If you stick to the fluff it appeals to nobody but the 40k nuts (i.e: us Dakkas)

Where is it written that in the Grim Darkness of the Far Future there can be no happy endings?

No, seriously... it doesn't have to be all tied up in a pretty bow or anything, but I can't see any reason a 40k movie couldn't end on a high note--the hero banishing a daemon/surviving the worst of a campaign, etc. The audience & the hero know that it's going to be a continuing battle, but you give them a glimmer of hope. Kinda like Children of Men, where they really leave the ending up to you.

I'm in the camp that thinks mimicking the Eisenhorn or Ravenor trilogies would probably be best able to reveal the 40k universe in its feel and scope without providing the super-human uberness of the space marines, or the horrendous conditions of the linesman Imperial Guard. I don't think it'd be too hard to describe the Imperium of man... reinforce it throughout the movie, explain at the beginning, kinda like Serenity did, or heck even Star Wars. We got the jiist.

Still. If we stick to the fluff, even with an Inquisitor with a touch of niceness, we'll have a movie that spills more blood in ten minutes than the entire 2 hours of "300".
And how will you do the Daemons. I mean, Greater Daemon of Nurgle is creepy enuff as a model, you'd have to clean the cinema after every single showing! And in the Grim Darkness of the Far Future the only happy ending is just a not-so painful death that doesn't involve consumation by a gribbly horde of nids, torture by Slaaneshi cultist etc. In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future, the only happy ending is nothing like a happy ending...

CGI. So much CGI there are not enough Cs, Gs or Is in the whole of all written western text to properly represent it. That's how you do the daemons.

I still think Eisenhorn would work, or Gaunt's Ghosts. Both sort of ease the reader into the back ground, and really, how much history does one really need to know that couldn't be transmitted in a 3 minute blurb like in Serenity?

An Inquisitor is the best vehicle for such an endeavour, since they get the full run of the Galaxy, and in their careers will fight Tau, Eldar, Orks, Chaos, and a bajillion other enemies, within and without.

Best bet would probably be an original Inquisitor, not one already established (since whatever you do, his fans will not be happy that he's not exactly as they imagined) Preferably Ordos Xenos, since that has the largest number of potential Enemies, and even the possibility of non-human Allies (friend Eldar Ranger, anyone?) it also has the Benefit of a regular Deathwatch contingent, and we all know a 40K movie without Space Marines will be totally pointless.

There are Happy ending, they're typically Pyrric victories, some of the main character would not have happy endings, but then, did Wash or Shephard Book?

For example, the Inquisitor and his retinue are fighting to repel a tyranid invasion, at the end of the movie, even though a few individuals have been eaten, the Hive Fleet is broken and sent scurrying into deep space. You get the happy ending with the Inquisitor and his retinue looking out over the semi-ruined habs of some hive city at the rapidly deteriorating Tyranid vegitation as the Imperial Guard and the Astartes chase him back into the wilderness.

I think its possible. Ive thought of this idea and even written stories with film making in mind. I think we could do it. Possibly someone like peter jackson. What you do NOT want to do is:

1. Try to include every army
2. Make it anything other than R rated this skimping on the violence.
3. Try to use specialized marines (i.e. anything other than vanilla) if you do only briefly. Have a character explain somthing about them.

THe idea I had and written was told from a first person perspective. It was a journal that a guy wrote about his experience as a conscripted teenager and later a guardsman. His experiences in the Guard told from his point of view. I foresee somthing like blackhawk down meets starship troopers. It should only encompass two enemies at most. In my case his first unit fought tyranidds, then later was redeployed to fight chaos. This is it. No orks eldar or anything. Some Marines and maybe a unit from the inquisistion. Otherwise it becomes a circus. It was definately R rated for adults. I even put in a chapter with the main character and a battle sister, (off the battlefield heheh =P).

Also it should have a lot of story telling in between the fighting. The large fight/ battle scenes are what I had the most trouble with. I wanted to have an epic feel. Its rather difficult to have that come accross on the big screen.

The problem is that if all you have are guardsmen and Tyranids, it's Starship Trooper (right down to the Flak Armour :p) with tanks. If you make it against Chaos, it's Doom.

If you don't have the Inquisition or the Astartes, then it's not really a 40K army, as the Guard are the ultimate generic human fighters. The Space Marines are iconic, in many ways, they ARE 40K.

Of course, one also has to take into account that if you want to make a 40k movie and not change look of any of the races, its gonna be R rated. No doubt. Daemon models are freaky enough. Daemon or Nid CGI? Three words - Bed Wetting Epedemic! If you make it too mariney, mass demonstrations from disappointed Ork/Eldar/Nid/Tau players will be the order of the day. Take no marines, and only the hardcore, no sleep, all paint fans will watch it. Space Marines are to 40k what Jude Law is to romantic tragedies. Posta Boyz! So, making a 40k movie is a matter of balance.

as for no happy endings, that would be the clause of the Emporos manifesto where he kills all masseusis that give out the "shanghai suprise" (they overcharged him a few times and he got kinda upity, they thought he was mocking their culture by saying his name was "the Emporer")

But the moovie, you could do it several ways, a small scale following one person would work, it would be nice and simple, easy to acheive a "personal" feel, an attachment to characters ect. and yea, in that sense as a single movie it would work.
Or you could go epic, episodic (a la LotR and Star Wars) cover a massive series of events (war of the Ring, The Galactic Civil War/Clone Wars) like the Horus Heresy. You follow the main players in the war (the Primarchs and Emporer) the other two series I did managed the whole multiple and twisting plotlines deal fairly well, but they had to do it over the course of several movies. As for exposition to noobs (and yes they would be noobs, if the movie was done right they would get sucked into the game) you could do a blurb at the begining a la Serenity or 1st Lord of the Rings movie; an opening crawl a la Star Wars (also allows for time to pass in between movies). Or more interesting a series of shorts (like the Animatrix shorts but cooler) played before movies with similair demographics portraying the events leading up to the first movie. If the Heresy would be to Marine filled for other hardcore players you could probably cover The 13th black crusad (which pretty well invcluded all sides in the fighting). Of course you would need to avoid to many factions in any given movie.
With the existing fluff, well the LotR movies were fluff based and didnt shred it, and I didnt see any LotR fanboys all up-in-arms about Legolas or Frodo or Gimli not being looking like what they had imagined they should. If GW is paranoid about getting it right, then they just need to rope in a director like Jackson who can respect an existing fluff and storyline and still make a good movie with it. If GW is still nervous, they just make sure some of their people (the ones who work with the fluff) are there for scriptwriting (not controlling it though) and have a representative there for the movies production.
As for angry soccer moms, if you dont advertise the movie like a kid movie, if you show that there will be blood, gore, violence, swearing, and really scarry-ass daemons and CGI monsters in the preveiws, if you make it well known that this movie is in no way for the feighnt of heart (300 managed to get that across that it would be violent as hell in the preveiws and network TV documentaries and upcoming movie blurbs)then you would be in the clear from the soccer moms.

I think it'd be sick if they just came out with a series of mini movies that each cover a single battle (we're talking like 2-3 hours of straight battle, maybe some build-up) between two, three, four, even five different forces at once. That way, you could keep everyone happy by including each team at least once.

And it'd definately have to be CGI animation, which would also be cool.

It will never happen, and if it does it will suck.

Hollywood would never, ever do a film that would be satisfactorily true to the 40k universe to entertain fans. It's just too damn liberal. (sorry if I offended anyone, well, not really)

Aldair wrote:It will never happen, and if it does it will suck.

Hollywood would never, ever do a film that would be satisfactorily true to the 40k universe to entertain fans. It's just too damn liberal. (sorry if I offended anyone, well, not really)

*applauds for speaking truth* maybe, but they did 300 and boondack saints which have decidedly un-liberal and violent themes. All you have to do is find the right director.



P.S. I am truly sorry if my gross missuse of the face as a "special happy time" face has disturbed or scarred anyone, please dont gank all my noobs, make all my base belong to you, lynch/stab me, find and post embarrasing childhood pictures of me or ridicule me for the massive fail

Dessel Ordo wrote:
As for angry soccer moms, if you dont advertise the movie like a kid movie, if you show that there will be blood, gore, violence, swearing, and really scarry-ass daemons and CGI monsters in the preveiws, if you make it well known that this movie is in no way for the feighnt of heart (300 managed to get that across that it would be violent as hell in the preveiws and network TV documentaries and upcoming movie blurbs)then you would be in the clear from the soccer moms.

You forget that GW's current strategy involves getting those soccer moms to pay for little Junior's 40k habit. GW couldn't afford not to pitch the 40k movie towards kids: kids are the target nowadays.

Well, lot's not forget the MASSIVE volume of young kids taken to R rated movies. There were youngin's in the theater when I saw 300. 300 for f**k's sake! So I am not terribly worried that there will not be an after market boost. Even movies that are not really pointed at kids get toy lines, after all.

1 word.
Armageddon

Armageddon would actually be really cool. The Second War, I think, would be the best.

Eldrad diverts Ghazghkull's Waaagh to Armageddon, with the Eldar Farseer introducing the movie. Giving a bit of background, and then WHAM! Straight into the thick of it.

It's got Orks, Imperial Guard and Space Marines! What else could you want?

Christopher Lee can play Commissar Yarrick!

Wehrkind wrote:Well, lot's not forget the MASSIVE volume of young kids taken to R rated movies. There were youngin's in the theater when I saw 300. 300 for f**k's sake! So I am not terribly worried that there will not be an after market boost. Even movies that are not really pointed at kids get toy lines, after all.

With an appropriate level and tone of violence we would need to almost assume an NC-17 rating (exceptionally hard to get with violence alone, that's how blood soaked and violent this movie should be) which:
1. means no kids in the theater (fine by me but I'm a grouch)
2. means no theater chain will run it
3. means negative press which means the stock falls

Or it can be a lousy Hollywood cash-in. Since I don't think GW (especially in it's current, publicly traded and financially shaky incarnation) has the fortitude to do it right, I'd rather not seen it done at all.

i think it could be done fine, after all rated R movies do good in theaters all the time so why would this not work. the only problem would be that it would most likely have to be all CGI which could be a problem. I don't see the possibility of a live action 40k movie (marines would look way too goofy)

What do you guys think about this:

Gaunt's Ghosts
Ibrahm Gaunt = Daniel Craig
Elim Rawne = Clive Owen
Colm Corbec = That guy who played Beowulf


Im a die hard GG fan so I've been thinking about this one for a while.

Two Daemons in a Bar wrote:Lol. I was pretty much thinking the same. If GW could get rid of their incessant paranoia and we could find someone (!!!) sympathetic, which we all know is about as likely as a grot killing Abaddon in CC

Really? REALLY?

Let me tell you something, Mr. in a Bar, during a game of apocalypse Abbaddon rolls a one for his daemon weapon. He fails to save it and takes a wound. Is outnumbered and then proceeds to ber overwounded...

It's not funny it happened to me..

Daniel Craig would be a friggen awesome choice for Gaunt, he has the body type and presence to play him. Now as far as Colm Corbec would you want Ray Winstone from Beowulf, or Gerald Butler from Beowulf and Grendel? What do you think about Donald Gibb (Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds, or Ray Jackson from Bloodsport) as "Try Again" Bragg? Though I cant think of anyone good for Mad Larkin yet, any ideas?

Later
Gareth

I was thinking Ray Winstone. Gerard would be great as somebody... maybe Cuu since he's batshiat crazy, but he isnt really bigg and gruff enough to play Corbec. Props for your Bragg choices though. As for Larkin, you've got me on that one, but I'm thinking Ron Pearlman as either Murt Feygot or Trooper Brostin.

I dont know about Gerard as Cuu since that guy is tall and lanky and well Butler is kinda not :p While I was at work I had a thought as to whom could be Milo, perhaps Daniel Radcliff (harry potter) since Milo has a feyish air to him he might work for it and since he is young it would work for him being the youngest ghost. Id type more on this but I just got home and need to get some sleep

Later
Gareth

I partially agree with Optimal near the beginning of the thread. 15 Hours would make a great ground-level 40k movie, but I though the book was great.

Horus Heresy movies would be amazing, but that would be like a 20 or 30 year ordeal if they were to cover the entire series up until Legion. Maybe just the first 3 or 4 books, centered around Loken and Horus's turning? It'd still be expensive..

im going to get bitten in half for this
every time i see that weird dog the bounty hunter dude, i think he would make a great space wolf. lol

mickey rourke (like in sin city) would make an awesome spacemarine.

Gareth_Hreidmar wrote:I dont know about Gerard as Cuu since that guy is tall and lanky and well Butler is kinda not :p While I was at work I had a thought as to whom could be Milo, perhaps Daniel Radcliff (harry potter) since Milo has a feyish air to him he might work for it and since he is young it would work for him being the youngest ghost. Id type more on this but I just got home and need to get some sleep

Later
Gareth

He was f-ing amazing as Rudyard Kipling's son last night on Masterpiece Theater ("My Boy Jack"). Although I don't endorse the idea of a 40k movie, I endorse Daniel Radcliff being anyone young and doomed in it.

Haronen Tyr wrote:I partially agree with Optimal near the beginning of the thread. 15 Hours would make a great ground-level 40k movie, but I though the book was great.

Horus Heresy movies would be amazing, but that would be like a 20 or 30 year ordeal if they were to cover the entire series up until Legion. Maybe just the first 3 or 4 books, centered around Loken and Horus's turning? It'd still be expensive..

30 40 years is what star wars fans did in the wait, and that was without constant additions, if they did it like they did the LoTR moovies, it wouldnt be that unbearable. and besides, I thought us 40K fans were the only ones obbsessive enough to go through that wait. (I mean really, you have people talkin about their favorite armies next codx within weeks of the most recent one coming out, knowing full well it will be years in between)