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Okay, we all know Bluemarines the movie is coming out at some point in the future. Going through the thread on it I found many people sharing my "this is only ever going to be a disapointment" mentality.

I thought i'd see what everyone think WOULD make a great 40K movie?

I'd love to see a Inquisitor/Deamon hunters Vs Chaos (not CSM's, but DP's, Deamon's and the like)
rate it an 18 and aim more to make it an awesome movie than a 90 minute long "Get people to buy Space Marines" advert.
making it a darker film would attract more older people into the hobby would make lots of not war gamers go and see it purely for being a good film.

Any comment/criticism/additions to my idea or any new ideas of your own would be cool.
I just wanted to see what people think an amazing film about the 40k universe would include!

Band of Brothers style Imperial guard movie in the Hive Fleet Behemoth Theater.

The success of the Terminator movies and the rampant popularity of the zombie genre suggest that Necrons would be a great villain for any 40K movie, as they are simply zombie Terminator robots. Also, Uwe Boll must be kept away from anything 40k related AT ALL COSTS

@ Incarna:
I like the sound of that, perfect excuse for some mosterous creatures to get involved and give it a more impresive finish, whilst keeping the down-to-earth grimdark feel of the imperial guard

@ Corvus:
Cron's would be good. they definitly have the evil-nuss required
i cant think of how a movie with necrons would work without it basically being a space marine based film though, would you agree? thats why i was thinking against including CSM's in my idea, it would just turn it into Ultramarines 2

I always thought "15 hours" would make a great movie. The movie does a good job of explaining the universe and a quick and simple way, and jumps to the Grim Darkness in a hurry.

The other series I would think could be good was the Ciaphas Cain series.

Glory
-Look at the end of the movie when they assault the fort, all of the banners and everything

Thats a good point.
I was wondering about how to explain everything in the universe to sort of set the scene.
After thinking of how it could be done i came to the conclusion of not bothering just going into the details of whatever races are involved to simplify things, otherwise it would just be mega confusing for anybody who hasn't got a good knowledge of 40K in the 1st place.

I was thinking of giving the story the same basic story line as Xenology. ie - Inquisitor sent to planet to collect a relic of some sort, replace the dissection of aliens with the hunting out and killing of deamons , turns out to be a plot by a sorcerer, inquisitor trapped on planet, all hell breaks loose, inquisitor find out he's trapped, try's to save himslef, big fight at the end, either inquisitor wins and escapes (happy ending) or sorcerer turns him into a bloodthirster (visually pleasing ending)

opinons?

I personally think the Horus Heresy would make a fantastic plot line. Most of it is a gumbo of cliche's anyway. It is a perfect film architype.

Christ-like figure rises and saves humanity. Then creates sons in his image. He loses said sons due to the forces of chaos. he finds sons, all grown and unique in their own way. Horus is primary antagonist (exactly like annakin skywalker) and the story watches him fall from grace. Culminate with huge attack on Terra. fade out with a pissed Ezekial Abbadon and emboldened Row-Boat Gullyman. :End scene:


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Give it a LotR budget and a strong director and I think it is possible. It can't be treated like AVP otherwise it will fail.

Make it IG based. Throw in some Inquisitors for possible shady dealings. Cue reveal of massive plot/invasion fleet either chaos, Nids or Necrons. Have some massive firefights and set piece battles throw in grizzly deaths, game over style lines, Commisars with smoking bolt pistols,

Add some mutterings about redemption and the angels of death from half dead soldiers. have the 'good' guys overrun, facing certain death. Bring in some choral chanting, fire in the sky, 'Brothers, to arms' then fade to black....

setting up the next in the franchise.

Maybe the number of Legions could be cut down in order to speed up the movie or much of the early stuff could be cut out and the film could begin with the rediscovery of the primarches. The reason for their creation and loss could be explained though dialogue/flashback.

The Horus heresy would be awesome, it basically sum's up all the past of the imperium BUT its the sort of thing that if it was done badly, it would be catastrophic!

Deuce11 wrote:I personally think the Horus Heresy would make a fantastic plot line. Most of it is a gumbo of cliche's anyway. It is a perfect film architype.
Christ-like figure rises and saves humanity. Then creates sons in his image. He loses said sons due to the forces of chaos. he finds sons, all grown and unique in their own way. Horus is primary antagonist (exactly like annakin skywalker) and the story watches him fall from grace. Culminate with huge attack on Terra. fade out with a pissed Ezekial Abbadon and emboldened Row-Boat Gullyman. :End scene:

Yep, exactly what I was thinking of.
Or failing that, something with Battle of Macragge. That should be quite epic

How the movie is told is more important than what story is told. You would need someone who isn't the typical US director. A European one or Qentin Tarantino type director. It can't end with a happy ending or it won't be 40k.

It should start out with a text description or voice over with images describing the background of the universe. Followed up by a scene that takes up the tail end of a fight that then leads to finding information vital to the plot.

During the course of the movie a lot of the central characters should die. A lot of the enemy dying. Maybe saving the planet from chaos only to have it declared a contaminated planet that has to be destroyed for the greater good.

how about a full ork story movie. that must be really fun.....

A LOTR style Horus Heresy would be pretty cool (though with less camp twee rubbish and more chainswords and explosions and gore).

And I agree with jbunny on the 15 hour story. That would be pretty good intro to the 40K universe. I guess it could potentially even be a short, or a b-movie intro before the main film (we really need to bring back b-movies).

Other than that, I would keep the IG as the main focus of the story. Perhaps a special forces team in the middle of a WWI style entrenched war zone - perhaps on a hive world or something.

A movie (or series of) about the wars for armageddon. From the Orks perspective of course.

Always thought the invasion of Tyran would make a brilliant movie.
Was rereading the 2nd ed Nid codex and it is an excellently written story, building up the atmosphere and sheer unknown terror that the Nids brought.

Nothing had ever been encountered like them before and the end where the commander has to drop the datapod into the depths of the planet as the Nids smashed the door down was really thought provoking imo.

It just started a whole new chapter of the 40k universe and did it so well. One could really make an atmospheric movie filled with dread and foreboding (ala Alien) and then mix in some great fights between the desperate defenders and the Nids (ala a much classier version of ST troopers) all culminating in a open end.
Something akin to this Star Trek TNG episode at the very end: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)

Data indicates that before Remmick was killed, he was sending a signal toward a distant quadrant of the galaxy. It appears to be a homing beacon, perhaps to guide something to Earth.

A Platoon/Predator-style film following Guardsmen fighting Tyranids in the jungle. There's a lot of potential for outright action, suspense, and horror.

Sounds a lot like the starship troopers 2. Something like that would work good as a way to establish parts of the 40k universe. Wouldn't establish all of it, but could serve to launch a larger movie. I should say. With the reality of the movie world they wouldnt' be able to do more than 1 movie as a start. They would have to see how it went before they did another. It's too large to fit everything in, the universe that is. So they would have to start small.

Brother SRM wrote:A Platoon/Predator-style film following Guardsmen fighting Tyranids in the jungle. There's a lot of potential for outright action, suspense, and horror.

Definitely. A Deathleaper going after an important Sergent, like Marbo. I see gold sir.

jbunny wrote:I always thought "15 hours" would make a great movie. The movie does a good job of explaining the universe and a quick and simple way, and jumps to the Grim Darkness in a hurry.

The other series I would think could be good was the Ciaphas Cain series.

I agree. They should focus on the dark gothic background - I'd say Eisenhorn or somehting similar. Although the heresy would be cool, I think they'd be better having the odd marine in the background of some scenes to build up excitment for a uber-marine film in the future. Personally i'd stay away from 'nids and 'crons - it would be so siliar to other films and although we know GW rip off everything, they have plenty or good material to avoid comparisons like starships troopers.

lol, I surprisingly hadn't thought of a 'Nid film turning into the next starship troopers =P
covenant84 has a good point, it would seem difficult to do anything with nid's without it looking like starship troopers meets alien. Necrons would basically look like a rip off of terminator.
to avoid that sort of thing leaves Eldar (I think might be a bit odd without bringing another race into the mix) Orks (isn't it ment to be orks in Ultramarines the movie??) Chaos (I think deamons would be ace) or tau (I cant imagine how that would make an exciting film )

what do people think might be best?

Well, something like Imperium attacked by Chaos, getting Eldar help to prevent the planet from falling to Chaos, only that in the end the Imperium bashes the Eldar as well.
Them fighting over some strong relics/artifacts/technology would make a good excuse for the movie

If it has to be an ultramarines movie, assault of blackreach would be pretty epic. Cato Sicarius is a compelling enough character and the scene where a thunderhawk busts thru the waterfall into the hidden ork base and drops off a group of 1st company termies would be pretty epic.

I'd want something edgier.

I'd do it from the Tau perspective. Have it focus on some Firewarriors, or, if they HAVE to make humans the main characters, Gue'vessa. Although, after how popular the Na'vi were in Avatar, I don;t think the western hemisphere has too much trouble emphasizing with blue space dudes.

I'd like to have this film portray the Space Marines as the bad guys, coming in, slaughtering, chanting, doing what Space Marines do. But since GW won't let their poster boys be portrayed like that, I'd settle for Chaos Marines. Since Tau are invisible in the warp, have the next sphere of expansion stumble onto a minor deamon world.

Anyway, the main character should progress from a front line trooper to a crisis suit operator. Infact, this could be in a way more interesting if it were a Gue'vessa. The film could explore the racism present in Tau society, with the Tau's subtle persecution of the other species.

Now, if the first film portrays Space Marines as the villans, the second film should switch it around. Have the sequel start with the Tau invading an Imperial planet that refuses to follow the greater good. The main character is a child (10-11 years?) and the Tau kill his family. He attacks and defeats a number of firewarriors in close combat. An aged Space Marine librarian (Christopher Walken of Shawn Connery) recruits the child into the chapter. The movie follows him becoming a Scout, then a battle brother, all the while fighting the Tau.

In this way, over the course of the two films, neither side is portrayed as an altruistic force of good. Both have their flaws. Both commit atrocities, underpinning the grimdark nature of the source material.

I really, really don't want it to be on the Horus Heresy.

I'm not exactly sure what I want.

A Rogue Trader film would be cool. Would have a Rogue Trader with some Imperial Marines, some Imperial Guard and some abhumans, and they come upon an Ork world and fight them off.

Oh and there'd be an Inquisitor too, for fun's sake. Orks for humor, then there's a lot of violence and action and infighting. Would make for an excellent film imnsho.

First off, the film should not try to take itself seriously at ALL.

Don't try to develop a connection with the characters, or make it a blockbuster Avatar style film, if 40k hollywood it would have to be in a satyr-comedic style.

Think IG vs Orks, in a Saving Private Ryan meets Starship Troopers action movie.

Ringarin wrote:... or Qentin Tarantino type director....

OMG! Please do not let him anywhere near it.

It would just be overly long sequences of space marines exchanging witty banter followed by completely over the top gory scenes. The movie would randomly jump around and not make any sense. Tarantino writes brilliant dialogue, but he generally gets so involved in making "cool scenes" that they fail to make a coherent story.

But, back to the topic, I don't think they need to explain the entire 40k universe in one movie. Obvioulsy, it would be centered around the Imperium and Space Marines, but as long as it tells a coherent story, it could be pulled off. I would love anything from the Cain series, but it would be difficult to get the irony of it across unless it was narrated.

Vladsimpaler wrote: Orks for humor...

NO NO NO NO NONONONONONONONONONONONO!

If there is one thing I hate about 40k, it is the insistant use of orks as comic relief. William King, may he rot in a third-rate hell, started it and many others have jumped on the bandwagon. ORKS ARE NOT FUNNY. A bit silly, sure. But they are big, scary, bloodthirsty aliens with nasty weapons and spiky bitz. NOT THE THREE (trillion) STOOGES IN SPACE.

On topic...
We don't have to worry about releasing a possibly sub-standard movie before the "big one" comes out because "Ultramarines" is that movie. I, personally, like the Ultras, and I think this movie should be pretty good, thanks to Abnett and GW's general tightfisted control. But it is still gonna be a 70 minute, direct to video movie.
So as for the big one, I agree that IG or Inquisition is where it's at. I would love to see a really well done 40k IG movie a la Band of Brothers, with some Inquisitors skulking around and some Marines thrown in for good measure. Antagonists? Something tells me "Ultramarines" is gonna have Chaos. So, the next one could do...anything, really. 'Nids might get people whining that it's just "Starship Troopers 5", but who cares what they think? "Crons are different enough from "Terminator" to be effective and not remind people of Arnie. Tau? Yes please. Eldar? Sure. Orks? DON"T MAKE THEM SILLY.

Orks can be funny, but if they're overplayed for humor it doesn't sit right and they can't be taken seriously as bad guys. I think for the sake of accessibility the "good guys" and "bad guys" should be pretty black and white. Tau and Eldar are always pretty neutral, and don't make for characters quite as compelling. Sure something could be done like in DoWII where the Eldar have their own motives and manipulate the Orks, but I wouldn't make them the primary protagonists or antagonists.