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Games Day LA this weekend was a fairly light affair – unless you went to the Black Library presentation. During the session, someone asked about 40K in other media and got a surprise answer: it might be possible that an Ultramarine-based CGI movie could be released – next year! The presenter was quick to stress that it wasn’t a done deal and that its possible that such an effort would never see the light of day. We’ll have more details as they become available, but if you really want to see this thing happen, it probably wouldn’t hurt mentioning it to your local GW rep (hat tip to the fine folks at WarSeer).
For those who seem to remember something about 40K movies in the past, we’ve included a list of previous attempts to get you even more excited!
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Damnatus was in fact done. But because of some copyright law trouble they can probably never show it in public. The thing is that GW would have allowed them to release the movie if they transferred the copyright to them. But this is not possible according to german law, you can’t give copyright over to another person or company. And since the creators of Damnatus are german there’s not much we can do. Why GW doesn’t just give them a license for this movie is beyond me.
To build on that point, I’m pretty sure that Bloodquest got pretty far into production before GW had the plug pulled on it as well – I tried to find the longer forms for both of these, but the threat of lawsuit seems to be a good motivator for people to make sure things aren’t easily available ;)
i would love to see a warhammer 40k cgi or even more cool would be a live action move, but i hear you saying can’t be done but I say not true look at transformers what do you think they looked like? to me they looked like dreadnoughts to me
CGI movies take typically more than a year to make, if they’re any good. It sounds like either the movie is already in the works or they’re not planning on it being any good…
i am just getting into Warhammer and i think a movie would just rock!!!
ok i think this a movie about gaunts gost. from the begaining or even the
horse hersey that would be good with the big last battle being the seige of terra. that would make for the best movie
Thou shall not suffer from engrish.
By the way, GW is really eager to make movies, too bad they all happend to die. 40.000 is perfect base for movie (even for trilogy). 20 years of written history. in Lotr, elves kill orks. In 40k, dread deff slices them into pieces. 8D
the horus heresy is some of the most epic lore that can be effectively translated into a AAA movie series, it has all the ingredients for success. gratuitous violence, drama, dark humor, and an awsome sci-fi setting.
yo dude ive been reading the warhammer books for well over 3 years. i always go to the book store to see if ANY new books came out ive got a big ass tube of books and ive read them all. mostly everysingle one of the books would be a great movie. now weather it would be anime or computer images or just people. i think if the director did it right the movie would be awesome and then so many more people woiuld read the books. so wat is happeneing i keep reading they made movies or they are thinking of making them wats happening? if anyone can tell me :)
Dmurph
A tube of books?
The previous poster is correct in saying that a good cgi movie takes longer than a year, which makes me think the movie has a fair amount of work done on it and is looking decent. If it looked awful I dont think GW would link to it from their site.
just waiting and hoping its good, as everyone will have high expectations.
I’ve been thinking about (i.e. wishing for) a Horus Heresy trilogy of films (9+ hrs) since around 1989, but with the recent novels it seems like even a trilogy wouldn’t do it justice… however, TV is the new film, so maybe a combination of movie-length pilots and series could be the way to go.
It would need to have the ability to convey the scope of the 40K Universe, but there must be a way to plot the thing so that the background and history emerge more naturally from the storyline as it progresses than would be the case if you just had an intro at the start (although obviously you would probably need one of those also).
The main problems that I can see are:
a) It needs really good actors and voice artists, ones with presence and gravitas. They’ve had these with Audio Books and games before though…
b) It needs to be authentic… which basically means grim as *** with tons of brutal violence and no apologies for it. No teenagers should be involved. There must be no romantic sub-plots to speak of. There must be little or no deviation from the established realities of WH40K – i.e. sometimes you have to commit genocide and brutally oppress the human race and kill the innocent. This must not turn into the Judge Dredd film. Although the ABC robot rocked.
c) It would cost a bomb. And PJ’s probably not going to want to direct it.
On the technical side, though, the Transformers are OK, but go see District 9 if you want a taste of how well a dreadnought could be brought to life. The dreadnought in that looks ace (though not like a 40K one).
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If a HH movie series or whatever were too ambitious, then for my money (for a live action film) something like a modified script of Space Wolf would be a good way to introduce the universe. By having a barbarian recruited into the Astartes you can take the audience on his journey as he discovers the wider universe of the Imperium etc. It would probably still need some voiceover narration while he’s learning using the knowledge machines though.
The nice thing about the Space Marines is that they can be centuries old. So you don’t have to use young actors for these roles (plus you could have CG marines based off real actors who would motion-cap their performances… but also scale up their faces slightly… some of the facial stuff from the first Hulk film was pretty good).
So I’m thinking grizzled veterans, I’m thinking Michael Biehn and Jurgen Prochnow. Bill Paxton would make a good ‘Decius’ from the HH series (and in fact one of the covers has a marine that looks a lot like him). I know he won’t do it, but imagine Clint Eastwood as a 400-year old Ultramarines captain with long-service studs and stuff.
actually i saw the damnatus movie , it was released or leaked into torrent but its a very simple movie and nothing major about it, i wounder why gamesworkshop had issues with it :S
I Agree with JC i would so love for a HH Tv/Movie series much like Band of Brothers was done but probably alot longer. And it would need to be atleast rated R due to the sheer gore and horror of it. I’m only up to reading Galaxy in Flames but DAMN. it would be rather horrific to see the stuff that is in it brought to life. which is why they better do it because it would be Absolutely Awesomely EPIC!!!
This is mostly a reply to dwill and his claim the the movies is base on Gaunts Ghosts. The Movie is called Ultramarines and is based on The Ultramarines Omnibus by Graham Mcniell the screen play is coming from Dan Abnett (by far the best 40k author).
i would like to see a war hammer40k movie BUT i remember the first D&D movie it bombed a great script done right good cast yes. a poor script good actors bad lets hope you all do a great job and i will watch it over and over.
I am completely stoked about there being a Warhammer 40K movie. But come on, they do a movie about the Smurfs? They could have picked a chapter that is well liked, like the Space Wolves or Blood Angels. I guess it is kind of cool that they are including the Imperial Fists in the movie, though.
Inquisitor is removed from youtube now due to copyright by Games workshop.. :(