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Why has noone mentioned "Damnatus"? It's a German fan-made movie of 2008, if I'm not mistaken. It's prohibited by GW and so they are against movies based on their IP, but still can be found. Ultramarines are bad after all and Lord Inquisitor isn't released yet.

I really liked the Ultramarines movie. If you expected high cinema, you were bound for disappointment. If you wanted to see some of your favorites little mans running around on screen dakkaing things to death - it was great. See it for yourself.

This movie cost $60 million to make, and it practically oozes 40k. It originates from a Korean comic.



This movie cost $25 million to make, and it practically oozes 40k. It originates from another tabletop wargame.


GW's inability to produce what I would consider a real movie seems to stem from a certain lack in commitment. I'm not sure whether they are simply afraid of the endeavour, or whether the beancounters have blocked anything other than a minimum investment in the hopes of yielding a greater profit rate.

There is the argument that GW, if they would truly have to find outside investors and team up with an established publisher, also may not like to surrender creative control over the IP, but considering the amount of artistic license to be found in the novels, and that (as per an interview with Dan Abnett) the Black Library subdivision was formed with the express purpose of clearly separating freelance author stories from the GW core studio narrative, I don't really believe this to be a likely cause of the current situation.

VoidAngel wrote:I really liked the Ultramarines movie. If you expected high cinema, you were bound for disappointment. If you wanted to see some of your favorites little mans running around on screen dakkaing things to death - it was great. See it for yourself.

I wouldn't say that I "liked" it, but I felt entertained, and I would certainly agree that the movie is at least better than what the fandom often makes it sound like. I went into it with very low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. The only bad thing about it is that it could have been so much more.

x13rads wrote: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.

Agreed. Going by the vocal majority, the movie would just end up becoming a bloated mess of references and explosions, just because everyone wants to see X being cool. The setting has potential for more, and I believe that focusing on the individual fate would be a much more interesting way to go. Especially because the individual is worth nothing in the 41st millennium. The less important you make the character, the better.

How about a Kal Jerico movie? I've only taken a quick glance at the graphic novels about this bounty hunter from Necromunda, but it could fit the bill.

They should do a Rogue Trader movie. By operating on the edge of the Imperium, you could introduce a look *into* it slightly from the outside, which is where most viewers in a major cinema release would be viewing it from.

It's worked in countless other movies. Chronicles of Riddick, anyone?

A TV series would be better to get the public familiar with the setting before any movie is made.

Kain wrote:A TV series would be better to get the public familiar with the setting before any movie is made.

Like the Battletech cartoon. Oh the nostalgia!

But yes, that might even be a smarter move, considering that TV series seem to be a smaller risk? Movies just kind of hit home and become superfamous, or get ripped apart for being mediocre and lackluster and then end up not being successful enough, with a large chance for the latter than the former. A series can just kind of run and develop a following over time.

Simplest fact is that games based on movies just are never all that successful. They are the be all and end all for fans of the game, but people who have no investment in the game or its mythology would need some extra reason to go and see it. Without that pull to the general public no studio is going to investment the money necessary to make a really decent 40k based film. It is the standard catch-22: Diluting the background and story enough to improve public consumption usually leads to a film that the starting fanbase will hate. So the film gets made, but it ends up not really being a "true 40k" film.

Skriker

Resident Evil 1 - 6?
Mortal Kombat?
Tomb Raider?
Alone In The Dark?
Silent Hill?
Max Payne?
Prince of Persia?

 VoidAngel wrote:
Resident Evil 1 - 6?
Mortal Kombat?
Tomb Raider?
Alone In The Dark?
Silent Hill?
Max Payne?
Prince of Persia?

Alone in the dark
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vGAhSncn500&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DvGAhSncn500

Mortal Kombat

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XRWKvUz1rWA

Not exactly fine Cinema.

It would be great if it continued the story as well.The Imperium could just move away from Terra couldn't they?Or even better:Have Leman Russ kill failbaddon.After all didn't he run off to chase chaos with the 13th company?Who have just appeared again?(well in plot anway.In game its been awhile)And we don't need failbaddon(put kharn in charge! )

We don't need "fine cinema". Outside of 2001 a Space Odyssey and the original Star Wars films, little sci-fi has ever qualified in the public mind for that distinction.

All we need is a watchable flick that stays true to the fluff. It would be easy to do - *just not all at once*. Do a limited view, limited slice of the 40K Grimdarkiverse, and it'd be fine.

This would not be a "game based on a movie" but, instead, a "movie based on a game". You know why there are 6 Resident Evil movies? Because they keep making money. They're schlocky, sure, but Hollywood gives not one single feth about that, so long as it makes double what it cost to produce.

TBH, I think they could do a variety of TV shows. You could have a "Tour of Duty" or "Band of Brothers" knock-off based on the IG. You could have a "Sopranos" knock-off based on Rogue Traders. You could have a "Star Trek" knock-off based on Magos Explorator fleets. You could have a "Hill Street Blues" knock-off based on the Arbites. You could have a "Kojak" knock-off based on the Ordo Hereticus of the Inquisition.

... of course, you would also need HBO-levels of money to make these.

 VoidAngel wrote:
We don't need "fine cinema". Outside of 2001 a Space Odyssey and the original Star Wars films, little sci-fi has ever qualified in the public mind for that distinction.

All we need is a watchable flick that stays true to the fluff. It would be easy to do - *just not all at once*. Do a limited view, limited slice of the 40K Grimdarkiverse, and it'd be fine.

Hahaha, calling an Uwe Bolle movie intentionally watchable.

I would also say that even if they made a big budget movie to actually draw a profit it would do one of two things.

1. The movie would adhere to true 40k fans and would not attract a wide enough audience to be profitable. There are a lot of 40k fans out there, but not enough to warrant a blockbuster movie. Alot of revenue for 40k comes from repeat customers.

2. The movie would be changed enough by hollywood to fit a hollywood story and would be a success but would alienate the true 40k fans. Fluff would be changed, things wouldnt make sense to followers of the 40k lore.

 Icculus wrote:
I would also say that even if they made a big budget movie to actually draw a profit it would do one of two things.

1. The movie would adhere to true 40k fans and would not attract a wide enough audience to be profitable. There are a lot of 40k fans out there, but not enough to warrant a blockbuster movie. Alot of revenue for 40k comes from repeat customers.

2. The movie would be changed enough by hollywood to fit a hollywood story and would be a success but would alienate the true 40k fans. Fluff would be changed, things wouldnt make sense to followers of the 40k lore.

There is some Room for hollywood style stories like say the first war for Armageddon, which made for some rocking machinima.

Wait for the 40 minutes of awesomeness that will be the Lord Inquisitor.

Icculus wrote:The movie would be changed enough by hollywood to fit a hollywood story and would be a success but would alienate the true 40k fans. Fluff would be changed, things wouldnt make sense to followers of the 40k lore.

That doesn't seem to be a big issue for the Black Library novels. "Followers of the 40k lore" can't agree on the fluff themselves, simply because there's already so many different impressions out there and everyone will point to a different book, not even realising that the source they are basing their perception on is just one of many options.

The only thing that really matters is that the atmosphere remains intact. This should be possible even with a movie, I think?

Also, maybe just simply don't do a contemporary cliché Hollywood story but look to other countries and/or niche productions that have turned out to become successes.

Yeah, that what i thought. Then i wasted hours of my life watching ultramarines. What a waste.

You're thinking too big. Think Death Watch.

A group of Space Marines, all with hints and references to being from different "Chapters" and some High Gothic to set the tone.

The go to investigate this big "hulk" floating in space that dropped out of the Warp.

It's infested with some sort of Aliens-like monsters that steal your genes.

Now, turn your average game of Space Hulk into a series of action sequences...and you have a movie.

Self-contained, referential, and easy to get the fluff right for the fan-boys. Everyone else just saw a cool movie about guys in armor shooting monsters in space.

Profit.

 Rotary wrote:
Yeah, that what i thought. Then i wasted hours of my life watching ultramarines. What a waste.

Did you watch it in slow-mo? I don't think it even reaches the 90 minute mark.

He hated it so much, he watched it over and over.

There was a 40k movie, it was largely disappointing. The problem is that while the 40k universe is very rich and deep, any movie is likely to be a Space Marine bolter-porn derpfest like the Ultramarines movie was.

Anything taking real advantage of the 40k universe and truly exploring it is likely to get a rating that renders it inappropriate for "little timmy" to watch, and generate a reputation for GW products as inappropriate for "little timmy", which is not what GW wants.

I'd like to see a procedural TV series set in the 40k universe.

CSI:40k

 VoidAngel wrote:
Resident Evil 1 - 6?
Mortal Kombat?
Tomb Raider?
Alone In The Dark?
Silent Hill?
Max Payne?
Prince of Persia?

Prince of Persia wasn't bad, nor The Resident Evils, but Mortal Combat was crap BOTH times. Alone in the dark, silent hill, max payne were hardly great films and Tomb Raider wasn't all that amazing as a movie either. Your list also leaves off plenty of the horrid examples of game based movies like Super Mario Brothers, Street Fighter and Dungeons and Dragons to name a few.

Skriekr

I just had a horrible vision. They do make a huge budget movie and it's a hit. So they sell toys. And kids buy the Space Marine action figures. And they play with them. Then all the 40K players point at how silly they are. That they pay $17 for a large action figure to play with their friends without rolling dice and $50 rule books. They have the time of their lives without realizing they didn't build or paint their figure or get a carrying case or anything. Then we all go and buy a finecast sergeant upgrade for $20 and wallow around in our tears.

 insaniak wrote:
And it was tragic.

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.

I totally agree... Dan Abnett's involvement gave me high hopes, but boy did that piece of junk disappoint.

 Icculus wrote:
I would also say that even if they made a big budget movie to actually draw a profit it would do one of two things.

1. The movie would adhere to true 40k fans and would not attract a wide enough audience to be profitable. There are a lot of 40k fans out there, but not enough to warrant a blockbuster movie. Alot of revenue for 40k comes from repeat customers.

2. The movie would be changed enough by hollywood to fit a hollywood story and would be a success but would alienate the true 40k fans. Fluff would be changed, things wouldnt make sense to followers of the 40k lore.

And this is the root of the problem right here. Usually what we end up with is something that will be too 40k for mainstream, but not 40k enough for fans and the whole thing flops big time.

Skriker

Few points:

-Hollywood is in a mode now where it pilfers ideas from anywhere it can. Books, comics, video games...even the famous board game, Battleship.

-An analogy: Marvel Comics was purchased by Disney for lots and lots and lots of money mainly for their intellectual property. Marvel's actual comic book sales are only a small part of the company's value. (I mean, even the goddamned Batman only sells like 150k comics a month, which retails for less then a million dollars.)

-Very successful adaptations can definitely turn things that were once niche into a larger phenomenon. (Game of Thrones, superheroes, Hunger Games, etc.)

ComTrav wrote:
-Hollywood is in a mode now where it pilfers ideas from anywhere it can. Books, comics, video games...even the famous board game, Battleship.

It's actually the other way for a lot of things, including Battleship. Scripts come and go through producers, but the producers know jack about story telling usually and only about how to fill seats. So they slap on popular titles on to scripts to get extra seats. If I remember right, Battleship wasn't planned to be based on the board game, until a producer realized they could slap the title on and the internet would advertise for them. Usually goes with most movies that are terrible adaptations like I, Robot and Starship Troopers. Hell, if they did make a great script for 40K they'd probably just end up changing a few things and calling it "Halo" so it will fill more seats.

 VoidAngel wrote:
We don't need "fine cinema". Outside of 2001 a Space Odyssey and the original Star Wars films, little sci-fi has ever qualified in the public mind for that distinction.

Alien, Blade Runner, Solaris, A Clockwork Orange, Terminator, Metropolis, Stalker, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, ET, Avatar (although I loathe that movie) the list goes on

It's too niche and risky to get a big budget production, which is probably what you'd need to get a quality 40k movie. If GW wanted to get a lot of money thrown their way, there'd need to be compromises to make it more appealing to general audiences, and GW doesn't want that. Even then, a bunch of middle aged British nerds aren't going to have any sort of opinions that Paramount or WB would give a damn about, so the whole idea is just a non-starter.