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I truly believe the 40k universe has some of the best lore ever written. Hundreds if not thousands of movies could be based off it. The question is, why hasn't there been? If done right, it has the potential to make Warhammer 40k explode in popularity. The closest thing I can think of that comes remotely close to portray a grimdark 40k setting would be the 1986 film "Aliens" which could potentially be compared to Tyranids/Imperial Guard, but even then the 40k setting is much much darker. Starship troopers also comes to mind, but again does not come remotely close to appeasing the grimdark atmosphere the 40k universe depicts.
There is a huge niche missing from cinema that only the 40k universe is capable of providing. Why has Games Workshop not jumped all over this?
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/08/07 08:14:20
Necrosis wrote: There was a 40k movie. It was called ultramarines if I recall correctly.
This is the first I have heard of it. After looking into it a bit it looks like it was released a few years ago. Seems to have gotten fair reviews. Instead of going full CG it should be done like Lord of the Rings or 300. Have real actors with special effects. Movie about the Age of Strife & Emperor's Crusade would be ideal. Provide a foundation for the movie so people understand where it all began etc -OR- simply do a movie about a guardsman in the 40k universe. I just got done reading Angel of Fire & it was brilliant. I really felt I was able to connect with the fear & emotions a normal guardsman must face in the grimdark future.
Too low a budget, so sub-par animation and (surprisingly given it was written by Dan Abnett) a thoroughly uninspired story.
A 40K movie done right could be fun. Ultramarines wasn't such a beast.
Yeah, there is no room for half *ssing the 40k universe. It would have to be given a substantial/vast budget & be taken seriously. The world doesn't need another Dungeons & Dragons - This is no game.
This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at 2013/08/07 08:36:52
Dawn of War and the 40KRPG would seem to beg to differ...
There have been some lemons, certainly... and their track record with movies so far (one that didn't get through production, and one that did and shouldn't have) definitely isn't fantastic.
Because you can't really make 40kPg-13, the sweet spot of blockbuster movies, also because 40k is a setting that needs a big damn budget to portray and GW is a midling size company that can't throw two hundred twenty million dollars at a project like this. Also because while the reward could be unimaginable, with how much money a blockbuster costs, the risk is GW tanking as a company if the movie doesn't make it's budget back.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/08/07 08:39:32
Midnightdeathblade wrote: Think of a daemon incursion like a fart you don't quite trust... you could either toot a little puff of air, bellow a great effluvium, or utterly sh*t your pants and cry as it floods down your leg.
Yeah, there is no room for half *ssing the 40k universe. It would have to be given a substantial budget & be taken seriously. The world doesn't need another Dungeons & Dragons - This is no game.
To be fair, that villain would be a wonderful sorcerer in 40k. He's so hammy he could be a chaos psyker anyday.
Yeah, there is no room for half *ssing the 40k universe. It would have to be given a substantial budget & be taken seriously. The world doesn't need another Dungeons & Dragons - This is no game.
To be fair, that villain would be a wonderful sorcerer in 40k. He's so hammy he could be a chaos psyker anyday.
Jeremy Irons picking the scenery from his teeth was the best part of the entire movie.
Midnightdeathblade wrote: Think of a daemon incursion like a fart you don't quite trust... you could either toot a little puff of air, bellow a great effluvium, or utterly sh*t your pants and cry as it floods down your leg.
Dawn of War and the 40KRPG would seem to beg to differ...
There have been some lemons, certainly... and their track record with movies so far (one that didn't get through production, and one that did and shouldn't have) definitely isn't fantastic.
And that's two (only one of which we know is good) out of how many? The Warhammer IP's should have dominated video games, the fact it took so long for us to get one AAA GW title is a travesty.
Dawn of War and the 40KRPG would seem to beg to differ...
There have been some lemons, certainly... and their track record with movies so far (one that didn't get through production, and one that did and shouldn't have) definitely isn't fantastic.
And that's two (only one of which we know is good) out of how many? The Warhammer IP's should have dominated video games, the fact it took so long for us to get one AAA GW title is a travesty.
Creative Assembly is going to make WHFB total war, and relic still has the IP to make DoW 3 while we wait for EC.
Also Inaniak was referring to the FFG seriee methinks.
Midnightdeathblade wrote: Think of a daemon incursion like a fart you don't quite trust... you could either toot a little puff of air, bellow a great effluvium, or utterly sh*t your pants and cry as it floods down your leg.
Kain wrote: Because you can't really make 40kPg-13, the sweet spot of blockbuster movies, also because 40k is a setting that needs a big damn budget to portray and GW is a midling size company that can't throw two hundred twenty million dollars at a project like this. Also because while the reward could be unimaginable, with how much money a blockbuster costs, the risk is GW tanking as a company if the movie doesn't make it's budget back.
From my understanding GW pulls in close to 180 million a year. The budget for Aliens in 1986 was 18.5 million. Obviously many many years have past & inflation has skyrocketed but in the event that it was a 3-4 year project a 60-80 million dollar film doesn't sound that unreasonable. The Hobbit made over a billion dollars in the box office. I would consider the risk well worth the reward, "especially" if they did it right.
Dawn of War and the 40KRPG would seem to beg to differ...
There have been some lemons, certainly... and their track record with movies so far (one that didn't get through production, and one that did and shouldn't have) definitely isn't fantastic.
And that's two (only one of which we know is good) out of how many? The Warhammer IP's should have dominated video games, the fact it took so long for us to get one AAA GW title is a travesty.
Creative Assembly is going to make WHFB total war, and relic still has the IP to make DoW 3 while we wait for EC.
Also Inaniak was referring to the FFG seriee methinks.
Ah I see, GW are definitely improving, Sega getting the license is a great step but it's the kind of thing they should have been doing over a decade ago really. So many poor to average games released in that time by not great developers.
shamikebab wrote: And that's two (only one of which we know is good)...
Sorry, but... what?
They've both been around for quite some time now...
See above, I thought you were talking about the upcoming MMO.
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ZebioLizard2 wrote: Chaos gate and Final Liberation were actually pretty good, just rare to find.
i thought both were pretty average games, but obviously as fans of the universe they'll be raised slightly to us (just as evn an average Star Wars game is normally pretty good to a Star Wars fan)
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/08/07 08:56:09
There hasn't been a 40k movie because GW hates money. It's especially ironic considering their constant price increases, but the one thing that terrifies GW more than anything else is the possibility of success. That's why they're content to coast along while "growing" just enough to keep up with inflation. Making a 40k movie would be a massive threat to this plan and could even set up the expectation that GW makes a whole series of movies with even more profit. Therefore we will not see a 40k movie until GW goes bankrupt and gets bought by someone with more business sense.
(Seriously though, the reason there's no 40k movie is that it's a mediocre scifi story without enough widespread brand recognition to get people to buy tickets anyway. There are countless other stories that could be made into movies without dealing with all of GW's baggage, so why would you want to license GW's IP if you want a grimdark story?)
Kain wrote: Because you can't really make 40kPg-13, the sweet spot of blockbuster movies, also because 40k is a setting that needs a big damn budget to portray and GW is a midling size company that can't throw two hundred twenty million dollars at a project like this. Also because while the reward could be unimaginable, with how much money a blockbuster costs, the risk is GW tanking as a company if the movie doesn't make it's budget back.
That's why you license the IP and let the movie studio take the risk. Of course GW will never do that because they are terrified of leaving their little niche and dealing with mainstream companies.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/08/07 09:14:43
There is no such thing as a hobby without politics. "Leave politics at the door" is itself a political statement, an endorsement of the status quo and an attempt to silence dissenting voices.
There is the unofficial Lord Inquisitor movie that has ADBs backing. It's a short fan made movie that is supposed to be released this year.
Some of the old cutscenes from the games like Final Liberation, previously mentioned, were awesome and could be part of a full movie if they wanted to extend them, they are awfully 90s but awesome. If Power Ramgers is still doing well i'm sure GW could pull it off.
This was an old short they made for a Games Day back in the 90s, despite of the bad acting I would happily shell out some pounds to watch a full movie show this style. CG and special defects are great and all but just worry about the story. Ultramarine was ok, but they forgot about the story, it was Abnett so should have been good. Too much spent on the Voice acting, not enough spent on the animation.
If they were to make a 40k film, I would say it should introduce the elements of humanities "progress".
Introduction:
Short sequence dealing with the Emperors rise to power, then highlighting his children and the birth of the space marines. Brief highlights of the HH and the state its left the Imperium in. Then they introduce the alien presence and the constant war element... finally introducing good ole' Ghazzy Thraka.
Actual Story begins with a normal day in one of the hives. (Possibly introducing Yarrick). Then what follows is the first Armageddon war, fully fleshed out and expanded upon.
Depending on how it wants to be done, they can include the Second war for Armageddon as the second half of the film, or save it for a sequel if it does well.
I think Armageddon is the perfect starting point for a 40k film.
If it then hit it off, you could do a prequel detailing the emperor's story and the HH.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/08/07 09:41:05
If they wanted to keep it simple, they could do a pretty good Hive World, Chaos Cult scenario.
Cultists are trying to bring Chaos to their world, Inquisition get sniff of it, story unfolds of Inquisition chasing Cultists yadda yadda yadda, final showdown between cultists and Inquisition happens as Cultists are about to finish their ritual of opening the warp rift, queue big gribbly Daemon seen through warp haze walking to exit warp. Huge cry heard of BURN HERETICS as the Inquisition launch the attack. Las fire and solid slugs mix, much blood, Inquisitor and Cult leader have typical epic fight, Daemon is nearly through the portal as the Leader dies with painful scream slain by the Inquisitor, daemon screams in frustration as the portal closes.
Film ends, credits ... after credit shot the cultists eyes flick open all big and purple .. queue money making sequel Master of the Inquisition 2
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/08/07 09:53:35
It would be pretty easy to do a 40k film as PG-13. A lot of the violent imagery would be fairly abstracted fantasy violence, comparable to something like Pacific Rim, that would sail right past the MPAA ratings board. That isn't an issue.
If someone at GW came up with the bright idea to make a movie, the executives would (rightly) shoot it down. Games Workshop makes games and miniatures to play those games with, not films. It's not their area of expertise. Budgets for films don't take into account the fact that the major studios, the ones that churn out blockbusters (or would be blockbusters that flop), have access to resources that GW will never, ever have access to. Like accounting departments that are probably about as big as GW. Marketing departments that are bigger than GW will ever be. A lot of those costs never actually show up in the "official" budgets of films. Basically, GW will never make a film themselves. It's just not realistic.
In order for a film to get made, an existing studio would have to be interested in buying the film rights. In order for that to happen, either some studio executive would have to think that he could make a ton of money off of the license. That's probably not going to happen as GW would obviously be unwilling or unable to sell the rights to things like computer games, books, toys, and games to a major entertainment conglomerate. In addition, films based on games are a huge gamble. They flop more frequently than they succeed, even when they have a degree of brand recognition. Unfortunately, 40k doesn't have much brand recognition. If a studio were to make a 40k movie, they'd end up spending a ton of money marketing a franchise that they wouldn't have any control over. From the perspective of a movie studio, it would make a lot more sense to make a film set in an original science-fiction universe that the studio would have control over, in terms of licensing and IP.
The only way a 40k film would get made is if one of the big entertainment conglomerates purchased GW. Then they would have incentive to make and, more importantly, market a big-budget film.
Honestly, though it's highly unlikely to happen, a 40k theatrical release could be HUGE for GW, and I mean HUGE.
What would need to happen though, is for the producers, the studio and the director to be given more control over the film, and I'm not sure GW would allow that. Simply taking a story from the 40k universe as it is and plonking it on the big screen would not work. In fact, it wouldn't even make it there. I have a feeling that GW would just want a film that's a massive advertisement for their products, perhaps an hour and a half of ultramarines beating the crap out of some Xenos. Films need characters people can relate to. Furthermore, making a theatrical release would involve something that GW have no idea about, the mythical world of advertisement. The franchise won't sell it and they're not going to be able to get a good enough studio, director or actors to sell it either (unless Will Smith, who I'm informed plays 40k, wants a part. Or is it Samuel L Jaskson?)
Speaking of the franchise, to be perfectly honest, if you put a massive poster of a space marine up in a bus stop, with the words "Warhammer 40k The Movie", it will kill it. If the word "Warhammer" is mentioned, people will be dissuaded from seeing it. Sad, but true. What would have to happen is for the writers to invent another Space Marine chapter, and design it so it got rid of all the stupid things about Space Marines. Yes, shoulder pads, I'm talking about you. That way, the film can be advertised as "The Yellow Eagles" or whatever, or given some other name. No reference to GW/Warhammer needs to be made at all.
Despite this though, it offers HUGE possibilities for GW. They'd release new models and a codex for this new chapter, including models of the main characters in the film. People who play 40k would lap this all up. Then, GW put massive posters of the film up in their stores with a tagline "come an re-enact [insert name of film here] here!" People would be like, hey that sounds cool, and loads of people would be drawn to the hobby and would buy all the new chapter stuff. Or at the very least, they'd want a [insert name of character here] model because they loved him/her in the film.
I've done a fair bit of small-scale directing, including marketing, writing and producing, in the past and trust me, this is how it would work. I'd love to direct a 40k movie. Hell, I even have a story line in mind...
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2013/08/07 10:52:45
I honestly can't think of a GW film that I would actually want to see. I'd rather see sci-fi or fantasy films from different settings rather than trying to shoe-horn in references to everything GW.
I think it would be doable if they did it right. The 40k Universe is just to massive and filled with backstory to just do a straight on "This is Warhammer 40k" movie. It would be better served to start out as a character study set in the universe. Kinda like a Firefly/Pitch Black combo. You never see the larger factions until you establish all the Grim Darkness. Then you can just feed the audiance bitz of lore as the story goes on. Just a single scene with a dead marine in power armour on some pit stop planet would be all you get in the first movie.
Make the main character indifferent to the Imperium. Establish him as biased and that he is not the Encyclopedia Britanica on the Universe, and that sometimes he gets stuff wrong(to satisfy the Lore fanboyz). You could have a scene where he refers to all Tyranids as Genestealers, only later on to be corrected by someone else.
The universe is huge and the build up necessary to explain what the marines are would easily force it to be a 3hr movie.
So they would need to focus on a smaller area. The inquisition could work however there really isn't a clear cut "good guy" that most action movies have. If they tweaked a few things about the imperium, such as making it less Gestapo then it would be an easier sell. However that would just completely piss off the fan base.
The Inquisitor movie is good as it is very low budget however for someone else to take it on would see costs to through the roof. Which would require investors, which would water down the story in order to appeal to the largest possible audience, which, again, would piss off the fan base.
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"Why me?" Gideon begged, falling to his knees.
"Why not?" - Asdrubael Vect
clively wrote: The universe is huge and the build up necessary to explain what the marines are would easily force it to be a 3hr movie.
So they would need to focus on a smaller area. The inquisition could work however there really isn't a clear cut "good guy" that most action movies have. If they tweaked a few things about the imperium, such as making it less Gestapo then it would be an easier sell. However that would just completely piss off the fan base.
The Inquisitor movie is good as it is very low budget however for someone else to take it on would see costs to through the roof. Which would require investors, which would water down the story in order to appeal to the largest possible audience, which, again, would piss off the fan base.
The Lord inquisitor is cheap to make despite the A-class animation because everyone on it is a volunteer willing to work for minimal pay.
Otherwise CGI artists have ridiculous asking rates.
Midnightdeathblade wrote: Think of a daemon incursion like a fart you don't quite trust... you could either toot a little puff of air, bellow a great effluvium, or utterly sh*t your pants and cry as it floods down your leg.
Black Legion 8th Grand Company
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