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I have been out of 40K for a while. What is up with the 40K movie. Can I still get it from GW or was it a limited run. : Yes, I have been under a rock, playing D&D. Thanks for input: To all others. Sorry for waisting your time.

You can still find it I think. But don't try too hard. It's not really worth it.

You remember the DnD movie, right?

That was Citizen Kane compared to Ultramarines.

That movie was pretty good, actually. At least, it is worth watching.

The movie comes off more as a Saturday morning cartoon pilot then an actual movie; worth watching though.

I also wonder this. I went to the Iron man primere and there was a preview for Ultramarines. Still havent heard a word about it since

https://usashop.ultramarinesthemovie.com/

There ya go. $40 for the collectors edition, $13 for just the movie, $16 if you have a fancy pants blu-ray player. Go nuts.

Good stuff dave. I must have missed its release. Says '09, ps they should have gave at least some descrition of what it is about. Anyone know who they are fighting in said movie?

Chaosssssss

They are fighting chaos space marines.

The 40k movie was a piece of trash, amazing how little quality control there was in the production process. Reboot (which came out like 15 years ago by this point) had better graphics and just about any saturday morning cartoon a better plot.

40k will never get a talented enough team together to make a truly good or budetarily sufficient movie until it becomes more mainstream. I expect all future straight-to-DVD movie attempts will meet with equal failure as Ultramarines.

Was fun to see marines in action, but the plot was lack luster consider all the Black Library and fluff they have to draw on.

http://www.damnatus.com/seite.php?file=film

Would have loved to see this actually work out...

It wasn't terrible, wasn't by any means good either, but worth a watch I suppose....I just got it from the interwebz....

It's amazing. I've just seen "Priest" and that movie gave me a better 40k'ish feeling. If some Korean graphic novel can get a movie with visuals like that, it truly makes you wonder why it just doesn't seem possible for a franchise like 40k that is churning out novels and computer games like there's no tomorrow.

Okay, maybe GW is convinced they couldn't pull off Space Marines with real actors, so they went for mediocre CGI due to budget limits. Understandable, not everyone can pull of an "Avatar" or "Final Fantasy". But if that's so, maybe they should simply go for another angle of the setting. Yes, we all know Marines are the posterboys and the big seller of GW, but the background has so much more to offer - so instead of doing a half-assed job with the premiere seller, maybe they could have done an awesome job with the next best thing, whatever that is. "Priest" could have well been a movie about an Inquisitor hunting mutants, for example. It didn't make a lot of profit in the box office, but it made profit, and it could have been a nice advertisement for the TT.

Of course, the story of the Ultramarines movie was another problem, but I think it would not have been as noticable with more stuff to distract the eyes. It's how all big Hollywood productions work these days, after all.

Oh well, let's see what the future holds.

It isn't the greatest piece of cinema but I bought a collector's edition.

I really dig 40k, I really dig Ultramarines, and I really dig the voice actors that were involved.... and the nudity... musn't forget the nudity.

I think I missed the nudity in Ultramarines. The Dark Gods are merciful.

I will comment, however, that when it comes to CGI and production value, you most definitely get what you pay for. The crafting budget for Priest exceeds that of all of Ultramarines.

The Ultramarines movie was made for about $12 million bucks. For a feature-length CGI film... that's next to nothing. Priest was a full-blown Hollywood-budget film, with an estimated $60 million spent on its production. Little wonder its CGI was better.

djphranq wrote:It isn't the greatest piece of cinema but I bought a collector's edition.

I really dig 40k, I really dig Ultramarines, and I really dig the voice actors that were involved.... and the nudity... musn't forget the nudity.

Yeah, I think I missed that part. Unless you are talking about the Daemon Prince, and I don't think that counts.

Psienesis wrote:I will comment, however, that when it comes to CGI and production value, you most definitely get what you pay for. The crafting budget for Priest exceeds that of all of Ultramarines.

The Ultramarines movie was made for about $12 million bucks. For a feature-length CGI film... that's next to nothing. Priest was a full-blown Hollywood-budget film, with an estimated $60 million spent on its production. Little wonder its CGI was better.

No wonder, then. I thought it may have been just that Priest was part-CGI whereas the 40k one was 100%. In that case, the question I have is ... why the warp is GW being so cheap here? Lack of confidence in their own franchise, or just a lot of arrogance in the "spend as little as possible, maximize profits" way?

I mean, sure I could understand that they couldn't raise the money themselves. But seriously, it's not like they should have such a hard time finding investors if a franchise like "Priest" can get it done. Right?

Perhaps a reluctance to surrender control by getting other companies on board ... I did notice that all those cool outsourced products that were available years ago (anything from Aquila pendants and Eldar jewelry to Slaanesh wine goblets and Imperial Guard belt buckles) are no longer being made and everything runs via Black Library now (or should I say: doesn't run). We can probably be thankful that they allowed THQ to use the license for a couple computer games. But surely the level of input from investors to a movie can be limited with the appropriate contracts?

Priest was live-action-mixed-with-CGI, which is how almost any Hollywood film that isn't a rom-com is made these days... but when you have, say, $20 mil for CGI that you use in 45 minutes of a 2 hour movie, versus $12 mil for all 90 minutes of a film that is entirely CGI... well... you see how it goes.

...and, yeah, you can still retain control of your IP and such and still accept money from investors. It would be fairly easy, too, really. You simply limit certain things that are likely to drive an audience away... so don't dress your IG up like Nazi Sturmtruppen and maybe focus less on the life of the under-Hive citizen, and instead focus on the IG heroics, the SM ass-kicking, and defeating the evilness of evil aliens like the Nids, the Ork or the Made-Up-For-The-Movie, or the badness of Chaos and you should have no problems.

Investors in movies rarely have a say in direction, that's a studio thing, and if the studio is Codex or GW itself or anyone with an interest in the 40K universe, that's not going to be much of a problem.

Seriously, I've said it many times before, they don't need to do a full blown movie like that, live-action or CGI. Five-minute shorts along the lines of this would be maybe 1000% more effective, for a much cheaper price (I hope). 9:00pm on Cartoon Network, some, but not too much violence, none would be disingenuous, and then they could have a more violent version to be shown later on.

Well, 40k with toned down violence would be like Diet Dr. Pepper. Not worth it.



That said, a 45 minute show, meant for Adults, would be the way to go. I think the escapades of an Inquisitor would be perfect, it would have its soap-opera moments and plenty of open-ended space to run around in with the plot. You wouldn't be sunk if your main villan was brought to justice because you could easily have a new villan pop up.


40k would be the ultimate Sci-fi Soap Opera.

Well, Diet Dr. Pepper is actually pretty awesome...
... but, yeah, a weekly thing in the same style as the Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon (which is plenty violent, if bloodless... but some aliens do get flamethrowered to death) would be great.

Then you aren't thinking about it. Those 5-minute animations were cheap, high-action, and needed little story development, that's the majority of 40k stories already. They had a huge impact, hence why I remember them despite being shown nearly 9 years ago. You have to remember that a long 45 minute show aired once a week wouldn't be seen by the majority of the market GW is trying to appeal to. Simply get Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon to spam these at around 8-9, with a less violent version, and then show a more violent one later on. Taking out blood and gore altogether would be disingenuous, but parents aren't going to like the look of a full on 40k animation. Last point, none of GW games are that well known. Exploding onto scyfy or the like with a full one expensive sci-fi soap opera that would need an extensive amount of background explanation would leave a lot of people unaware that this is a GW production. The company needs to become mainstream first.

The main problem, I think, is that GW views anything it licenses or produces as needing to sell the game to the consumer. You could make some fantastic dark, grim, cyberpunk-ish movies about inquisitors, but hey, those, in GW's view, won't sell Space Marines. Even Black Library's mission is to sell the models. Until they realize that getting people interested in the setting for the setting's merits is just as crafting an hour-line animated advertisement, we're going to keep getting crap like Ultramarines.

Maybe, but it wouldn't feel like 40k to me.


The issue is, most of the 40k fluff is certaintly NOT appropriate for kids. a huge problem when you consider the customer base.

Things written on paper seem ok, but you have to visualise what it would be on the screen.



Its a problem that GW has created/had forced upon them. The fluff has been developed towards a mature audience, but the bulk of the sales/fanbase is under the age of 16.






But a TV show wouldn't need to target that demographic. It would be geared towards the older crowd as a sales pitch. GW neglects the older players who are more likely/more able to actually make sustained purchases. the little kids really just muck about in the hobby.

This would actually be a way for GW to widen their customer base.

It wasn't THAT bad, but... The plot was stupid simple.

Last point, none of GW games are that well known.

Dawn of War, and its sequels and expansions, are played by more than just 40k fans. Gamers do love RTS games, and SC2 is only recently released. People who otherwise don't touch 40K products have been playing DoW for quite some time.

Also, within the wider community of "gamers", whether they play wargames or D&D or Cyberpunk or whatever... they're aware of what Warhammer is, and of Warhammer 40,000 especially. This is a product, after all, that's been on the shelves of their gaming stores for like 30 years now.

Grey Templar wrote:Maybe, but it wouldn't feel like 40k to me.

You're already a fan, it's not for you.

The issue is, most of the 40k fluff is certaintly NOT appropriate for kids. a huge problem when you consider the customer base.

Things written on paper seem ok, but you have to visualise what it would be on the screen.

Hence the toned down violence on screen early in the day. Late at night, the chainswords come out (Quiet, you at the back).

Its a problem that GW has created/had forced upon them. The fluff has been developed towards a mature audience, but the bulk of the sales/fanbase is under the age of 16.

They haven't created a problem like that. A 16 year-old is able to deal with the violence, you'd be suprised how much I see people mature at my FLGS at that time. GW has created a problem by selling models that a 12 year old thinks looks ace, if that's even their fault.

But a TV show wouldn't need to target that demographic. It would be geared towards the older crowd as a sales pitch. GW neglects the older players who are more likely/more able to actually make sustained purchases. the little kids really just muck about in the hobby.

This would actually be a way for GW to widen their customer base.

If you're already a player, you don't need to be sold anything through TV advertising. GW's policies like their release schedule, and their embargoes are what drive older players away, not a lack of advertising of product they already know about.
Veterans can't sustain GW. It's the new kids that do, they far outnumber people in FLGS, as does the sales the shop makes from them. A 45 minute long gory, bloody and violent Space Opera broadcast on one channel quite late at night does nothing to draw young people into the hobby, it's just really expensive fan service that can be achieved by other much cheaper means.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Psienesis wrote:

Last point, none of GW games are that well known.

Dawn of War, and its sequels and expansions, are played by more than just 40k fans. Gamers do love RTS games, and SC2 is only recently released. People who otherwise don't touch 40K products have been playing DoW for quite some time.

Also, within the wider community of "gamers", whether they play wargames or D&D or Cyberpunk or whatever... they're aware of what Warhammer is, and of Warhammer 40,000 especially. This is a product, after all, that's been on the shelves of their gaming stores for like 30 years now.

I'd postulate that not enough people are aware of the fact that the game they're playing comes from a miniature plastic toy soldier producer. It's GW as a model company that needs to be advertised.

Maybe in the case of the RTS players, but I'm not sure there's enough evidence to go either way on that.

The gamers? They know. After all, GW's had a fantasy RPG to tie into/support their Fantasy wargame for people who aren't into wargames.