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That's true but I think that with the right people involved it wouldn't have to be a risk

A well written movie does not need to go into the entire backstory of 40K, just cover what is needed. The movie does not have to be about the entire 40K universe, just a small slice of it. Like say Space Marines fighting off a Tyranid invasion (ie. the movie Aliens).

With the right people it would be a good movie. I also think some of you underestimate how many people know about 40k. Sure, not everyone plays it but pretty much every gamer knows what 40K is.

But that is irrelevant, its not like when a romantic comedy comes out (like say Love Actually - because itr is the only one I can think of atm) there is a pre-established fanbase of Love Actually people who read the comic or something. Obviously no such thing exists. People go to see the movie because they like Romantic comedies, who is in the movie, who directed it, advertising , review etc.

So if they made a 40k movie with a good script, a good director, good actors (which allegedly their are actors who play 40k), good advertising, special effects, explosions, boobs, etc. it *could* do well. There are plenty of sci-fi and action fans who will see it just based on being a sci-fi action movie.

Also having a pre-installed fan base can be as bad as not having one as those are the people who will criticize the movie the most if the movie isn't what they think it should be.

I don't think the risk is going to put off the movie getting made as there is less risk than you think. Comic, sci-fi, book adaptations are all the rage in Hollywood right now and they are trying to get any franchise they can right now.

What would prevent the movie being made the most is.....GW

They would have to give up control of their IP to a movie company and we know how adverse they are to do that. A movie company might alter something and GW would never allow that. In general directors don't like people interefing with their movie and most would not tolerate the interference GW would most likely put up.

Also someone would want to make toys for the movie. Gw makes toys but not the kind that the movie studio would want to make. GW would throw a fit if some other company, say Hasbro, made a line of Space Marine action figures. The movie studios would demand it and also a cut of the toy profits. GW would refuse- because their idiots.

Of course all this relies on a decent movie being made. That is always the kicker. The best thing about 40k is the universe GW created, if the right people could get together and make a good story out of it GW would make a fortune, however I don't believe it will ever happen.

what about a TV show like Band of Brothers?
A division of Cadians lands on some hive world to deal with a Cultist uprising, loads of epic fights, no non-humans (for a while anyway) and some Firefly style CGI.

As for backstory - A division of Cadians lands on...

Yeah keep it simple, maybe have a scene where some of the characters pray to the God Emperor but don't go into the whole "Artificially sustained corpse who has some physic powers" thing. Because do the average inhabitants of Imperium know the God Emperor is actually dead? Probably not...

 Psienesis wrote:
If you look inside the front cover of just about any BL novel, there's a page that I like to call "the scrawl" that wraps up 40K in a few paragraphs, often being slightly retooled for whatever group the novel is about (SM, IG, Inq, etc), and always ends with "... there is only war" (sometimes including bits about thirsting gods). Turn that into a Star Wars-like screen-crawl, or a Ron Pearlman-like opening voice-over and, boom, done.

Opening done if there was a big budget movie and it didn't start similar to this i would be disappointed. You don't need to explain everything what is done in "the scrawl" is enough.

the lessons Learned by Marvel would be apt i think to to what could happen if GW made a movie, if they licence the material they risk something being produced that is a hollow imitation of the source material and if they don't give up control they cant afford to make a movie!