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So, yes or no? What’s the plot? Who stars in it? Who directs it?

All I know is, it should be about a Stormcast eternal. The story of how they became one. And here’s an idea: they originally died defending their family from a chaos attack, and they should meet them and their extended family years later, with the little kids now old with many kids/grandkids and greatgrand kids of their own and so on. OK, that’s ripping off Interstellar a bit but it makes sense considering the setting.

What do you guys think? How would you like an AoS movie to look like?

It would look like Warcraft and likely suck just as much, Oldhammer had more potential as Grim Dark Lord of the Rings that noble bright AOS.

Lets hope newhammer starts getting the Grim Dark back!

Grimdark alone isn't enough IMO, what made WHF special was the sense that it was an actual place that could exist regardless of all the fantastical elements. AoS was purposefully designed to be the opposite of that so as to allow anyone to insert whatever they liked into it without impacting anything else or necessitating any explanation as to how they coexist.

Your best bet would be to go for something based on pure spectacle with just enough paper-thin plot to wrap all the pretty visuals around - a fantasy version of Avatar basically. Trying to push into something serious would just result in the audience drowning in NounVerby NounNoun naming and you're not going to get general audiences to buy into a character piece where the protagonist is a giant person remade by a god stomping about in WoW armour and teleporting from the sky in bolts of lightning.

If Sigmar's human parts are goood you could get an audiendce to buy into it. A simple focussed piece on Stormcast taking on Khorne bloodbound/Nagash could work.

The warcraft movie's biggest problem was too many characters to juggle.

A marvel-esque piece can easily work.

I don’t think any GW setting, barring perhaps Necromunda, is all that filmable.

Basically, there’s just no way to make the film carry any weight in the wider setting, which limits its options.

The Old World can’t really have a tale of world threatening proportions, because it’s just too small, and too well developed.

AoS? The opposite problem. Sure, you could have the baddies threaten a continent or a city - but so what? Survivors will just go over there, as the Realms are near infinite in scope.

Beyond Necromunda (just set up what a Hive World is), and you’d need to spend significant parts of the film just explaining what the setting is, who is who and why they’re fighting - especially if you want to break out into what makes each setting unique and interesting in its own field.

Consider the Horus Heresy. Just how many novels into that are we now? Try to condense that down to just a trilogy, or a Potteresque 8 film romp, and it can’t be done to any degree of satisfaction.

These are settings that simply require too much knowledge, because of their very origin and nature. The last thing any movie should leave it’s audience with is a general feeling of ‘yeah, but so what?’ when it comes to the conclusion of the story.

And even if you could, what tone do you try to run with? There’s some pretty dark stuff in AoS as there is in 40k. There’s also more lighthearted affairs, and everything in between, because so much of it is in the headcanon of individual hobbyists.

Consider Orks and Orcs and Orruks. To some, they’re slightly bumbling, almost comic relief. To others, they’re a horror to face, because they’re smashing up planets for no reason other than they really enjoy doing it. It’s easy to forget that not only are there millions of them in a Waaagh, but even the very weediest boy is quite ‘ard enough to tear any one of us limb from limb.

You don't need a big scale threat. In fact quite the opposite. HH woulld totally not work becasue 18 primarchs but anyhting else can be made to work by clear focussing. The lord of the rings trilogy is a masterpiece in how to do this.

Yet LotR is about a threat to the entire world?

Wouldn’t be very effective if it was just about a threat to Minas Tirith.

Star Wars. The Death Star can blow up entire planets. Yet there’s also a whole galaxy full of them so what does it matter? And yet the threat is treated as real. As vast as AoS is, the stakes can still be high enough to engage the audience.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Earth127 wrote:
If Sigmar's human parts are goood you could get an audiendce to buy into it. A simple focussed piece on Stormcast taking on Khorne bloodbound/Nagash could work.

The warcraft movie's biggest problem was too many characters to juggle.

A marvel-esque piece can easily work.

This. Stormcast v Khorne is what I’d start with. Sharp focus on a small number of characters.

it would look like a ikky CGI video game, bordering on some nigh indescribably strange anime / saturday morning cartoon

Yeah, I feel like it wouldn't translate into the a feature film very well. If they had to, I would presume the point of view would be from a mortal's perspective of their home being razed by bloodbound and then witnessing the stormcast intervene, he gets engaged with them, and so on. Maybe even have him potentially become worthy of Sigmar's attention if they want to go for the heroic sacrifice schtick in films nowadays.

As much as I like the cosmic fantasy of AoS, I do think the Old World would make a better film (and indeed, is probably the only GW setting you could get a film out of that actually represents the setting).

You could do plenty with an AoS film that caters to an audience familiar with the setting (hell, just make a movie of Silver Tower, it's Dredd/Die Hard but with Stormcast and Dwarves and Wizards going up a Magical Chaos Tower instead of a megacity block or skyscraper) but the setting as a whole would just be too vast/strange to explain from scratch.

The Old World on the other hand has the dual advantage of a) being a more traditional Fantasy setting with regular varieties of Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, regular humans in the middle of it. Anyone who's seen LotR could get a decent handle on it easily enough. And b) it's already had some exposure to a wider audience, who have generally received it positively. Between Vermintide and Total War: Warhammer you have a decent amount of people who've never picked up a mini but still know the basics of the setting.

I also think a smaller scale film is much more doable in the Old World. For example, use the backdrop of a Chaos invasion to tell the story of one band of heroes defending a small town while they wait for the Imperial Army to show up. An aged warrior priest of Sigmar, a wandering, mysterious (and possibly traitorous) Elf ranger, a rookie Empire rifleman, a Dwarven Slayer ect. Fun characters, a smaller story against a wider backdrop, basically just the Magnificent Seven formula meets Warhammer. That gets you 2 hours of solid entertainment and visual spectacle, with the fairly archetypal cast essentially representing their races and thus the world and no need to prime the audience with the full history of Sigmar or the Elven schism or the Chaos Gods ect.

The original Warhammer Fantasy is where it's at, and since Age of Sigmar killed a universe that I loved and if they were to make movie based on Age of Sigmar I would hope it would be a disaster flop (and considered by fans, movie goers and critics a god awful film) at the box office cause

feth them for killing Warhammer Fantasy, I'll never forget that.

It could definitely be glorious if done right. If they go for a huge film they should take cues from Marvel and the Thor movies. (Especially the parts in the nine realms which were amazing).

Stormcast vs Khorne I'd agree on since it's pretty iconic. Having it so we see the knight's view as his time being a normal citizen before chaos overran everything and then coming back anew as Sigmar's crusader would be a good start-off point. From there include Orruk and Beastclaw tribes as a divergent force to cause them initial trouble, a necromancer using illusions to wipe out more of the army and show their humanity through things like the spirits of lost loved ones acting as lures in a eldritch swamp.

Big cinematic fantasy would be a must for the majesty of the realms. The marching Stormcast gazing at floating continents, sneaking over a valley that's the back of an slumbering elemental monster, storms of fire that collide with magic starlight to form unstable bridges of hardened ash over bottomless ravines and then seeing the horrors chaos has been up to like structures of spiked steel with cages of tortured humans and animals and then unnatural beasts painfully chained in places and given daemonic runes(that stop damage but not pain) for things like hauling boats across lava or acidic marshes and so on. A big visual treat of another fantastical world.

The army battle against chaos could go either way with a hard won victory or terrible defeat. The latter might be better since it'd let the protagonist go off on his own and perhaps become a Knight Errant and then either rally hidden Devoted for a covert mission or prepare a remaining village's defense and hoped to be saved by Sigmar or another force.

Though really after seeing all the amazing Malign Portents trailers I'm hoping a animated series instead with that style. Would be cheaper to do, allow more plots, characters and armies to show up and still be great advertising/inspiration to get into the TT game.

I think I could enjoy it if it done like Starship Troopers, or even the insanely sarcastic Norsemen.

If it was serious I think I would struggle to get through it, but if it was animated I would be much more forgiving.

If it was serious then I think I could enjoy a Dances with Wolves type movie, where a Stormcast gets adopted by a Khorne tribe.

Is animation more expensive than live action or less, or about the same?

Also, since AoS is so over the top to begin with, it should probably embrace that. That dosen’t mean it can’t have a decent plot though. I’m looking at things like Star Wars, Flash Gordon and the WoW movie for inspiration. Oh, and the MCU too. It manages to combine the serious and the silliness very well.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I don’t think any GW setting, barring perhaps Necromunda, is all that filmable.

Mordheim could work too, but that's basically Oldhammer Necromunda, so that's a given. GorkaMorka has some potential, but the Diggas would need to be the protagonists; Mad Max but the War Boys are Orks. Spacehulk is probably the most film ready GW property, because it's basically just Aliens; a blessing and a curse given that it would need to do some work to differentiate itself.

Bloodbowl is probably the most interesting GW film property. Think 1974 The Longest Yard, or the 1975 Rollerball, but with Dwarf Deathrollers, Goblin chainsaws, Goblin pogo sticks, Blunderbusses for all....that's got some legs, I think. Both films it would take inspiration from are cult classics, so it's unlikely that such a movie would run into the same criticism that a Spacehulk film would*, and even if comparisons were drawn the Grimdark would alter the aesthetic so much that it wouldn't matter.



*Everyone knows Aliens, how many people know Rollerball?

Haha, Bloodbowl would be very interesting to say the least.

 Future War Cultist wrote:
Is animation more expensive than live action or less, or about the same?

Also, since AoS is so over the top to begin with, it should probably embrace that. That dosen’t mean it can’t have a decent plot though. I’m looking at things like Star Wars, Flash Gordon and the WoW movie for inspiration. Oh, and the MCU too. It manages to combine the serious and the silliness very well.

Depends, usually animation can be expensive but a high quality live action movie can be insane with just the actors alone being paid millions.

Definitely agree it needs to embrace it's over-the-top nature as any warhammer property should. Or else why bother?

AoS is big enough to put many elements into it as well. Heck, if they go gritty they can base it off the Daemon of the Deep short story where a Sigmarite city's priest condemns a impure child to death and has it thrown in the city gutter with refuse like discarded dead fish. Then Nurgle intervenes to spare the child and things go south as can be predicted.

Mix that storyline with decent folk in the city you root for, some heroic individuals to aid the town from the chaos invasion and justice being brought on the priest and you got a decent set-up.

Would 100% watch a Blood Bowl movie.

I forgot about Bloodbowl! That would be an awesome movie!

AOS in movie form would be so wrought with CGI that it'd be more intuitive to have it as an animated feature from the get go. WFB at least would have the benefit of being able to be grounded in faux realism and easier to both film AND sell to larger audiences.

I hope this never will be a thing, the game is awefull enough without being turned into a mediocre CGI Movie

 Cheesecat wrote:
The original Warhammer Fantasy is where it's at, and since Age of Sigmar killed a universe that I loved and if they were to make movie based on Age of Sigmar I would hope it would be a disaster flop (and considered by fans, movie goers and critics a god awful film) at the box office cause

feth them for killing Warhammer Fantasy, I'll never forget that.

Do grow up, will you?

But in terms of movie, you'd probably be best off setting it in the Underworlds/Shadespire version of the setting. Limited characters, but multiple from different races with a defined plot and would work well as an introduction to the larger setting.

Could all of you who just want to come in here to bitch about AoS just please...not? We’ve got a nice thread going here and I don’t want to see it derailed and then locked. If you simply must bitch about the game, could you just go start your own thread?

 Future War Cultist wrote:
Could all of you who just want to come in here to bitch about AoS just please...not? We’ve got a nice thread going here and I don’t want to see it derailed and then locked. If you simply must bitch about the game, could you just go start your own thread?

You asked what People think about said possible film. Thus you should expect to get a mixed sort of replies and opinions.

 Trondheim wrote:

 Future War Cultist wrote:
Could all of you who just want to come in here to bitch about AoS just please...not? We’ve got a nice thread going here and I don’t want to see it derailed and then locked. If you simply must bitch about the game, could you just go start your own thread?

You asked what People think about said possible film. Thus you should expect to get a mixed sort of replies and opinions.

Yeah but there’s a world of difference between saying something like “it won’t work because it’s too big in scale and the cgi will put people off” and saying something like “AoS is gak and I hope it and anything connected to it fails”. The first one is constructive whilst the latter is just toxic useless complaining.

^

If it keeps up maybe you should rewrite the thread as "Ideas for an Age of Sigmar movie?" to invite more constructive posters.

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:

 Cheesecat wrote:
The original Warhammer Fantasy is where it's at, and since Age of Sigmar killed a universe that I loved and if they were to make movie based on Age of Sigmar I would hope it would be a disaster flop (and considered by fans, movie goers and critics a god awful film) at the box office cause

feth them for killing Warhammer Fantasy, I'll never forget that.

Do grow up, will you?

But in terms of movie, you'd probably be best off setting it in the Underworlds/Shadespire version of the setting. Limited characters, but multiple from different races with a defined plot and would work well as an introduction to the larger setting.

ShadeSpire would be a good set-up point too. Could even be made a two-part movie, first the horrors of ShadeSpire and then with the warbands barely getting away with their lives and treasure they go to cash-in at Hammerhal. Epic journey there plus plots that can happen at the city culminating in a huge battle with either Chaos, Skaven(who could've been at ShadeSpire for a weapon to undermine Hammerhal) or Nagash trailing the thieves from his realm.

I've always thought that Gotrek and Felix Beastslayer, maybe with a couple more elements of the original Trollslayer, would be a good entry point to the Warhammer Fantasy universe.

You've got a siege, so a relatively contained setting. "Hordes from Chaos" attacking from the north - Everyone has seen that from Game of Thrones. Lots of Skyrim vibes from Erengard itself.

Then you have representatives and regiments from all the 'good' races turning up to fight.

And yet, despite it all, it's a very 'human' centric point of view with the focus on Felix Jaegar, who doesn't necessarily know how frigging insane the whole world is. And you're matching him with someone who DOES know, but also doesn't say a great deal in the form of Gotrek.

So you've got all this huge epic setup and stuff going on, but you've still got the 'human' touchstones of the normal person. - Like seeing the Siege of Minas Tirith through Pippin's eyes.

Then you can have some flashback scenes bringing in, say, orcs, or other small flashes of scenes of them fighting other villains, along the lines of, "how the heck did we get here."

Heck, you have Erengard as the metanarrative, you could make Beastslayer into almost a trilogy through using In Media Res stuff.

Focus on a handful of Sigmarines. One is a vet who has been reforged multiple, multiple times. He's almost to the point of not caring as he's lost most of his humanity but the reforgings are becoming more painful. He's actually gotten axed a few times just because he was tired of the whole thing, distant hope that this time he wouldn't be reforged.

Insert a brand new Stormcast into his group. Younger. Eager to fight evil. Still mostly human. Somehow linked to the grizzled sigmarine in their past lives. So now the veteran starts to give a crap again but he really can't any more. It's all just action without emotion.

Sprinkle in some viewpoint characters as comrades of the two main stormcast and possibly a Khorne character who destroyed the two sigmarines' village, family, etc. and it could be pretty decent.

 Trondheim wrote:
I hope this never will be a thing, the game is awefull enough without being turned into a mediocre CGI Movie

To be fair game design has always been a glaring weakness of GW's so that isn't a problem unique to Age of Sigmar, they're modelling company first and foremost and anything else is secondary at best. That being said I don't see how not being a well designed game is really relevant to

movies since movies aren't games, they're a more passive form of entertainment.

Baron Klatz wrote:
^

If it keeps up maybe you should rewrite the thread as "Ideas for an Age of Sigmar movie?" to invite more constructive posters.

That’s a great idea. I think I’ll do just that.