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.

If we were getting a blockbuster 40k film, what factions would you like to see in it?

I'd like to see World Eaters, Khorne daemons, Deathgaurd, Nurgle daemons against guard, sisters of battle, grey knights, Inquistion.

Tyranid vs. Guard.

Wait - that was Aliens

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:
If we were getting a blockbuster 40k film, what factions would you like to see in it?

I'd like to see World Eaters, Khorne daemons, Deathgaurd, Nurgle daemons against guard, sisters of battle, grey knights, Inquistion.

Space marines, Imperial guard, and Chaos. Maybe an opening scene with some xenos to show they exist, but add too much and you make what will already be a complicated setting a lot harder to process.

I'd want to see an Inquisition flick. Keep it tightly constrained, mystery/thriller plot. Imperium and Chaos, kind of a neo-noir style set on a hive world. It should function on its own without any additional knowledge of the 40k universe, but keep the focus small so the film doesn't have to butcher major 40k fluff to tell a good story.

 Stormonu wrote:
Tyranid vs. Guard.

Wait - that was Aliens

Not Starship Troopers?

I'd prefer to see something necromunda based, or an eldar vs humans story, which has potential. I figure less is more, i'd rather they focus on one or two factions instead of trying to go too epic or grand.

I would see it being a mostly action based film that starts with a brief summary of the setting kind of like what we got with lord of the rings fellowship of the ring. Cut to Imperial Guard versus Orks. Things are looking bad and in come the space marines to save the day and establish our space marine protagonist. Progress the story into there being a greater reason that the space marines are here and it is a chaos artifact. We see more action as the marines get it, but run across the eldar led by a strong female Farseer (Gotta meet that diversity quota). They disagree and fight briefly, but nothing decisive.

Chaos shows up and more fighting. Establishes the true antagonist by killing a likable space marine side character. Marines team up with an Inquisitor who is a real jerk, but dedicated. Story progresses as they do what they can to stop Chaos and stop them from achieving their goals with the artifact.

Insert filler content resulting in a great final battle between all parties up until this point where the mean Inquisitor is truly dedicated and loyal, but his interrogator goes traitor. Inquisitor near fatally wounded. Orks kill chaos sorcerer in funny way after an awesome psychic duel between the sorcerer and Librarian where the sorcerer is about to kill the Librarian. People laugh at this and the stunned reaction of the Librarian who then fights the orks. Marine side character (probably a chaplain or apothecary) kills the interrogator in a side duel that cuts between the duel of the captain and chaos lord. Eldar has mysterious words with the space marine captain.

Marine captain (protagonist) fights and only defeats the chaos lord by implied divine intervention. Chaos lord killed. Good guys win... Until it is revealed the entire point was a massive blood sacrifice. Insert daemons appearing. Our remaining heroes shrug at each other and charge the daemons as the screen fades with a depressing, but encouraging message displaying the nature of 40k.

Boom wrote a generic ass movie template in 5 minutes lol.

Oh and the Orks are comic relief the majority of the time.

Space marines vs. Tyranids. Like Starship Troopers (movie version), except with more space-Jesus. Space marines are killing bugs, and I suppose there's some kind of plot, but mostly just bolter porn. And then, at the end, when the space marines stand victorious on a pile of dead bugs the scene explodes and a Baneblade appears. Because IMPERIAL GUARD YEAH. Post-credits scene is more Imperial Guard killing stuff, setting up for the sequel that was the real point of the series from the beginning.

An inquisitor investigating chaos across multiple systems including those under xeno control.

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:
If we were getting a blockbuster 40k film, what factions would you like to see in it?

I'd like to see World Eaters, Khorne daemons, Deathgaurd, Nurgle daemons against guard, sisters of battle, grey knights, Inquistion.

Indeed, this would be the most spectacular cast.
Add in a third party like Aeldari and some glimps of Orks/Nids/Necrons.

Oh look, it's this thread again...

These never end well.

I'd like a softcore porn movie involving eldar and summoning slaanesh demons.

 Tibs Ironblood wrote:
I would see it being a mostly action based film that starts with a brief summary of the setting kind of like what we got with lord of the rings fellowship of the ring. Cut to Imperial Guard versus Orks. Things are looking bad and in come the space marines to save the day and establish our space marine protagonist. Progress the story into there being a greater reason that the space marines are here and it is a chaos artifact. We see more action as the marines get it, but run across the eldar led by a strong female Farseer (Gotta meet that diversity quota). They disagree and fight briefly, but nothing decisive.

Chaos shows up and more fighting. Establishes the true antagonist by killing a likable space marine side character. Marines team up with an Inquisitor who is a real jerk, but dedicated. Story progresses as they do what they can to stop Chaos and stop them from achieving their goals with the artifact.

Insert filler content resulting in a great final battle between all parties up until this point where the mean Inquisitor is truly dedicated and loyal, but his interrogator goes traitor. Inquisitor near fatally wounded. Orks kill chaos sorcerer in funny way after an awesome psychic duel between the sorcerer and Librarian where the sorcerer is about to kill the Librarian. People laugh at this and the stunned reaction of the Librarian who then fights the orks. Marine side character (probably a chaplain or apothecary) kills the interrogator in a side duel that cuts between the duel of the captain and chaos lord. Eldar has mysterious words with the space marine captain.

Marine captain (protagonist) fights and only defeats the chaos lord by implied divine intervention. Chaos lord killed. Good guys win... Until it is revealed the entire point was a massive blood sacrifice. Insert daemons appearing. Our remaining heroes shrug at each other and charge the daemons as the screen fades with a depressing, but encouraging message displaying the nature of 40k.

Boom wrote a generic ass movie template in 5 minutes lol.

Oh and the Orks are comic relief the majority of the time.

Unsurprisingly this reads a lot like the Warcraft film. It didn't really work there so I'm not sure it will work here either...

 Grimtuff wrote:
Oh look, it's this thread again...

These never end well.

Hmmm....where have I heard that before?

A Horus Heresy movie would probably do well. There's also a Helsreach "movie" floating around on YouTube that's pretty well done, hopefully it gets finished.

I dunno about a 40k movie, not sure it'd do all that well.. I think if I was asked to pitch a media show idea to the folks running GW, my pitch would be for an Eisenhorn Netflix series.

 Grimtuff wrote:
Oh look, it's this thread again...

These never end well.

Oh look, it's a condescending comment that adds nothing to the discussion again...

These never end well.

meleti wrote:
I'd want to see an Inquisition flick. Keep it tightly constrained, mystery/thriller plot. Imperium and Chaos, kind of a neo-noir style set on a hive world. It should function on its own without any additional knowledge of the 40k universe, but keep the focus small so the film doesn't have to butcher major 40k fluff to tell a good story.

Yeah that would be cool, we'll see how the unofficial one pans out, that looks amazing though the voice actors are terrible, plus an American accent doesn't fit a 40k film at all in my opinion.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Grimtuff wrote:
Oh look, it's this thread again...

These never end well.

I've been the author to many. Good on you for knowing that there have been threads like this before.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Tibs Ironblood wrote:
I would see it being a mostly action based film that starts with a brief summary of the setting kind of like what we got with lord of the rings fellowship of the ring. Cut to Imperial Guard versus Orks. Things are looking bad and in come the space marines to save the day and establish our space marine protagonist. Progress the story into there being a greater reason that the space marines are here and it is a chaos artifact. We see more action as the marines get it, but run across the eldar led by a strong female Farseer (Gotta meet that diversity quota). They disagree and fight briefly, but nothing decisive.

Chaos shows up and more fighting. Establishes the true antagonist by killing a likable space marine side character. Marines team up with an Inquisitor who is a real jerk, but dedicated. Story progresses as they do what they can to stop Chaos and stop them from achieving their goals with the artifact.

Insert filler content resulting in a great final battle between all parties up until this point where the mean Inquisitor is truly dedicated and loyal, but his interrogator goes traitor. Inquisitor near fatally wounded. Orks kill chaos sorcerer in funny way after an awesome psychic duel between the sorcerer and Librarian where the sorcerer is about to kill the Librarian. People laugh at this and the stunned reaction of the Librarian who then fights the orks. Marine side character (probably a chaplain or apothecary) kills the interrogator in a side duel that cuts between the duel of the captain and chaos lord. Eldar has mysterious words with the space marine captain.

Marine captain (protagonist) fights and only defeats the chaos lord by implied divine intervention. Chaos lord killed. Good guys win... Until it is revealed the entire point was a massive blood sacrifice. Insert daemons appearing. Our remaining heroes shrug at each other and charge the daemons as the screen fades with a depressing, but encouraging message displaying the nature of 40k.

Boom wrote a generic ass movie template in 5 minutes lol.

Oh and the Orks are comic relief the majority of the time.

The real question is, should the orks grunt or be fluent in a cockney accent. I prefer the latter.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 wuestenfux wrote:

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:
If we were getting a blockbuster 40k film, what factions would you like to see in it?

I'd like to see World Eaters, Khorne daemons, Deathgaurd, Nurgle daemons against guard, sisters of battle, grey knights, Inquistion.

Indeed, this would be the most spectacular cast.
Add in a third party like Aeldari and some glimps of Orks/Nids/Necrons.

Or even the harlequins, coming in to make sure one side wins. Or just a craftworld coming to help the mon-keigh

From a writer's perspective, you want the story to revolve around someone the reader/audience connects with. Space Marine novels sell cos the audience is already invested through the game, to reach a wider audience you'd need the protagonist to be human. You can include as many Space Marines and Xenos as you want after that.

The reason Game of Thrones the TV show is so successful is because the intrigue, backstabbing and human frailty are what drive the plot. It's not about the dragons.

There was a line in one of the BRBs or Marine codexes which said that to most Imperial citizens the Space Marines are just legends and, for most citizens, seeing one means your end is pretty much nigh because if Marines are involved, something heavy is going down. Something to which the words 'extreme prejudice' are unfortunately attached.

TLDR: The movie needs to have a human and human concerns and passions at its heart. Otherwise, it's just the opening of Saving Private Ryan for two hours.

Banville wrote:
From a writer's perspective, you want the story to revolve around someone the reader/audience connects with. Space Marine novels sell cos the audience is already invested through the game, to reach a wider audience you'd need the protagonist to be human. You can include as many Space Marines and Xenos as you want after that.

The reason Game of Thrones the TV show is so successful is because the intrigue, backstabbing and human frailty are what drive the plot. It's not about the dragons.

There was a line in one of the BRBs or Marine codexes which said that to most Imperial citizens the Space Marines are just legends and, for most citizens, seeing one means your end is pretty much nigh because if Marines are involved, something heavy is going down. Something to which the words 'extreme prejudice' are unfortunately attached.

TLDR: The movie needs to have a human and human concerns and passions at its heart. Otherwise, it's just the opening of Saving Private Ryan for two hours.

I don't agree, we have all loved the HH novels when they are based on a SM protagonist, you just have to write it well, surround the character with humans to express and develop human emotions etc, touch on the contrast between human emotions and that of an Astartes and it works very well. What we've learned from the novels though is every character, species etc. works well under the story arc of 40k. I think a combination of human and SM would be better as it highlights the richness of 40k, even humans there are many species and types i.e. Ogryns etc. I don't think either should be a single main protagonist I think there should be at least one main character for each faction fighting. Kinda like a band of brothers version of a film. I think though to do any 40k film justice it would have to be at least a trilogy in length. But they should laern from the Ultramarines film, that was all action and no story, that's why it was so bad in my opinion.

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:


we have all loved the HH novels when they are based on a SM protagonist

Ah ah, no we did not.

 Bobthehero wrote:

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:


we have all loved the HH novels when they are based on a SM protagonist

Ah ah, no we did not.

You're telling me you didn't like the first three... I mean most of them have an Astartes protagonist, why would you read the series if you didn't like most of the protagonists.

I have no interest in them, so I didn't read them.

 Bobthehero wrote:
I have no interest in them, so I didn't read them.

Read one at least, you really don't know what you are missing out on. Read a few chapters of Horus Rising, I promise you you wont be disappointed. I mean there isn't a faction I haven't read about, I find them all interesting, granted I collect nearly every faction lol I mean any faction is boring without the lore.

My point is, people who play 40k will obviously be okay with a space marine or even an Eldar protagonist. For a movie or series to be commissioned or optioned you'd need to aim for a wider demographic and make it accessible to the general non-gaming public.

When you boil it down, Astartes are genocidal killing machines. With the noted exception of the Salamanders, who believe burning people to death is still, somehow, okay. They also, and this is important, see the world differently to us. They ignore most wounds. THEY KNOW NO FEAR. They're hard to connect with from a movie audience perspective. You can't afford to get into the amount of exposition you can get away with in print when working with film.

So, you'll end up softening and humanising our hypothetical Astartes protagonist and having fans of the game disowning the whole project for removing the grimdark.

Now, a series based on Caiaphus Cain, arch, self-aware and cynical, that might work.

Banville wrote:
My point is, people who play 40k will obviously be okay with a space marine or even an Eldar protagonist. For a movie or series to be commissioned or optioned you'd need to aim for a wider demographic and make it accessible to the general non-gaming public.

When you boil it down, Astartes are genocidal killing machines. With the noted exception of the Salamanders, who believe burning people to death is still, somehow, okay. They also, and this is important, see the world differently to us. They ignore most wounds. THEY KNOW NO FEAR. They're hard to connect with from a movie audience perspective. You can't afford to get into the amount of exposition you can get away with in print when working with film.

So, you'll end up softening and humanising our hypothetical Astartes protagonist and having fans of the game disowning the whole project for removing the grimdark.

Now, a series based on Caiaphus Cain, arch, self-aware and cynical, that might work.

I don't agree, when film companies make re-makes of things, they always fail unless they stay true to the actual original. Its like with superhero films or anime films like ghost in the shell, they are always terrible because instead of staying true to what works and what people already love, production companies instead alter the original thing that worked to try and appease a wider demographic. I mean the fans alone would would bring in a return on the project. So if you are doing an Imperium faction focus it would be silly to miss out SM on that basis. I mean in GW space marines sell, they always get the most focus and push.

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:

Banville wrote:
My point is, people who play 40k will obviously be okay with a space marine or even an Eldar protagonist. For a movie or series to be commissioned or optioned you'd need to aim for a wider demographic and make it accessible to the general non-gaming public.

When you boil it down, Astartes are genocidal killing machines. With the noted exception of the Salamanders, who believe burning people to death is still, somehow, okay. They also, and this is important, see the world differently to us. They ignore most wounds. THEY KNOW NO FEAR. They're hard to connect with from a movie audience perspective. You can't afford to get into the amount of exposition you can get away with in print when working with film.

So, you'll end up softening and humanising our hypothetical Astartes protagonist and having fans of the game disowning the whole project for removing the grimdark.

Now, a series based on Caiaphus Cain, arch, self-aware and cynical, that might work.

I don't agree, when film companies make re-makes of things, they always fail unless they stay true to the actual original. Its like with superhero films or anime films like ghost in the shell, they are always terrible because instead of staying true to what works and what people already love, production companies instead alter the original thing that worked to try and appease a wider demographic. I mean the fans alone would would bring in a return on the project. So if you are doing an Imperium faction focus it would be silly to miss out SM on that basis. I mean in GW space marines sell, they always get the most focus and push.

except that 40k fans alone are not eneugh to sell a 40k movie, a 40k movie would (especially if it invovled space marines) by necessity need to have a HUUUGE bugdet for special effects. This BTW is why I proposed a Eisenhorn based netflix series. they could mostly keep it down low, but the finalle of the first season would be the end of Xenos, a reasonably big conflict that would have space Marines.

BrianDavion wrote:

 Delvarus Centurion wrote:

Banville wrote:
My point is, people who play 40k will obviously be okay with a space marine or even an Eldar protagonist. For a movie or series to be commissioned or optioned you'd need to aim for a wider demographic and make it accessible to the general non-gaming public.

When you boil it down, Astartes are genocidal killing machines. With the noted exception of the Salamanders, who believe burning people to death is still, somehow, okay. They also, and this is important, see the world differently to us. They ignore most wounds. THEY KNOW NO FEAR. They're hard to connect with from a movie audience perspective. You can't afford to get into the amount of exposition you can get away with in print when working with film.

So, you'll end up softening and humanising our hypothetical Astartes protagonist and having fans of the game disowning the whole project for removing the grimdark.

Now, a series based on Caiaphus Cain, arch, self-aware and cynical, that might work.

I don't agree, when film companies make re-makes of things, they always fail unless they stay true to the actual original. Its like with superhero films or anime films like ghost in the shell, they are always terrible because instead of staying true to what works and what people already love, production companies instead alter the original thing that worked to try and appease a wider demographic. I mean the fans alone would would bring in a return on the project. So if you are doing an Imperium faction focus it would be silly to miss out SM on that basis. I mean in GW space marines sell, they always get the most focus and push.

except that 40k fans alone are not eneugh to sell a 40k movie, a 40k movie would (especially if it invovled space marines) by necessity need to have a HUUUGE bugdet for special effects. This BTW is why I proposed a Eisenhorn based netflix series. they could mostly keep it down low, but the finalle of the first season would be the end of Xenos, a reasonably big conflict that would have space Marines.

I think we'd all be surprised, our fanbase is enough to keep GW it going. Its safe to say every fan will see it. GW make 100 million in sales in 6 months. Just the GW fan-base, say there are 1million of us buying a ticket for the cinema is 10 million in cinema tickets, DVD's would sell more than that, that's 20 millions there and that's being conservative, plus technology has come leaps and bounds, look at the Inquisitor film and that is just a fan made film. They could do a budget for 20 million as a minumum, which they could do but even at 50 million I think they'd make a fantastic return, then there would be all the sci-fi and geek fans, they'll run to see it and then you'll have regular public. If they made the film amazing, I think they'd do very well. I mean netflix could even do it. I mean we can't know what it'll sell bit we do know there are guaranteed sales and production companies now salavate when they here that, WOW, superhero films, anime etc. They are even making a battle angel alita film and that is an obscure manga in the west. Now with the profits GW rake in I wouldn't be surprised if a production company stuck its nose into 40k, plus the Ultramarine film was a failure not because of the fan base, it was a failure as it was terribly made. I just wish peter jackson would get off his fat ass and make a series of 40k or HH films, he is a fan.

If it were up to me I would start at 'Year 0'. A quiet, unspoiled earth viewed from space. The years would then start counting upwards, faster and faster. We would see the first rockets break away from the planet and more of it's surface become blackened with urban sprawl.

Space would become thicker and thicker with ships and stations. Backwards through the solar system we would see mars become engulfed in the ever expanding wave of construction.

The counter would continue all the way until the 31M where it would stop and we would be catapulted back down onto earth and would be introduced to the Emperor.

The first film would be an introduction to all the primarchs and would end with whispers in the dark tempting Horus.

The second Film would deal with the fall of Horus and the splitting of the Imperium and would end the Horus turning his eye to Terra.

The third film would be focused on the fate of the various primarchs and the battle for Terra. It would end with the wounded emperor and the tag line. 'In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.'

If this initial trilogy worked I would then launch a series of 'First Contact' Films for each of the races and how the Imperium first encountered them. I'd treat each faction similar to how Marvel has treated each superhero.

20 million budget is EXTREMELY small man. You CANNOT do a 40k movie like what you want on a 20 million budget. Not the big explosive space marine centric action movie you seem to want at least. movies in a similer genrea such as star wars, and the avengers flicks are all a budget in the 200 million range. even if you managed to cut that in half you're still looking at a 100 million dollar budget. Sci-fi is expensive.

 Hollow wrote:
If it were up to me I would start at 'Year 0'. A quiet, unspoiled earth viewed from space. The years would then start counting upwards, faster and faster. We would see the first rockets break away from the planet and more of it's surface become blackened with urban sprawl.

Space would become thicker and thicker with ships and stations. Backwards through the solar system we would see mars become engulfed in the ever expanding wave of construction.

The counter would continue all the way until the 31M where it would stop and we would be catapulted back down onto earth and would be introduced to the Emperor.

The first film would be an introduction to all the primarchs and would end with whispers in the dark tempting Horus.

The second Film would deal with the fall of Horus and the splitting of the Imperium and would end the Horus turning his eye to Terra.

The third film would be focused on the fate of the various primarchs and the battle for Terra. It would end with the wounded emperor and the tag line. 'In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.'

If this initial trilogy worked I would then launch a series of 'First Contact' Films for each of the races and how the Imperium first encountered them. I'd treat each faction similar to how Marvel has treated each superhero.

Yeah thats pretty much what I would have thought for the HH.