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Steer away from the universe Canon, and make Space Hulk! But not quite like the boardgame... Here's my just-now-made-up plot summary:

A rogue trader out exploring past known space comes across a Space Hulk. Maybe an example of the first Space Hulk known to mankind? Maybe Space Hulks are just a myth, and this crew has never heard of an example? (since perhaps the Space Marines typically zoom in and take care of 'em before anyone else hears about it?)

They scan it, and come up with all sorts of signals from ships lost to the warp in years past, but no known life forms appear to be aboard. Warships potentially full of expensive gear fused to pleasure cruisers containing unknown wealth. You know, the whole nine yards.

Naturally, the allure is too great, they suit up, and board the hulk knowing the riches to be found should far outweigh any risk, right?

One by one, the crew vanish. The final survivors desperately try to engage their engines to escape, but their craft is instead pulled into the hulk, fused to the massive wreckage just as the whole thing gets sucked back into the warp. Fade to black!

That'll teach 'em to be greedy!

 pancakeonions wrote:
Steer away from the universe Canon, and make Space Hulk! But not quite like the boardgame... Here's my just-now-made-up plot summary:

A rogue trader out exploring past known space comes across a Space Hulk. Maybe an example of the first Space Hulk known to mankind? Maybe Space Hulks are just a myth, and this crew has never heard of an example? (since perhaps the Space Marines typically zoom in and take care of 'em before anyone else hears about it?)

They scan it, and come up with all sorts of signals from ships lost to the warp in years past, but no known life forms appear to be aboard. Warships potentially full of expensive gear fused to pleasure cruisers containing unknown wealth. You know, the whole nine yards.

Naturally, the allure is too great, they suit up, and board the hulk knowing the riches to be found should far outweigh any risk, right?

One by one, the crew vanish. The final survivors desperately try to engage their engines to escape, but their craft is instead pulled into the hulk, fused to the massive wreckage just as the whole thing gets sucked back into the warp. Fade to black!

That'll teach 'em to be greedy!

So, like Alien, Event Horizon and Dead Space, then?

As an introduction movie to the universe, I'd go with something more generic as the whole 'Space Marines / Horus Heresy / Kaaaayooooosssss!' thing is quite full on. It would likely be too much for the normal cinema goer to get into and that means less sales and a poorer review = no follow-up movies.


So: Invasion of Tyran from the perspective of a guardsman / rogue trader or some other human characters.

You have your generic aliens, you have your hoomans, sprinkle with a few space marines stationed there and there you have it. Nice, simple and easy.

 Bobthehero wrote:
Oh, a movie about trooper Andrej, I could live with that.

Yes to this!

A film inspired by the book Xenology would be the better way to go about it, but have it involve some kind of political techo-thriller to really establish the setting of the Imperium and how whacky it is.

Then you can start to expand on this with films about other stories. I don't think any film should try to show off all of the universe, but each film should contain elements that when viewed together, complete the picture.

People would love that.

I'd start with the birth of this small child somewhere in Anatolia in 8th millennium B.C., from there it's all easy.

Anyway I'd rather have a TV show HBO quality than a movie. Something like GOT.

 Anfauglir wrote:

 pancakeonions wrote:
Steer away from the universe Canon, and make Space Hulk! But not quite like the boardgame... Here's my just-now-made-up plot summary:

A rogue trader out exploring past known space comes across a Space Hulk. Maybe an example of the first Space Hulk known to mankind? Maybe Space Hulks are just a myth, and this crew has never heard of an example? (since perhaps the Space Marines typically zoom in and take care of 'em before anyone else hears about it?)

They scan it, and come up with all sorts of signals from ships lost to the warp in years past, but no known life forms appear to be aboard. Warships potentially full of expensive gear fused to pleasure cruisers containing unknown wealth. You know, the whole nine yards.

Naturally, the allure is too great, they suit up, and board the hulk knowing the riches to be found should far outweigh any risk, right?

One by one, the crew vanish. The final survivors desperately try to engage their engines to escape, but their craft is instead pulled into the hulk, fused to the massive wreckage just as the whole thing gets sucked back into the warp. Fade to black!

That'll teach 'em to be greedy!

So, like Alien, Event Horizon and Dead Space, then?

Exactly! Is there any other sci fi/ deep space plot besides those?

 Anfauglir wrote:

 pancakeonions wrote:
Steer away from the universe Canon, and make Space Hulk! But not quite like the boardgame... Here's my just-now-made-up plot summary:

A rogue trader out exploring past known space comes across a Space Hulk. Maybe an example of the first Space Hulk known to mankind? Maybe Space Hulks are just a myth, and this crew has never heard of an example? (since perhaps the Space Marines typically zoom in and take care of 'em before anyone else hears about it?)

They scan it, and come up with all sorts of signals from ships lost to the warp in years past, but no known life forms appear to be aboard. Warships potentially full of expensive gear fused to pleasure cruisers containing unknown wealth. You know, the whole nine yards.

Naturally, the allure is too great, they suit up, and board the hulk knowing the riches to be found should far outweigh any risk, right?

One by one, the crew vanish. The final survivors desperately try to engage their engines to escape, but their craft is instead pulled into the hulk, fused to the massive wreckage just as the whole thing gets sucked back into the warp. Fade to black!

That'll teach 'em to be greedy!

So, like Alien, Event Horizon and Dead Space, then?

As much as I personally enjoyed Event Horizon, if a 40K movie or series is ever created and is as bad as Event Horizon (because - let's be honest - it was pretty far from being a masterpiece), then I will be disappointed.

I'd actually like to see the Horus Heresy made into a movie series.

I would skip a movie to begin with and go with something like a Clone Wars style series done in CGI (if only because of costs to do live action). The lore is so expansive you'd either end up only showing a fraction of the whole or (as I fear some studio would meddle and do) wedging in too much. I would prefer to see it explored over seasons, with a different alien race being the antagonists for each season.

 Kojiro wrote:
I would skip a movie to begin with and go with something like a Clone Wars style series done in CGI (if only because of costs to do live action). The lore is so expansive you'd either end up only showing a fraction of the whole or (as I fear some studio would meddle and do) wedging in too much. I would prefer to see it explored over seasons, with a different alien race being the antagonists for each season.

Yea, I agree. There were points in the clonewars that you could almost just squint your eyes and imagine the battles taking place in 40k instead of starwars. I think it should definatly still air on HBO and maybe make the models look a little less Wooden.

 Tiger9gamer wrote:

 Kojiro wrote:
I would skip a movie to begin with and go with something like a Clone Wars style series done in CGI (if only because of costs to do live action). The lore is so expansive you'd either end up only showing a fraction of the whole or (as I fear some studio would meddle and do) wedging in too much. I would prefer to see it explored over seasons, with a different alien race being the antagonists for each season.

Yea, I agree. There were points in the clonewars that you could almost just squint your eyes and imagine the battles taking place in 40k instead of starwars. I think it should definatly still air on HBO and maybe make the models look a little less Wooden.

I would definitely be interested in seeing how HBO handles 3D animation.

 EnTyme wrote:

 Tiger9gamer wrote:

 Kojiro wrote:
I would skip a movie to begin with and go with something like a Clone Wars style series done in CGI (if only because of costs to do live action). The lore is so expansive you'd either end up only showing a fraction of the whole or (as I fear some studio would meddle and do) wedging in too much. I would prefer to see it explored over seasons, with a different alien race being the antagonists for each season.

Yea, I agree. There were points in the clonewars that you could almost just squint your eyes and imagine the battles taking place in 40k instead of starwars. I think it should definatly still air on HBO and maybe make the models look a little less Wooden.

I would definitely be interested in seeing how HBO handles 3D animation.

No thank you, if HBO got its hands on the rights to a 40k show, they would end up going straight-up Slaaneshi with it.

 EnTyme wrote:

 Tiger9gamer wrote:

 Kojiro wrote:
I would skip a movie to begin with and go with something like a Clone Wars style series done in CGI (if only because of costs to do live action). The lore is so expansive you'd either end up only showing a fraction of the whole or (as I fear some studio would meddle and do) wedging in too much. I would prefer to see it explored over seasons, with a different alien race being the antagonists for each season.

Yea, I agree. There were points in the clonewars that you could almost just squint your eyes and imagine the battles taking place in 40k instead of starwars. I think it should definatly still air on HBO and maybe make the models look a little less Wooden.

I would definitely be interested in seeing how HBO handles 3D animation.

Nah. If they're going for an animated series, traditional 2D all the way. Tartakovsky's 2003 Clone Wars series was far superior to the later show (and Rebels). The 3D CGI is blocky, clunky and hollow by comparison.

Yeah but the fight scenes are soooooooooooo over the top, its ridiculous.

 Bobthehero wrote:
Yeah but the fight scenes are soooooooooooo over the top, its ridiculous.

That's because it's heavily stylised, a la Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack. The scale and setting of 40K is also over-the-top and ridiculous. I'm not saying that the Tartakovsky-style is the only/best option for it, just using the two Clone Wars series as an example of the overall superiority of more traditional 2D animation vs. the newer, more common 3D CGI stuff we see nowadays.

 Anfauglir wrote:

 EnTyme wrote:

 Tiger9gamer wrote:

 Kojiro wrote:
I would skip a movie to begin with and go with something like a Clone Wars style series done in CGI (if only because of costs to do live action). The lore is so expansive you'd either end up only showing a fraction of the whole or (as I fear some studio would meddle and do) wedging in too much. I would prefer to see it explored over seasons, with a different alien race being the antagonists for each season.

Yea, I agree. There were points in the clonewars that you could almost just squint your eyes and imagine the battles taking place in 40k instead of starwars. I think it should definatly still air on HBO and maybe make the models look a little less Wooden.

I would definitely be interested in seeing how HBO handles 3D animation.

Nah. If they're going for an animated series, traditional 2D all the way. Tartakovsky's 2003 Clone Wars series was far superior to the later show (and Rebels). The 3D CGI is blocky, clunky and hollow by comparison.

The blocky art style was mostly due to time and budget constraints. 3D animation (all animation, really) is extremely time-consuming and expensive, so regular series often have to cut corners. I'm curious as to what kind of resources HBO would throw at a project like this.

Well. Honestly. Since this has already been made, I'm not sure we need any more 40K movies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GV6sUq7axY

Just surprised this hasn't been posted yet:

Damnatus:
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77TpMvRZ_LQ
Full Movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB4nnD0XZ44

Ultramarines:
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGByey3BSjY
Full Movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlSlIedTBHk

There's really only one way to preserve any 40K imagery and/or any ambition in screenwriting:

Avoid Hollywood.

Especcially if its were to go the horror route.

Couldnt do the IG v Exodites. Above and beyond already did that.

And Avatar

Oh, there you go; the anti-Avatar. The IoM claims a world with native sapient Xenos primitives and blenderises them because they're in the way. The regiment that fired the last shot gets to settle their claim… and call it Catachan….


But generally, I agree with the folk saying Marines need to be left out, or seen in the far distance and mentioned only in hushed whispers; jumping straight in with surgically altered super-soldiers who only ever fight or train to fight and never, ever do anything else is a bad plan in terms of getting audience attention.

If you do want to have a film about space marines though, make one about the recruitment of an aspirant; follow him and his fellow induct/abductees through induction, the loss of the incompatible and the inattentive etc. Basically Full Metal Jacket but with, oh, let's say, a Terran hive-gang joining the Imperial Fists and fighting a mob of Dark Eldar raiders on some jungle planet someplace.

I they did go with a movie about the Space Marines, there is really only one Space Marine story truly worthy of the term "epic", and it ain't the Horus Heresy.