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So because 40k movie threads keep popping up I thought I'd address this.

The likely 40k summer blockbuster: copyasta Battle: Los Angeles except the aliens are called Termagents because "they're like agents... that terminate... lets call call them Termagents". The regiment we're followng is called the Imperial Guard for some reason - but don't worry, it's a summer blockbuster, so they'll explain plenty that either was already obvious or didn't need it. Then later, an experimental weapon called a "Storm Bolter" (because the guy who designed it got the inspiration for it in a storm.

A Horus Heresy movie: Oh no. Do you really want a Horus who acts like a stereotypical emo teenager who's upset his parents don't think he's the best thing ever? What about a Leman Russ who acts like a drunken fratboy? And you know all these Primachs will be played by people under 25 and look riduclous as military leaders, but if they weren't, the teenagers in the audience wouldn't find them "hot". Older actors would appear, but they'd just be playing characters who acted exactly like their roles in earlier films from when "Hollywood" and "artistic merit" could be used in the same sentence with a straight face.

Space Marines, in the unlikely event they appeared in a Hollywood movie, wouldn't ever have closed helmets, either, because you wouldn't be able to see the actors' faces, and that would ruin the standard Hollywood movie's dreams of being a celebrity vehicle and/or special effects demo reel over being an actual movie.

A main reason I'm so cynical because I mainly watch the horror, much of the fanbase - most of the fanbase, probably, doesn't care for Hollywood horror. Actually, most directors respected by horror fans have had enough of Hollywood and its executive meddling.The main one who hasn't is currently Mike Flannagan.

That guy deserves mention because he was respected because of Absentia, which combined adult fears and realistic characters with Lovecraftian horror done right. When he tried making something in Hollywood, the result combined the adult horror movie elements he'd already excelled in, with pointless jump scares, gore, and rampant character stupidity. Because even though the horror genre audiences for teen horrror and adult horror want different enough things to almost be two completely separate audiences, Hollywood execs just couldn't not cater to teenagers, otherwise it wouldn't be commercial enough.

TL;DR Hollywood movies are made for commercialism, not quality.

I agree. A 40k movie would probably only work if they used the setting but only focused on a small part of it and didn't try to shoehorn in anything more than is needed, and that kind of restraint seems extremely unlikely

A film of the Mechanicum novel could sort of work if they went in the style of an 3d arty adventure movie that tries to wow you with the strange things shown on screen. Like Avatar and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
It includes enough strange things to really make it happen. They could even go all horror story on it and go for the event horizon option

It and all other 40k stories would however be horrible movies if they where produced in the style of The Chronicles of Riddick, mutant chronicles or any other sifi action movie. The characters involved in the action are just not interesting enough, and most of the action is too much sided and focused on the glorification of one side to carry a movie. The plot line is ehm.... not that suprizing. So no its better not to make a regular sifi action movie from them.

On the other hand you could make tons of good movies in the 40k universe.Mad max can chasing scenes do not really care if they happen on mars or on earth, and you could totally do a time traveling moveie about preventing the emperor from ever getting born, hell they could even do a ramb.... ehm I mean marbo movie

Hollywood seems to only be capable of fathoming humans defeating an alien invasion of Earth by having the aliens choose to invade Earth in defiance of the fact that Earth is a Death World for them. The most egregious of them are the ones where aliens cannot tolerate water or terrestrial bacteria.

Of course, in reality, humans at this point in time could never fend off any alien force that sought to either wipe us out or take control of the planet, as we simply are too far behind technologically to defeat any conquering space aliens capable of attacking Earth.

The obvious solution is to set the scene in a distant future where humanity has the technology to have an interstellar empire of our own, but they don't go for that.

Also, a 40k movie in Hollywood would be terrible because the writing team would insist on stuffing a romance in somewhere, and it would really kill the mood to have love blossom on a 40k battlefield of any sort.

They just have to make sure not to stamp WARHAMMER 40.000 in big letters on the poster to prevent regular folks to be turned away.

 oldzoggy wrote:
They just have to make sure not to stamp WARHAMMER 40.000 in big letters on the poster to prevent regular folks to be turned away.

The odds of that are somewhere between nil and bupkiss.

This movie also made it to the theaters . To be fair if you haven't seen the movie you couldn't say if this was in the 40k universe or not ; )

If Hollywood can turn a movie about toy robots into an unfunny teen sex comedy then imagine the horror of what they'd do to the 40k universe

A Hollywood 40k movie would be more disjointed than a chaos spawn. It would most likely feature unlikeable leads, a convoluted plot, shoehorned Easter eggs and be tooled to fit the studio's political views.

The Ultramarines movie has problems but its better than anything Hollywood will ever excrete

 oldzoggy wrote:
A film of the Mechanicum novel could sort of work if they went in the style of an 3d arty adventure movie that tries to wow you with the strange things shown on screen. Like Avatar and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
It includes enough strange things to really make it happen. They could even go all horror story on it and go for the event horizon option

I'd watch that in a heartbeat.

There's a lot of good material for a 40k movie, but there's not a chance that Hollywood would pick up on it.

You could do a story of first contact between a secular Tau hunter cadre and human Chaos Cultists. Would be a nice juxtaposition to have the humans be the evil, twisted villains and the little blue men be the 'good' guys (throw in a healthy dose of Orwellian interactions to make it clear that there are no real 'good' guys). Basically that kickass fanfic from 1d4chan about a Tau assault of a cultist settlement.

How about something set on the Black Ships? Follow a psyker's journey from first discovering their abilities, through a witch-hunt, being interred on a Black Ship[ and then escaping.

Genestealer Cult? Follow an Inquisitor as they try to root out the tendrils of a cult that spreads from the depths of the Underhive, right up to the hive nobility.

Just film a Ciaphas Cain novel - has action, romance, hunour and style.

total blockbuster.

*Horus stands back to open a bottle of cocacolum

 Skymate wrote:
If Hollywood can turn a movie about toy robots into an unfunny teen sex comedy then imagine the horror of what they'd do to the 40k universe

A Hollywood 40k movie would be more disjointed than a chaos spawn. It would most likely feature unlikeable leads, a convoluted plot, shoehorned Easter eggs and be tooled to fit the studio's political views.

The Ultramarines movie has problems but its better than anything Hollywood will ever excrete

I think the Dawn of War 1 opening trailer's the best we're likely to see in terms of 40k movies.

Still an awesome vid

The real question isn't can such a movie be made because a good 40k movie can be made. Big studios can make a good movie out of almost anything. The real question is why would anyone ever want to make one ?


-GW isnt capable of making a good movie. Sure they can make a funny commercial but that isn't the same as producing a theater movie.

-Large commercial studio's will have to pay royalties to gw lowering their profit rate, this seems to be a poor trade off there aren't that many 40k fans really. .

-Small studios might want to produce a movie but this will most likely result in an other ultra marines movie :\




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Pouncey wrote:


I think the Dawn of War 1 opening trailer's the best we're likely to see in terms of 40k movies.

Its a great trailer and movie for gaming purposes. But this is on so many ways one of the worst ideas to make a 40k movie. Having to watch 100 minutes of this is a nightmare I as a 40k player can't even endure just think of the regular folks who do not like the setting as much as we do.

Saving Inquisitor Ryan...

A small group of Imperial Guardsmen are tasked with a secret mission to find and secure Inquisitor Ryna behind enemy lines. He is carrying vital intelligence on the location of an Imperial Titan the heretics are planning to activate and take control of.

--Skip to End--

Just when all was lost and the team is ambushed with few survivors and Inquisitor Ryan crying like a fool on the ground, drop pods fill the air and the Space Marines come to save the day.

There was a story in the Fear The Alien compendium of an IG medic in a fortress being besieged by Tyranids. Lots of horrible gak happens and lots of dudes die, with plenty of quiet time.
In the end, Marines appear in the distance, and rescue the Guardsmen.

Of course, Hollywood would want a romantic plot tumor, because demographic appeal.

What if it was written by Alex Garland & directed by Gareth Evans?

Nvs wrote:
Saving Inquisitor Ryan...

A small group of Imperial Guardsmen are tasked with a secret mission to find and secure Inquisitor Ryna behind enemy lines. He is carrying vital intelligence on the location of an Imperial Titan the heretics are planning to activate and take control of.

--Skip to End--

Just when all was lost and the team is ambushed with few survivors and Inquisitor Ryan crying like a fool on the ground, drop pods fill the air and the Space Marines come to save the day.

I was hoping for the IG soldiers realizing they could kill the Inquisitor and blame it on the heretics since both sides use lasguns.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 oldzoggy wrote:
Its a great trailer and movie for gaming purposes. But this is on so many ways one of the worst ideas to make a 40k movie. Having to watch 100 minutes of this is a nightmare I as a 40k player can't even endure just think of the regular folks who do not like the setting as much as we do.

I wasn't suggesting making an entire movie like that.

Literally I was saying that that opening cinematic, itself, will be the pinnacle of 40k movies for the foreseeable future.

I mean, it's still holding onto its championship belt despite the game coming out in 2004, a full 12 years ago.

As long as none of their regular writers write the script, it can only be decent. Tissue paper thin plots with cardboard cutout characters is a sure way for it end badly (i.e. garbage dump level cinema). You can only hear "for the emprah!" so many times before you just close you eyes and ask the bad man to stop already or one company of marines landing in a relatively small geographic area but somehow conquering an entire planet populated by billions.

For hollywood to make a decent 40k movie, they'd have to ignore half the topes that some people love about the fluff and make it more like a vin diesel movie.

 agnosto wrote:
As long as none of their regular writers write the script, it can only be decent. Tissue paper thin plots with cardboard cutout characters is a sure way for it end badly (i.e. garbage dump level cinema). You can only hear "for the emprah!" so many times before you just close you eyes and ask the bad man to stop already or one company of marines landing in a relatively small geographic area but somehow conquering an entire planet populated by billions.

For hollywood to make a decent 40k movie, they'd have to ignore half the topes that some people love about the fluff and make it more like a vin diesel movie.

Also if Uwe Boll comes asking to make the movie, you look him straight in the eye, and tell him to feth off in the most diplomatic way possible.

Uwe Boll is notorious for making garbage-tier video game movies purely for profit by shooting in countries with laws that incentivize making movies that do kinda-okay but not amazing.

Essentially he deliberately makes crappy movies.

 Pouncey wrote:


Of course, in reality, humans at this point in time could never fend off any alien force that sought to either wipe us out or take control of the planet, as we simply are too far behind technologically to defeat any conquering space aliens capable of attacking Earth.

That's a misconception really.

Technology is only linear because we only know of one species with technology. To even know of war is not necessary for a space-faring species.

Even if it was, since the general assumption is that the invading planet is united; if this were always so, they'd have no reason to invent anything more efficient than their analogue of hunting rifles.

Also, regardless of technology, if your weapons are just flashier versions of ours (eg Battle: Los Angeles), invading a species that outnumbers you bullets by a thousand to one is suicidal.

 Mr Morden wrote:
Just film a Ciaphas Cain novel - has action, romance, hunour and style.

total blockbuster.

That may work, but Hollywood wouldn't do that. They'd explain why there was an Imperium, and Emperor, the Chaos deities., etc...

Our understanding of technology is so linear that it is almost impossible to know the technology that aliens would have.

But most likely, it would result in cataclysmic losses for both sides due to diseases and bacteria and the such.

And theoretically, couldn't there be a space fairing alien society with no understanding of weapons or war? Like it's just an unknown concept.

It's also possible that there is an alien species that perceives things we don't, like the only reason you perceive sound is because your body is tuned to do so, so theoretically there could be something out there that your body isn't tuned to do.

HOWEVER, I will say that Stephen Hawking did agree with Pouncey.

 gummyofallbears wrote:
Our understanding of technology is so linear that it is almost impossible to know the technology that aliens would have.

But most likely, it would result in cataclysmic losses for both sides due to diseases and bacteria and the such.

And theoretically, couldn't there be a space fairing alien society with no understanding of weapons or war? Like it's just an unknown concept.

It's also possible that there is an alien species that perceives things we don't, like the only reason you perceive sound is because your body is tuned to do so, so theoretically there could be something out there that your body isn't tuned to do.

HOWEVER, I will say that Stephen Hawking did agree with Pouncey.

I differ from Hawking a bit.

Personally, I believe that aliens have zero interest in ever setting foot on any planet with life already existing on it. Diseases are horrific enough when they jump the species barrier, jumping the planet-of-origin barrier could lead to the extinction of entire species. It's just safer not to go anywhere with life on it.

So when they need to expand their territory, they would choose barren, lifeless worlds to terraform, of which the universe has a great many. Natural resources are so plentiful throughout the universe and unclaimed territory is enormous, so they would likely never run short.

I like to believe that any species that founds an interstellar civilization also has a fundamental respect for life strong enough that they simply would refrain from launching wars of conquest on primitive planets like ours that offer no threat of any sort, and they would just deem Earth a wildlife preserve.

I also believe that they would question what would've happened to themselves had their own world been colonized by aliens, and decide to not inflict that fate on any new planets. They may even provide any habitable planet its own sizable territory in case any life does develop a civilization. Space is so vast, they can probably afford to do this.

Seriously, space is so big, there's absolutely no reason to ever invade a place like Earth. Any species suitably violent to launch a xenocidal war would've wiped itself out when it developed nukes.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Tyranno wrote:

 Pouncey wrote:


Of course, in reality, humans at this point in time could never fend off any alien force that sought to either wipe us out or take control of the planet, as we simply are too far behind technologically to defeat any conquering space aliens capable of attacking Earth.

That's a misconception really.

Technology is only linear because we only know of one species with technology. To even know of war is not necessary for a space-faring species.

Even if it was, since the general assumption is that the invading planet is united; if this were always so, they'd have no reason to invent anything more efficient than their analogue of hunting rifles.

Also, regardless of technology, if your weapons are just flashier versions of ours (eg Battle: Los Angeles), invading a species that outnumbers you bullets by a thousand to one is suicidal.

If they have no concept of war, why would they ever invade Earth? Surely they'd send a diplomatic envoy should they wish to interact with us, not an army?

 Pouncey wrote:

 gummyofallbears wrote:
Our understanding of technology is so linear that it is almost impossible to know the technology that aliens would have.

But most likely, it would result in cataclysmic losses for both sides due to diseases and bacteria and the such.

And theoretically, couldn't there be a space fairing alien society with no understanding of weapons or war? Like it's just an unknown concept.

It's also possible that there is an alien species that perceives things we don't, like the only reason you perceive sound is because your body is tuned to do so, so theoretically there could be something out there that your body isn't tuned to do.

HOWEVER, I will say that Stephen Hawking did agree with Pouncey.

I differ from Hawking a bit.

Personally, I believe that aliens have zero interest in ever setting foot on any planet with life already existing on it. Diseases are horrific enough when they jump the species barrier, jumping the planet-of-origin barrier could lead to the extinction of entire species. It's just safer not to go anywhere with life on it.

So when they need to expand their territory, they would choose barren, lifeless worlds to terraform, of which the universe has a great many. Natural resources are so plentiful throughout the universe and unclaimed territory is enormous, so they would likely never run short.

I like to believe that any species that founds an interstellar civilization also has a fundamental respect for life strong enough that they simply would refrain from launching wars of conquest on primitive planets like ours that offer no threat of any sort, and they would just deem Earth a wildlife preserve.

I also believe that they would question what would've happened to themselves had their own world been colonized by aliens, and decide to not inflict that fate on any new planets. They may even provide any habitable planet its own sizable territory in case any life does develop a civilization. Space is so vast, they can probably afford to do this.

Seriously, space is so big, there's absolutely no reason to ever invade a place like Earth. Any species suitably violent to launch a xenocidal war would've wiped itself out when it developed nukes.

QFT.

I have never thought of it that way, and considering even hostile planets like mars have a capacity to allow life on earth to survive, it isn't too far fetched.

There is definitely a chance that a united society like your vision exists, but there is also a chance that there is an alien empire built on fear and control, very Orwellian.

And obviously both can exist.

Theoretically, space is literally only getting bigger so it is very possible that an alien species will just spectate us like a terrarium in their room.

Topics like these are why I want to pursue Astrobiology instead of cosmology

Hollywood would probably make it about the Space marines. But a movie about the SM would probably be pretty bland. I could see a good movie being centered around guardsmen though. Could still include marines, and sense they aren't the center of the story, make them actual murder machines.

 gummyofallbears wrote:
QFT.

I have never thought of it that way, and considering even hostile planets like mars have a capacity to allow life on earth to survive, it isn't too far fetched.

There is definitely a chance that a united society like your vision exists, but there is also a chance that there is an alien empire built on fear and control, very Orwellian.

And obviously both can exist.

Theoretically, space is literally only getting bigger so it is very possible that an alien species will just spectate us like a terrarium in their room.

Topics like these are why I want to pursue Astrobiology instead of cosmology

Generally NASA engineers who are presented with the question of whether humanity could relocate to a terraformed Mars wonder why the heck you wouldn't just fix Earth if you have the capacity to terraform a planet.

No doubt that a wide variety of alien species exist, there are likely trillions of civilizations with the capacity to become interstellar civilizations in existence right now (Drake Equation was solved, and there are likely 7 civilizations similar to ours in the Milky Way, multiply that by the literal trillions of galaxies out there...

Of course, no one's saying all alien civilizations would be the same. Humanity would be the kind to wage a religious war against aliens who offend our sensibilities, like in Warhammer 40k fiction.

Galaxies are spreading out, yes, but the amount of matter and energy remains finite. You may also want to look into the "heat death of the universe."

Personally I lack the ability to study formally due to crippling social anxiety problems that have plagued me since I was a teenager.

 Pouncey wrote:
...(Drake Equation was solved...

(I can't stop giggling at this.)

(The Drake Equation is a thought experiment that doesn't work very well for trying to get hard numbers, simply because our sample size of one civilization gives us zero answers about common elements necessary for intelligent civilizations to arise. R, f(p), and n(e) (rate of star formation, fraction of stars that have planets, and fraction of planets with the necessary conditions to support life) are doable from here. f(l), f(i), f(c), and L (percentage of planets that could develop life that do, percentage of life-developing planets that develop intelligent life, percentage of intelligent civilizations that release signals into space, and the timeframe in which they do so) are all guesses made off of no actual data.)

 AnomanderRake wrote:

 Pouncey wrote:
...(Drake Equation was solved...

(I can't stop giggling at this.)

(The Drake Equation is a thought experiment that doesn't work very well for trying to get hard numbers, simply because our sample size of one civilization gives us zero answers about common elements necessary for intelligent civilizations to arise. R, f(p), and n(e) (rate of star formation, fraction of stars that have planets, and fraction of planets with the necessary conditions to support life) are doable from here. f(l), f(i), f(c), and L (percentage of planets that could develop life that do, percentage of life-developing planets that develop intelligent life, percentage of intelligent civilizations that release signals into space, and the timeframe in which they do so) are all guesses made off of no actual data.)

You make a good point. I talk a big game but I'm actually pretty ignorant of the reality.

Mostly I just like listening to Cinema Sins. : P

They have good points about sci-fi movies. Like how often the aliens are defeated because their species' weakness is essentially "Allergic to Earth" which makes invading Earth pretty stupid if they can't handle living here.

 Pouncey wrote:
Hollywood seems to only be capable of fathoming humans defeating an alien invasion of Earth by having the aliens choose to invade Earth in defiance of the fact that Earth is a Death World for them. The most egregious of them are the ones where aliens cannot tolerate water or terrestrial bacteria.

Of course, in reality, humans at this point in time could never fend off any alien force that sought to either wipe us out or take control of the planet, as we simply are too far behind technologically to defeat any conquering space aliens capable of attacking Earth.

The obvious solution is to set the scene in a distant future where humanity has the technology to have an interstellar empire of our own, but they don't go for that.

Also, a 40k movie in Hollywood would be terrible because the writing team would insist on stuffing a romance in somewhere, and it would really kill the mood to have love blossom on a 40k battlefield of any sort.

You know what i would like to see?, the reverse.

i mean a movie where it present and sets an alien race somewhere far, with likes a mix of 50's and 80's tech and culture with some alien stuff in it.

And then they get invaded by ruthless towering Machines and Androids, where they have to face cruel adversary who shows no remosre and no pity, the things are so outragiously "beast" like, that they give the creeps, the aliens try to resist and finaly comes up with a plan, they manage to capture one of those machines to study it, and find out that its actually telepathically piloted, they manage to find the origine of the signal and finds whats attacking them.

Humanoid creatures, with no distinctive features, except that their skins is pinkish for certain, brown for others, their hairs are short, they don't have any claws or fangs and they arn't that tall comparted to them.

Yup humans, they just encountered humans, Humans ARE the ALIEN INVADER!, plot twist=Mind blown.

 Slayer le boucher wrote:

 Pouncey wrote:
Hollywood seems to only be capable of fathoming humans defeating an alien invasion of Earth by having the aliens choose to invade Earth in defiance of the fact that Earth is a Death World for them. The most egregious of them are the ones where aliens cannot tolerate water or terrestrial bacteria.

Of course, in reality, humans at this point in time could never fend off any alien force that sought to either wipe us out or take control of the planet, as we simply are too far behind technologically to defeat any conquering space aliens capable of attacking Earth.

The obvious solution is to set the scene in a distant future where humanity has the technology to have an interstellar empire of our own, but they don't go for that.

Also, a 40k movie in Hollywood would be terrible because the writing team would insist on stuffing a romance in somewhere, and it would really kill the mood to have love blossom on a 40k battlefield of any sort.

You know what i would like to see?, the reverse.

i mean a movie where it present and sets an alien race somewhere far, with likes a mix of 50's and 80's tech and culture with some alien stuff in it.

And then they get invaded by ruthless towering Machines and Androids, where they have to face cruel adversary who shows no remosre and no pity, the things are so outragiously "beast" like, that they give the creeps, the aliens try to resist and finaly comes up with a plan, they manage to capture one of those machines to study it, and find out that its actually telepathically piloted, they manage to find the origine of the signal and finds whats attacking them.

Humanoid creatures, with no distinctive features, except that their skins is pinkish for certain, brown for others, their hairs are short, they don't have any claws or fangs and they arn't that tall comparted to them.

Yup humans, they just encountered humans, Humans ARE the ALIEN INVADER!, plot twist=Mind blown.

Yeah, a sci-fi movie where humans are the aggressive jerks invading a helpless alien planet would be great. Bonus points if the humans are defeated.

I am a bit misanthropic though, so I'm tired of humans winning in movies all the time, and I wanna see alien protagonists kick human butt for once.