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.

 Mickmann wrote:
I imagine a teaser/trailer which starts like this:

(dark voice, grimdark music) "It is the 41st millenium. The imperium is at war..."

-You see space. Planets with explosions on them. Maybe exterminatus.-

"The forces of the imperium fight a seemlessly futile war on every front. The mightiest champions of the emperor, the space marines are a beacon of hope..."

-You see some ultramarines doing heroic gak-

"Then there are the mighy titans of war..."

-You see some titans doing heroic gak-

"And the near endless forces of the imperial guard, each one a hero on his own"

-You see imperial guardsman doing not so heroic but still heroic stuff-

"And then... there is me."

(The music changes to something comically pleasant, you see a handsome guy in commissar's attire holding a cup of tea, while a filthy valhallan approaches with a teapot)

Jurgen: "Tea, Sir?"
Ciaphas Cain: "Yes, thank you my dear friend"

-Jurgen refills the teacup, Cain takes a sip of tea-


Something like this would get me more hyped than any starship troopers / Alien -ripoff.

lol.... I would definitly watch this!

I wouldn't mind Desert Raiders as a movie, Imperial Guard with a female psyker (iirc) as one of the main characters in an accidental encounter with a small(-ish) group of Tyranids.

Environments could show astropaths in action, space travel, desert, caves, and a verdant jungle.

Tyranids are being introduced and exposed from the position of near ignorance (beyond knowing about their existence), and the combat against them goes through multiple very distinct encounters.

And the story has a decent pacing for a movie, imo.

I don't know if this wound be successful.... but what about going in a totally different direction. What if the main characters are Tau that experience/witness their home world being purged by the Imperium. The masses aren't particularly clever and the imperium are not the good guys in the 40K story.

Maybe there could be some situation where an inquisitor or some other mid-level officials from the imperium get stranded on said planet and stuck with Tau - and the whole movie hinges around morale conscience and exposing the Imperium for what it is.

40k would be shown far better as a series of short stories. A bit like Black Mirror, 45-60 minute episodes, no connection between each other.

There are some great ideas here that would work nicely within an hour. The genestealer cult in a hive, hunted by an inquisitor. Orks vs humans with marines dropping out of the sky to save the day etc.

You could show most factions in a series. Include the existing story of marines helping a planet fight off dark eldar pirates, only to reject the Imperium in the end and get wiped out for it.

If it had to be a movie though, I like the idea of a genestealer cult in a hive city. Leave out marines, have some skitarii and an inquisitor. It could be pretty bleak and make a good horror

Here's a story I've been sitting on for a while.

On a moderately-populated civilized world a charsimatic PDF officer stages a brilliant coup and removes the corrupt and decadent aristocracy. The officer is portrayed as a sympathetic individual with genuine belief in the Imperial cause, over several year he makes broad reforms that improve nearly every facet of society. In particular, militarism playes an important role and as such the quality of the pdf and consequently the planetary tithe improves dramatically. However the officer's pragmatic approach clashes with the dogmatic views of the Imperium's institutions, His opportunistic bartering and functional views of technology respectively draw the ire of the Ecclesiarchy and the Adeptus Mechanicus. Meanwhile the better trained and equiped guardsmen he provides for military campaigns initially earn him praise from the sector's leadership (who approved of his coup beacause of this). As time goes on the new govenor's rigid focus on military efficiency creates him too much enemies across the branches of Imperial power.

Here the story could go one of two ways: In the first option an Imperial invasion occurs and his downfall becomes a cautionary tale against reform even with the Imperium's best interest at his heart. Several varations could made including a last minute fall to chaos, with a chaos fleet appearing as 'saviour' at the very last possible moment, or it could be the Xenos allies the governor has been foreshadowed to have been bartering with, either way the outcome is de damnation of the planet and much of it's population.

In the second option, the governor takes the initative, with the help of several allied navy captains he makes a bold move on the sector's political leadership. With his charisma he convinces the remaider of the military accept him as the new Sector Lord and with this the threat of imminent retribution by his personal enemies is nullified. Personally I like this second variant, the coup in the end is a dark and cynical mirror of the more idealistic and hopeful change in leadership at the start.

 Snake Tortoise wrote:
40k would be shown far better as a series of short stories. A bit like Black Mirror, 45-60 minute episodes, no connection between each other.

There are some great ideas here that would work nicely within an hour. The genestealer cult in a hive, hunted by an inquisitor. Orks vs humans with marines dropping out of the sky to save the day etc.

You could show most factions in a series. Include the existing story of marines helping a planet fight off dark eldar pirates, only to reject the Imperium in the end and get wiped out for it.

If it had to be a movie though, I like the idea of a genestealer cult in a hive city. Leave out marines, have some skitarii and an inquisitor. It could be pretty bleak and make a good horror

Didn't think of it before, but you're right. That would be an excellent format.

Movies involving Space Marines and Tyranids were already made, with a bunch of variations, so GW cannot have that!

An Orc invasion where it seems like an Imperial world is under attack, but the planetary govenor/Hive Command is GSC and halfway through the true horror of the Hive City is discovered. No one is the good guy and at the start you'd dislike the Orcs, but end up sort of cheering for them as they fight the mutated and deluded humans plus Genestealers.
It won't show the whole war for the planet from beginning to end but from after the Rocs crash land to the full realization that the Orcs are almost over their head with what they stirred up.
Start with showing Boyz assaulting PDF forces to give a strong impression of the kulture before moving to a Mek and Nobs finding out they are in for a harder scrap-maybe assasinating a Broodlord or the group being targeted by a Lictor(s).
End with no real resolution to the overall conflict but see some headway in the assault or more Orcish reinforcements land as things are dark for the Mek and Nobs.

Sprinkle dark humour but don't make the Orcs meme-like.

Love can bloom. A love story in within the 40K univers

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Story:Love_Can_Bloom

I think a movie or serial from a Rogue Trader perspective might be the best approach. If it takes off, you can get them in to different types of trouble exploring the different aspects of the 40K universe.

In fact, you can even use this:

Mickmann wrote:I imagine a teaser/trailer which starts like this:

(dark voice, grimdark music) "It is the 41st millenium. The imperium is at war..."

-You see space. Planets with explosions on them. Maybe exterminatus.-

"The forces of the imperium fight a seemlessly futile war on every front. The mightiest champions of the emperor, the space marines are a beacon of hope..."

-You see some ultramarines doing heroic gak-

"Then there are the mighy titans of war..."

-You see some titans doing heroic gak-

"And the near endless forces of the imperial guard, each one a hero on his own"

-You see imperial guardsman doing not so heroic but still heroic stuff-

"And then... there is me."

(The music changes to something comically pleasant, you see a handsome guy in commissar's attire holding a cup of tea, while a filthy valhallan approaches with a teapot)

Jurgen: "Tea, Sir?"
Ciaphas Cain: "Yes, thank you my dear friend"

-Jurgen refills the teacup, Cain takes a sip of tea-


Something like this would get me more hyped than any starship troopers / Alien -ripoff.

As an introduction, just replace the Rogue Trader with Ciaphas Cain.

Castozor wrote:Despite it being some of my least favourite genres I'd make it a thriller/horror movie that scales back the scope quite a bit. No grand galactic battles but an intimate look of life on an average imperial world. Bleak, dystopian and seemingly hopeless. An average investigator/low ranking inquisitor investigating disturbances in the underhives, that eventually turn out to be a GSC/Chaos Cult.
Keeps the protagonist somewhat relatable since the scope isn't so large and the truly weirdness of the setting only builds up slowly. That way it ca be fun for both people familiar with the setting and a nice generic horror/thriller Sci-fi for others.

Well, there IS Event Horizon. Just need to release the Daemons to tie it in properly.

I'd make a dark comedy staring Guardsmen.

There's always Helsreach

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSWAxTw0FAGxkkqmuroxMwN5LviaBosJ5

The thing about 40K that I'm having trouble squaring as any sort of mainstream movie is that the setting just doesn't lend itself at all to typical scripts and presentation styles. I can't see any human character chumming it up with others in a way that isn't either going to seem totally out of character for the lore or just over the stop stupid sounding. If it's going to be serious it needs to go in some crazy Stanley Kubrick-sequel direction. Which also means it's mainstream appeal will tank.

Basically - it's either going to be a bad mainstream movie or a good fan movie. I don't see any real middle ground.

 Charistoph wrote:
I think a movie or serial from a Rogue Trader perspective might be the best approach. If it takes off, you can get them in to different types of trouble exploring the different aspects of the 40K universe.

Castozor wrote:Despite it being some of my least favourite genres I'd make it a thriller/horror movie that scales back the scope quite a bit. No grand galactic battles but an intimate look of life on an average imperial world. Bleak, dystopian and seemingly hopeless. An average investigator/low ranking inquisitor investigating disturbances in the underhives, that eventually turn out to be a GSC/Chaos Cult.
Keeps the protagonist somewhat relatable since the scope isn't so large and the truly weirdness of the setting only builds up slowly. That way it ca be fun for both people familiar with the setting and a nice generic horror/thriller Sci-fi for others.

Well, there IS Event Horizon. Just need to release the Daemons to tie it in properly.

RT might be a good idea too yeah, since they are somewhat detached from the outright "purge the Xenos on sight" attitude most other Imperial branches have.
Event Horizon is great but i really like to set it in a city myself.

I want a mixture of an anthology series and episodic series based around the Imperial Guard. Basically each episode would focus on different conflicts across the Imperium, with different characters, regiments, tactics and cultures. Unresolved episodes with cliff-hangers would eventually get follow ups until a satisfying conclusion.

The Imperial Guard are the faction anyone can relate to. They have friends and family. They think, feel, just like we do. We can see their struggles and relate to them, then feel for them as they attempt to overcome the odds. Often failing due to the sheer insanity the 40k universe throws at them.

As for what the show would look like. I do want it animated. Something like the fairly realistic animation style shown in Love, Death, Robots. Many episodes would have "monsters of the week." Where X regiment fights on Y planet against Z enemy. So we could have intense street fighting between Vostroyans and Tau, massive tank battles with Tallan and Chaos, WW1 style trench warfare with DKOK and Renegades, there could even be Imperial Navy battles between the assorted enemies of Man as well. Just so we can have our own epic Star Wars space battles.

Scions doing operator gak against Chaos Renegades

Definately a Rouge Trader movie based in the Dark Sector.

Awsome character/cast potential, lots of action and intrigue, weird mystical/fantasy/sci-fi mix up of planets and settings, huge space battle, not tied to much already written lore (so free to do what it has to), and plenty of sequel potential.

You can literally toss in any of the factions as a Rouge Trader can have access to any of the imperium's tech (and even some alien tech), and he can hire whomever he pleases (Ork Freeboota Starfighter pilot yes please).

You even get to dig into the really obscure stuff (Hrud, Zoats).


It has the most potential to touch everything 40k and yet not be contained to just the fanbase.

I definitely want to see Ork on Ork violence, like a civil war to determine which Boss is going to lead the horde in glorious Wagghh, a giant Space Hulk is within reach but two different War Bosses want to claim it.

It would be super cinematic in its epic scale of war and violence, but it will be orks dieing on screen so noone will care!! Hide your spore based life-forms because there will be dead orks from beginning to end!!

Inquisitor or Rogue Trader. Noir / gothic horror. It's what allows you to showcase the best elements of the setting and not get bogged down in stuff that doesn't translate well to a dramatic format (read: most 40k stuff. Big wars don't translate well to drama, you need small numbers of memorable characters, not masses of mute grunts smashing each other).

I think you could actually turn Solomon Lok's story from The Anphelion Project into a great screenplay. It has it all - xenomorph-like aliens getting free ala Jurassic Park, weird human-alien experimentation, subterfuge,things not being what they seem, gradual disillusionment and doubt followed by a shocking betrayal that upends everything you thought re: who the good guys were. If you end it where GW ended it, it even leaves things open for a sequel that absolutely blows the top off everything and ends up being something completely different, if you were brave enough to do it.

Primaris Lieutenants?