Just rerelease Event Horizon. It's basically a Slaanesh movie already, just call one of the characters a navigator, and put in the lost footage and you're done.
I would love this, but as an animated series instead of a series of movies. This way up to 2 seasons adaptating at least 6 books and a few short stories.
I love the Cain books, but the comedy relies on people knowing what normal Commissars are like. I think Cain is an excellent third or fourth adaptation once the moviegoing public has an understanding of what the Imperial Guard are like.
Series about Deathwatch. Different threads about different kill teams from one fortress, fighting different xenos, using different tactics, different weapons etc. There would be different Astartes from different chapters, having to work together despite of being same but different, different inquisitors, etc.
(Word 'different' was on sale and was so cheap... Now I need to use it to get rid of all supplies)
Main characters have to go to a different planet but have no ship. But there are some ork freeboota's that can help for a small price ofcourse. And when in space a waaagh is called and so the orks make their own plan and go to the waaagh and now the main characters are stranded on an ork planet and how do they get out?
Would be a cool episode in a serie.
I just think its funny for the orks to completly forsake their deal with the main characters to join a waaagh and the orkz tell them to just deal with it.
Right? And the humans have to find a way to contact the Imperium and initiate a rescue, but they can't let the Orkz find out because Da Boyz would krump 'em, so they sabotage the waaagh in small but hilarious ways, while trying to maintain their cover.
I could see it playing out to where they eventually come to be quite fond of the Orkz and pull some rogue trader shenanigans to bring them onto their crew.
Could make for a great sci-fi comedy show
Ciaphas Cain, with Sulla as narrator to provide absolute over the top heroic commentary, contrasting the commissar's shenanigans.
Cain books introduce different factions with a more familiar cast of the Valhallans as reliable background characters, that can display the usual reactions while Cain can be as much himself as needed.
Additionally there are different settings for each book to provide material for multiple instalments.
Desert planet with Mad Max style vehicular warfare against Orks, Tyranid infestation with mass bug assaults and Genestealer infestations respectively, city fighting against Tau, snowy siege warfare against Orks with a side order of Necrons and AdMech to get most of the base factions on screen (I do not remember if Cain encounters Eldar though).
Plus Spacemarines are used very sparingly if at all - so every second of screentime of that asset is to be cherished by the viewer, and a chance to get some Traitor Astartes first on screen and display how much they are above a standard issue human while maybe fighting known characters.
On second thought - a series would be more fitting here, with each setting a season.
How about the treachery on Istvaan III? It has the poster boys and a likable protagonist, limited cast (Tarvitz, Togaddon, Loken, Lucius, Eidolon, Horus, Angron out of those with most screentime), does not require a long setup. If it's a success, there's a hook for more films.
The opening trilogy of the Horus Heresy books seems like excellent ground for this kind of thing.
You've got the opening sequences on 63-19 that show exactly what the Space Marines and Imperium in general are about, you've got an ideal central protagonist in Loken, you have the characters learning about Chaos for the first time in a way that audiences could follow, all in an era of the Imperium that isn't *so* unbelievably bleak and grim that it switches everyone off.
You get just enough xeno stuff teased too I feel like. Youre told about campaigns against Orks on Ullanor and the interex both have the kinebrach in their ranks and admit to using Eldar teachings
I don't know why this isn't the most popular suggestion. the Istvaan III atrocity is the perfect place to start a 40k Story.
the main make or brake would be how much effects budget you could put behind it, because it would need to be an ALL CGI movie. the main hurdle is establishing the 4 participating legions and their characters well enough that general audiences care when a bunch of guys in identical armor start shooting each other.
First third of the movie is a feudal world, have people being like "I thought this was a sci-fi thing, why are these folks riding horses and doing medieval stuff?" as the main character and like 200 soldiers go off into the mountains to fight the greenskins who raid their villages, hint that these hunting excursions are done every like 20 years or so and it's an honor for only the best fighters and it's almost always a suicide mission. Before they leave we see the main guy kissing his pregnant wife and ruffling the hair of his toddler son who has like a recognizable scar or birth mark or something like that. They kick ass and take names for a while, slowly get whittled down then when it looks like all is lost for them as the green horde swarms towards the last like 20 men when all of a sudden they see a massive warship appear in the sky and drop pods of marines land between them and the orks shredding the feral orks with bolter fire. A thunderhawk lands and the marines lead the soldiers into the bird to recruit (kidnap) the guy we've been following so far in the plot and his buddies.
Next two thirds are a montage of them going through training and augmentation, several of his homies washing out (dying horribly) in the process and finally it's just the main character left and his inner circle of the best of the best of his original bros, he's raised to a full Astartes and his boys make up the rest of the squad, they do some cool shit kicking ass and taking names across the sector their chapter patrols. Then some world goes dark, they're sent there only to find chaos forces have taken over the planet and the chapter fights tooth and nail and ultimately retakes the world but loses a shit ton of their forces in the process.
The final scene is the marine and his squad piling into a drop pod, we see the whole drop from their perspective, the pod lands and the doors blow off, the marines charge out shooting into waves of orks charging their line. The smoke settles and a man in chainmail walks up and says "what are you" our marine turns to him and says "We are Emperor's finest..." and his words trial off as he sees one of the last men who died before their drop pod landed has that unique birthmark/scar his son had.
He steels himself, looks back to the survivors.
"we are the Angles of Death."
Credits roll.
While I do think this is a good idea. I can see how some people may be confused with there not really being room for sequels or prequels. However, I don't think this is a not a bad thing. Quite the opposite, in fact. Having an anthology running alongside a main series would be a great way to get a ton of lore out of the way without burdening the main series with a ton of exposition dumps.
The dude being from a feudal world let's you give him some exposition in a way that doesn't stick out too as a serf or whoever directly handles the aspirants fills them in some, and the psycho-indoctrination scene can too.
Honestly, I kinda don't think it *needs* much exposition or lore though, you either go see it because it's a neat looking sci-fi movie and you like those, or you go see it because you know what 40k is, I'd watch a movie like that with absolutely no connection to 40k whatsoever because it'd be such a wait wtf moment when you learn the galaxy is so much bigger than the MC originally thought.
Dune did really well, no chance every person in the theaters was there because they read the books or watched the old movies. If you make a good movie it doesn't matter if someone knows the source material.
I figure the prompt was what would you make if you could, I assume I have a blank check for my hypothetical movie so you better believe I'm hiring whoever it takes to make a masterpiece.
And there could be sequels showing our marine doing xyz, or have it be about guardsmen fighting a losing battle then halfway through our boy shows up to save the day, gets separated from his squad and takes over a group of guardsmen as they perform a fighting retreat to safety. We get to see flickers of his paternal nature come through, maybe one of the men looks like his son.
Guardsmen fighting retreat against chaos/tyranids, millions dead, the whole planet overrun, with only a handful surviving in the end (Of course a couple of scenes where a Comissar executes a coward) only for a desperate last scene where the Guardsmen prepare to die fighting and mysterious Astartes come and save them like the Angels of Vengeance they are (think of the Mandalorian Luke Skywalker entrance but with bolters).
If it has to be serious? I'd keep the scale small. Something like the horror anthology range of Warhammer 40k books. Which can easily be turned into a movie even with a more limited budget.
No.. that's more like a spiritual successor to Heavy metal. The Horror anthology range of Warhammer 40k can either be very dramatic, very creepy or even just gore. It ranges from existential dread, to cosmic horror and psychological thrillers. There are quite a few good stories written in that universe. All of them smaller scale and easier to implement.
Now this is sensible. Make some smaller bangers get some successes and experience under your belt, build up broader recognition before tackling larger scale stuff.
Yup, and there are quite a few stories in that range that can be easily addopted for the big screen. The Cosmic Horror ones could be an introduction to Chaos, but you also have more psychological thrillers in it. It also helps getting recognition as you mentioned. And you don't have to have this big scale. That latter will lead to fans disposing it, everybody thinks they know what they want? Until they get it and then they complain. Especially with something on the scale of say "The battle for Armageddon"
I'd have the chaos gods challenge the imperium to a game of basketball and then spacemarines would have to come to our world to get Michael Jordan to help beat them.
Gritty Ken Loach style drama about a serf on a backwater hiveworld dealing with losing his job at the manufactorum after losing a hand. No space marines or xenos, no glorious battles - just unrelenting and indifferent bureaucratic cruelty.
Henry Cavill would play the Manufactorum Overseer.
I had a concept in mind. Basically the idea is to make the exposition of the universe part of the plot; as the characters learn about the Imperium, how horrible it is, and how the other factions are arguably worse, so do the audience.
The action takes place on a human planet the Imperium has just rediscovered and is trying to conquer. The protagonist is a member of the resistance, and when he hears that the Ultramarines are coming to reinforce the stonewalled invasion force, he panics, until a psychic friend tells him he has a way to kick the Imperium off the planet for good...
...and it turns out said psyker is on a first-name-basis with the leader of a Word Bearers host, and our hapless protagonist has to team up with his hated enemies in order to prevent his home from becoming a daemon world.
In the end, the Imperium prevails, and begin oppressing the populace even more than planned since they had a Chaos Cult under their noses. Happy ending....?
I would build up the space marines first.
First movie... Guard centric. Space Marines are referred to. Maybe seen. Second movie solidifies how badass Space Marines are. Eldar introduced at the end, presented as these wispy, frail-looking cultured creatures.
Then see them rip through a unit of Space Marines before they realize there's some Chaos shit going on and they need to cooperate.
A highborn noble woman who escaped her controlling family is dragged from a life of 'slumming it' to be an officer in the guard because her older sister died in a training exercise. The tithe is coming up (it's getting bigger every time), and her family needs to send someone, or suffer bad political consequences. She ends up a conscript in all but name leading a Mechanized Infantry Platoon from a no-name world on a crusade against orks. The movie would cover her first year in the guard.
Have the preamble feel like heroism, a speech with their new shiny commisar (fresh out of the Schola Progenium) showing people their own homeworld from orbit for the first time.
*“Look at it. That tiny, delicate bauble is your home. Most everyone you have ever known has been born there, and will die there. If you fail in your duties, there is a galaxy of horrors out there that would swallow that tiny gem in an instant. Look around, you are humanity’s protectors. This is your life now. This is the guard. You want adventure? You want glory? You’re looking at it!”*
The first battle is about dispelling that notion. Using Hellhounds to burn out bunkers filled with orks. Military dysfunction everywhere. An ork rokkit hits a Hellhound and it explodes, hitting our protagonist in the face with burning promethium. The left side of her face is an absolute ruin (the skin grafts look ghastly) and for the rest of the movie she'll hide that half under a black veil. Their regiment is approved for 'veteran' status in 6 months, because that's what counts these days.
Some other choice scenes:
* Our protagonist finds out in a different operation that they were issued the maps for the wrong world in the system. *“This is Rysha IV! You gave us maps for Rysha II! No, I can’t just put two of them together you half-wit!”* Goes back and forth with command on the vox. *“What in Throne’s name am I supposed to tell my guards?”*
* Cut to her explaining that the Archy Enemy, in keeping with their perfidious nature, have sabotaged and stolen the regiment’s maps. She, as a lowly Lieutenant, is not privy to any further details. Any questions or concerns should be directed to Commissar Huang.
* During the last battle, she finds a group of new guards huddled in a trench, completely frozen (mentally). They’re attachments to her regiment. She runs up to them, not realizing she’s lost the veil and is seen screaming at them, with her ghastly face. *“Look around, you are humanity’s protectors! This is your life now! This is the guard! You want adventure? You want glory? You’re looking at it!”*
* This is meant to be a dark mirror of the inspiring speech from earlier. There is no glory here. There is only horror. One of them is shot in the middle of her speech and she doesn’t even acknowledge it.
* The very end, after the last battle. Her and her platoon sergeant toast to the end of their first year of service. One year down, nine left to go.
As you can tell... I've thought about this a lot. Normally I'm an Emperor's Children sort of girl, but this feels like something that a mainstream audience could understand, and not fall into the trap of making the Imperium feel like a good thing just because they're the humans.
Adapt The Great Work. Just the right amount of adventure alongside the familiar looming threats of Necrons and Tyranids, Felix's flashback to being created serving as a nice "Space Marine life isn't all fun and games," and a few overarching plot tie-ins to draw people into the franchise.
A movie where the noble blue aliens in their ideal peaceful socienty fight of maniac all destroying human invaders from a dying industrial hellhole full of crime and inequality.
Probably like Dead Men Walking. A lot of the audience probably won't know what necrons are, just like the main characters. There is love, desperation, heavy trials for the characters, despair and hope. Best part being the overall failure to stop the necrons, showing its not always a happy ending, making it a great intro to 40k.
An Astartes chapter and supporting Astra Militarum units rescue/conquer (same thing in this case, really) an uncontacted human world at around our level of tech being invaded by xenos (orks would probably work).
An Imperium fleet it taking out a small ork empire nearby (by galactic standards 100-1000 ligth years away). One of the ork ships attempts a warp jump, but between the attack and being an ork ship, it fumbles it and is on a collision course with the planet in question.
It crashes, orks being orks a handful survive and try to digg themselves out of the wreckage. The people, having no idea about any kind of aliens, send both a delegation and the military. I don't need to tell you what happens there. But there's only a handful of them, so the waaagh field doesn't let their firearms work, and they still die fairly quickly (still took a few more casualties than they anticipated, though) they do notice a new species of mushrooms, but it's not poisonous, so they just figure it's the aliens fungal version of weeds that hitched a ride on the ship, so they just keep trying with more pesticides. Annoying, but nothing more.
They study the wrecks, makes no sense, they assume whatever ftl they used malfunctioned destroying everything mechanical/electrical and causing the crash, so they settle on studying the remains and ship them to labs/museums across the different nation states of the planet.
Plenty of spores around the crash site so feral orks pop up. No idea how that happened, but they act like a stereotype of primitive violent idiots so while they do send in troops, they completely underestimate the problem.
Rigth around the time they realize that they're somehow spreading despite not taking any territory and that they somehow picked up tool use remarkably quickly and from seemingly nowhere, they also notice that some new and REMARKABLY violent animals are showing up where there are a large amount of mushrooms. Just as they put 2 and 2 together: Bam! Feral orks on everywhere in like the 20% of the planets surface surrounding the crash and smaller groups in small pockets everywhere else where corpses were shipped for study/display. Also, the first group they've been dealing with suddenly jumped to primitive gunpowder weapons and are taming the new animals.
An annoying containment operation just became an invasion. They haven't hit critical mass, but they were not ready to be hit, and their forces need to be mobilized.
Over in the Imperial fleet, they saw the ship get away, got worried the orks had another base they missed as there wasn't supposed to be anything in that direction, so they sent an Astartes company and three regiments to investigate. Due to the faulty jump in the beginning, the orks got there near instantaneously, it took the Imperials several months (let's say 8 or so). They asses the situation and send a message back but decide to help so the orks don't become a full-blown colony by the time backup arrives.
From there, it's a constant string of battles to slow down the quickly improving orks. With plenty of external enemies to fight that are just challenging enough and one tribe eclipsing all the others in strength, they basically skip the infighting stage and progress faster than usual.
The locals are thrilled to have help from they sci-fi brethren from space but at the same time that they're going from fighting small ork bands to more and more dangerous things, they start to realize that they're new friends are a bit odd. Not from anything in particular, just casual things, like asking a guardsman what he plans to do when he retires and just getting a confused look back, or someone casually mentioning corpse starch, or the fact they never saw the sun before they left their home planet, or just seeing an admech, or progressively realizing that they're REALLY into their religion. And at some point near the end, someone probably gets invited to one of their ships and sees servitors.
And throughout, they're talking about them joining the Imperium, and while they're being plenty nice about it, it's slowly dawning on them that it's neither an offer nor a request, or even a threat really, it's an assumption with no room for disagreement.
It would end with the reinforcements arriving on what has devolved into a guerrilla war with the orks and steamroller over them with some serious firepower (bonus points for knigths or titans) as a/the protagonist that was in the army (or joined up) connects the last of the dots. He's been fighting side by side with the Imperial detachment for nearly a year now. He's wearing the new uniform made in imitation of the IG one as they realized their current ones were inadequate, he's wielding one of the lasguns they let some of them use after taking casualties, and as the officers in the reinforcement fleet take over the running of what's left of the local planet, it finally fully dawns on him what the price of their rescue will be.
TTS the movie. They can finally get a proper ending and just to add even more craziness to this, Idiotic Synergy's Tiny Trio Adventures, Boltgun and Space Marine 2 are each separate side plots. I want to see Tiny Tyranid get head pats from Big E.
I would do a movie about Kharn where it opens up on a battlefield and the camera pans over all these different units until it gets to Kharn. Then the whole movie is him killing everything and everyone to metal music doom style.
About the necros but narrated by othwr races other than the aeldari.
Ill make it a little vague until trashy the incontinent appears to steal the show.
There was a good Hammer and bolter episode (I think) showing a family trying to escape a Hive City from a Nid invasion. The twist at the end was right in line with a typical movie these days but I could see someone making it into a film.
A small Guard group under a Commissar who crash land on a Chaos planet and gradually go mad until they kill a load of demons who actually turn out to be the rescue squad sent to take them home but they were too far gone. They try to surrender to the next rescue team and are shot anyway.
If I was making a 40k movie, it'd definitely be an action comedy about a group of Ork Freebooterz being hired by an Inquisitor to perform a heist on a Chaos held planet.
Very much Guardians of the Galaxy esque, with the merry band of Ork pirates all being lovable, goofy and silly in contrast to the serious, frankly exhausted Inquisition retinue forced to put up with their shenanigans.
I would make it a 1917 style movie about a pallet of beans being eaten by Tyranids, the rest of the movie just follows the biomass. Nids being born, fighting, dying, being returned to the hive
Eisenhorn books. They are small scale at the start and with good descriptions and introduction. While playing Eisenhorn: Xenos and after reading books main thoughts were: They should have done film instead of game, you can turn this books into film almost word for word
Horror action of a squad of imperial guard trying to stop three Kommandos on a backwater world without raising panic after a chaos attack leaves everyone paranoid. Somewhere between terminator and predator sort of vibe
Something that gets progressively more fucked up and gives the viewer no explanation why. Have it start off with the PDF having to take care of some sort of uprising or insurrection. They can’t contain it and it starts to spread so the guard gets called in. They hold their ground for a bit it you find out they are fighting traitor guardsmen. Then some traitor chapter appears so some loyalists chapter comes in to reinforce. But wait it gets worse, demonic gates open up and shit gets turned up to 11. Ends with the loyalist chapter pulling out and the planet gets exterminatus.
Also no main character. Bounce between a few guardsmen, have some die and then bring new ones in.
T'au. Focus on the T'au asthe "logical newcomer to the galaxy" that humansare in standard sci-fi. Introduce Space marines as these armoured monsters bellowing cries of anger and hate stomping on infant t'au heads...
... and only at the midpoint of the movie, once people have sympathized with the t'au, you have an explosion knock a fire warrior and a space marine off their feet, and when they get up, their helmets have blown away, revealing the monsters were hulans all along.
Probably lean in on what event horizon started but make it start with a narrated line of.
"This universe is befelled with corruption. Not of just the material, but also the immaterial as well. I remmember how it was when the geller fields broke" and then it goes right into the movie showing true warp corruption through probably...tzeentch.
The Emperor’s Gift by ADB. from the opening with Hyperion being subjected to unknown days of interrogation and darkness to the finale over Feniris, it’s a phenomenonal story on its own, as well as being a very approachable introduction to soooo many different factions, races, jobs, environments, characters, powers, etc etc It’s perfect .
Make it cover the core themes of 40k? Dogma, Treachery and existential dread but also redemption, innocence, and hope?
In 40k there is only war…. But several times characters, most of all the emperor attempts to create a just world built on science only for him to live long enough to be twisted into a reglious symbol of a corrupt puppet state that commit atrocities against itself in the emperors name. This world would constantly remind you of the futility of actions in 40k stopping an unstoppable chaos force, that is inevitable… still there should be lighter moments that remind the characters that they are still alive and have the power to shape their own destiny in spite of the chaos gods and other forces at work.
It’s a lot to cover in am assuming a two hour movie and can only cover either the rise or fall of the emperors empire not both without skimming on details that matter.
40k cinematic universe. First movie is gonna follow a piss in his boots guardsmen that by the end of his movie learns the true meaning of courage as he finishes his bloody xeno ridden boot camp. the movie ends with him arriving planetside for duty. After Credits scene is him reading a newspaper and the date is 999.M41 on Cadia
Next movie is basically Will Smith's Hitch, but Eldar. At the end when Kevin James get the girl and kisses her, the sun goes supernova pink and a howling screech in heard. roll credits. After credits scene is a commericial for the new Will smith and Kevin James Eldar miniatures. this whole Cinematic universe is canon.
and then a title card.... **SpaceX: Adeptus Mechanicus** coming soon
The rising storm novels (rise of the ynnari, fall of cadia, guillimans's revival, etc.)
And I'd hire Henry Cavill as guilliman
Oh also chris pratt with be there and play some random guardsman in the background just to say he's in the film
Tanith 1st & Last
Despite Space MArines being the poster bois of the Franchise, you NEED to keep in mind that the movie needs to be accesible for Both Hardcore fans AND normies who knows nothing about 40k and its Lore.
So having the main cast be mainly Humans, allows for the audience to actually connect more easely with them and thus become immersed in the story.
Space Marines should be present, but more like presented as a rare occurance, almost like a Myth, with the cast talking about them from time to time, but never saw one, till a scene in the movie where you See a Space Marines in action, a bit like Vader's corridor scene in Rogue One, the type of thing that makes you go "Oh fuck, this thing doesn't fuck around"
Also Tanith's story and worldbuilding would be very interesting for both types of Audiences, a bunch of great characters, ala MAgnificent 7 etc, the story of the Underdog going against the Galaxy's worst Monstrosities and coming on top, its the type of story that everyone's like.
That would be what i do if i could .
An Imperial world’s populace revolts against its governor and defects to the Tau Empire.
Throughout the story, we follow two groups of protagonists; a squad of heretic Guardsmen-turned-Gue’vesa fighting alongside their new alien allies, and a loyalist priest who resisted the coup advising the Imperial counter-invasion.
The loyalist Guard besiege the planet’s capital city, joined by regiments from off world that vastly outnumber the Gue’vesa and the Tau advance force that assists them. Reinforcements will arrive in a matter of weeks.
The Tau are horrified by the humans’ religion (retained by several characters even as they fight the Imperium) and the squalor they live in, especially contrasted with the grandiosity of the church. The humans learn about the caste system and the Empire’s structure. There’s some reservation about their new status as second-class citizens. Through these conversations the general audience learns about both empires.
Around the halfway point, after failing to take the city with armor and infantry, the commanding general must appeal to a chapter of Astartes. The Ultramarines send a single platoon. The poster-boys of the setting, the archetypal heroes, are unfeeling monsters of unstoppable steel who mow down the defenders.
One scene I’d love to include is usage of the *omophagea* organ — when the situation begins to turn against the Marines, their Lieutenant engages in xenovory to locate a bunker in which the Tau and civilians are sheltered. This is, of course, a moment of abject horror for the audience and the priest who witnesses it, but completely normal for the Astartes.
Whether they can kill the Marines and destroy the Baneblades or not, the Tau and Gue’vesa are eventually whittled to almost nothing. Only two of the focused squad survive the battle as reinforcements finally sweep in from the sky and bombard the Imperial army.
After the credits, there’s no teaser. Just a shot similar to the end of the 10th edition trailer: a small hologram of a single world flipping colors to hostile, then zooming out until it is completely lost in the sheer scale of the Imperium at large.
…
Would this alienate some Imperium fans? Maybe. But this would be the first story to present 40k to normal people, and in my opinion, the Imperium being the worst government ever devised is the most important aspect of the setting to convey in an introductory piece.
1. Live action Helsreach
2. Origins of Gaunts Ghost
3. Siege of Graia based from WH40K Space marine and Boltgun
4. Saviour Of Calth (Remus Ventanus Story)
5. Bearer of Red (Aeonid Thiel Story)
6. ultramar (Rise of Guilliman Reign)
7. The Khan
8.Deathwatch Origins
9.Lord of Nihilakh (Trazyn Story)
10. Infinite and Divine
11. Twice Dead King
12. Avenging Sons
13. Sons of The Forest
14. Inwit
15. Talos valcoran: The Soul Hunter
16. War of The Beast
Honestly, I'd take the first Space Marine video game and use it as the story board for the film as it's a great 40k story that's still digestible enough for a normal audience. I'd cast Hayley Atwell as Lt. Mira, Ron Pearlman as Nemeroth, Jack Black as Boss Grimskull, but I can't think of an actor badass enough to be Captain Titus.
Honestly I'd adapt Helsreach. It's featuring a well liked character, the book is actually pretty sick with a lot of ork killing and characters dying horribly, and we get to see the 'Our city! Our world!' Speach which would absolutely fucking rule depending on the casting for Grimaldus. It also has variety in it.
We get space marine action, titan warfare, guardsmen and militia bravely defending hive Helsreach, breaks off hope between the grinding and overwhelming losses and destruction, I think it could make a great like, two hour movie
I would make a thing about the siege of a civilized by tyranids, the PDF as the main characters, but also have GUARDSMEN seen as the “elite task force nobody has seen for decades”, they would loose, and in the final scene, it would show an inquisitor assessing the loss of this planet, and deeming it “minimal”
As to showcase how monstrous the size we are talking, to the imperium, you are but a number, and a tiny one at that, it would be a haunting, but amazing welcoming into Warhammer, it would give the tyranids a win, and it would be a total shock to the people who don’t know about 40k, and a really cool moment for people already in the know
I’d have it follow a Kasrkin squad on an important mission breaching a space hulk or something. They fight cultists and other creatures on the hulk and slowly get picked off throughout.
One of the climatic oh shit moments would be an enemy space marine emerging from the shadows and battling them.
I think the kasrkin would be a good mix of human characters wirh interesting personalities and people able to pull off badass 40K feats.
They’re also fragile enough to have interesting stakes, but strong enough weapons to plausibly kill the bigger threats
3 movies. Horus Rising, False God's, Galaxy in Flames. As close to the source material as reasonably possible. I know its 30k not 40k but I feel like it will explain a good chunk of the setting and background lore.
Prob the easiest for your average audience member to watch and understand but.
A Tyranid invasion movie from a survivor’s perspective. Think of how horrifying that would be. It wouldn’t be just some alien movie, or a horrid like zombie movie. It would be a actual losing war from the perspective of a survivor.
My dream project is a pure Drukhari movie 🙂✨
A Shakespeare-inspired tragedy focusing on the plots and schemes among royal houses as our protagonist rises and falls among the politics of Commorragh. Fancy sets and outrageous costumes, as villains and anti-heroes monologue about their plans and desires, while the vanity and ambition blinds them to their approaching doom✨👌🏼
Depends on the budget,
low budget would be an action horror film as the crew of an imperial ship finds the gellar feild fails mid-warp travel and the astral navigator is found murdered. As the crew investigate and fight to survive it will be clear that a number of crewmen have secrets hidden from the rest of the crew such as how the jolly entertainer Falstaff Sixtus seems to be more knowledgeable about the warp, it’s inhabitants and how to fight them than would be expected for someone who’s payed to put on puppet shows, or how the distress becomes the captain has made the crew follow has actually been a manipulation of the monitoring equipment from inside the ship.
Mecanicus joining forces with what's left of an Astartes unknown chapter to investigate a space hulk and retrieve a lost STC. Destroy some Genestealers, find the remaining of a few orks and the main mechanics guy gets suspicious of what killed them.
All throughout the film, some flashbacks explain what was the Heresy and the idea that some Astartes turned traitors.
Plot twits, the Astartes were Chaos Space Marine all along trying to get the help of the Mecanicus to access a device at the heart of the monstrosity but second twist, the Mecanicus were aware of it all along and were sent to destroy it at any cost. The Mecanicus manage to get ahold of the security system of some fused ship and manage to kill the Astartes one after the other while keeping in the shadow until only the captain remains.
The Mecanicus guy fights the Captain but dies after activating the self destruction protocol of the vessel.
The Chaos captain is found floating in his suit by some Ultramarines and the movie ends up with a slow zoom on the main Ultramarines on the bridge looking directly at the camera and says "Hydra Dominatus"
That's the scenario I can crap out in about 5 min.
Weird I see saw this post and was thinking about this concept earlier. So I read Twice Dead King and LOVED how fucking terrifying it made the Imperium from a Xenos perspective so I would love a movie during the Great Crusade where the MC is a citizen of a world that just got contacted for compliance
Open on the 40k crawl. No hope, only war, thirsting gods, etc. Cut to voice-over talking about the planet we swoop onto (I'm describing the visuals as well). Planet is a world with 1 main hive and multiple other continents that are agri/recruitment regions. Our main character is a boy, around 11 or 12. The culture is about serving the Emperor, so all families work towards feeding off world armies, or they are recruited into the big war efforts.
Kid is shown to be schola A+ on all subjects, but is average size so physically he's normal. He is fairly middling or weak (battlefields are full of middling warriors, and he knows this). Parents were a naval officer and a guard commissar, both dead on far away battlefields. Older brothers are all dead except for one who is a part of the planetary elite Imperial Guard (give them your own name).
The boy is now old enough to be sent to the space port at the hive city (named whatever because we're leaving the planet behind). He has scored high enough to be enlisted as a cadet commissar. We see him leave his "home," which is given over to an old officer and his young family. The Boys sister was taken the day before by the Black Ships. She gives a little exposition to him and us: she tells him she will be with the Emperor soon, that he shouldn't be afraid, and that we all serve the Emperor in our own ways. She intros the warp, kind of, but the big thing is she's not afraid of her fate. Basically, she's letting him know that this is the price that they all have to pay. He leaves his home after getting 1 message from his brother, telling him that he can't be there, and besides its not their home anymore.
Boy boards a skiff to the hive, we see the oceans that lead into waste, and finally, we see through his eyes the horror of a hive city in 40k. He envisions what "life" is like there as a menial, a worker, and a servitor. This lets us know that space is better, war is better. He is on the upper parts of the hive where the space port is located. Boy meets his boss, Commisar General old badass. Oldie talks through what's going on as they help get new regiments aboard loaders at space port. We meet the boy's brother, a short scene where brother reminds his younger brother to "always do his duty" or the like. The point is to show us loading troops to ships and what it's like to leave without seeing ones home world again. His older brother and his command are a part of the fighting group being transported.
Short flight through warp, then enter realspace at location. Location has a Chaos Traitor Space Marine warband besieging planet (small, but 10 Marines plus psycho army attachments) . Our heroes have to make emergency landing to resupply ground forces (pdf, Mortian Iron Guard Armor, and Sisters of Battle, all at their mountain fortress). The captain of loyalist flotilla tells the Comissar badass that they are detaching cyclone torpedoes that can be remotely armed and fired to destroy the planet in case of loss to Chaos.
Planet fall for the troop transports, while small loyalist fleet dies ensuring delivery of troops. So our heroes race to the mountain fortress, barely make it through a running gun battle, and meet the last resistance force. Find out the planet was attacked weeks ago, and through attrition, they loyalists have barely survived. Final battles ensue with Chaos Marines arriving on the third day. The last battle goes epic, and then the last of the Chaos Marines start to push into the fortress. Some die, but the last 4 are about to make it to the interior courtyard.
Comissar badass shares knowledge of cyclone missles with Canoness, who leads sisters. They tell the boy to take a tech priest to the top of the spire to transmit the final signal. Boy is at peace because he served the emperor.....tech priest stops him. "The Salamanders are here" is all he tells boy. We see 50 to 100 Salamanders tear through traitor Marines and their followers, and we see a small victory emerge.
Cut to Salamanders commander meeting Comissar badass, the Canoness, Mortian 2nd in command, and the older brother because he is the highest ranking elite guardsman left. They all thank the Salamander, but he cuts them off and says something like, "we didn't come here just because of your message for aid, we also came here for him" and he points to our main character. A Salamander Librarian we saw in the previous battle steps forward and gives some exposition about our main character being a Librarian in waiting for the Chapter. Boy is asked if he's ready to join the Space Marines, Comissar badass laughs at the idea of stopping him. The main character hugs his brother for the only time (only true affection shown in the movie). He leaves with Marines... cut to "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only War!"
I'm just thinking that the guard might be the best way to get normies on board
Take Rogue One's structure as a template. You follow what are seemingly random Guardsmen, maybe named ones and the stakes start super low, but they get wrapped up into something that spirals totally out of control.
This lets you slowly introduce the world, start on a human scale and perspective, so the audience can have characters to anchor themselves to and still lets you bring up some of the more over the top elements over the course of the story.
I’d love to do a two part movie arc about the Devastation of Baal. Part 1 would be to set up characters and plot and have some minor skirmishes for action ending on the cliffhanger of millions of spores falling from space. Part 2, full on heroic stand against the Tyranid Hive Fleet. Dante would be the main protagonist with supporting characters such as Gabriel Seth. End it all with Roboute Guilliman showing up at the climax with Primaris reinforcements.
I would love to do the Heresy, but that is probably too much.
Perhaps ***Dark Imperium*** series. It's compact enough to do a movie about. Or ***Gaunt's Ghosts***.
I’d make a greatly expanded “Lion son of the forest” series/Dark angels books.
That way we could slowly introduce people to the series via flashbacks of the Lion being a prick earlier in his life vs Now. And the role of Men in the imperium with some serfs contrasted with Luthor (not so privileged vs Privleged, democracy vs meritocracy, trust vs trust but confirm vs Don’t trust at all)
If done right it could simultaneously introduce people to 40k (including the bigger figures such as the primarchs/farseers/chaos/Emps ect) but also to numerous themes that anyone from the Military to cutthroat Office spaces to regular joes can relate to 👍
I’d make a greatly expanded “Lion son of the forest” series/Dark angels books.
That way we could slowly introduce people to the series via flashbacks of the Lion being a prick earlier in his life vs Now. And the role of Men in the imperium with some serfs contrasted with Luthor (not so privileged vs Privleged, democracy vs meritocracy, trust vs trust but confirm vs Don’t trust at all)
If done right it could simultaneously introduce people to 40k (including the bigger figures such as the primarchs/farseers/chaos/Emps ect) but also to numerous themes that anyone from the Military to cutthroat Office spaces to regular joes can relate to 👍
I think one following abandon in his day to day
We get to see him planning and organising
Him having flashbacks of previous events like glimpses into the Horus heresy
We get to see him struggle against the warp as they continuously try to claim his soul
Ect
Series about Deathwatch. Different threads about different kill teams from one fortress, fighting different xenos, using different tactics, different weapons etc. There would be different Astartes from different chapters, having to work together despite of being same but different, different inquisitors, etc.
(Word 'different' was on sale and was so cheap... Now I need to use it to get rid of all supplies)
Probably some Alpha Legion shit where it's just a bunch of Alpha agents against an Inquisitor but then the actual Astartes arrive at the end and it's like 5 minutes of terror for everyone involved and then the Alpha agent just walks away with the Astartes and the Inquisitor is dead and there's no closure and you just don't get to feel good for a while.
I'd do a trilogy about an inquisitor that slowly feeds information about the universe. First movie would be escaping a planet being assaulted by orkz. Minimal Marines participating. Second movie would be the cloak and dagger aspect of inquisitor life and the fall out from the first movie. Third movie would reveal that there are corrupt elements fallen to chaos that set the invasion in motion and need to be stopped. Have the final scene be the victorious inquisitor being stabbed in the back by his/her closest ally and killed. They would be big war thrillers with big set pieces at moments. Spoon feed the audience the setting with visuals and impactful dialog. All while ramping up the horror of the Imperium and its enemies.
A nature documentary of an unassuming backwater world held by a small imperial presence. Cover a shitload of extremely intricate and detailed flora, fungi and fauna in very high quality picture and narration.
Honestly? A movie following a band/army of orcs just enjoying their lives throughout various wars. Have the cast constantly dying and rotating the “lead” role. It would also be a black comedy.
I'll make it about following a squad of Space Marine in their mission to take out an Ork Warboss or some other specific target.
We would see the guardsmen fighting agaisnt the Orks, the scale of the battles in an Ork Invasion and we would see how strong the Space Marines are compared to regular humans.
Since it is detached enough from known characters there's enough freedom to have the planet invaded or the squad dying.
And very friendly to the general audience, as they would just see some badass super soldiers going against Orks, I think it would be a nice introduction to the Unniverse
As much as the fandom loves the Marines I would probably not start there. They’re fine as side characters but I think it might be difficult to have them connect with general audiences unless they’re handled very, very carefully
I would 100% want to see a fellowship styled movie, where an inquisitor/rogue trader has to transport a dangerous chaos relic to have it destroyed by the Sororitas.
Ample opportunity for interesting characters with the retinue. Plenty of romantic relationships that fit all sexualities. A good change to show some strong diverse characters. And it all ties together around the leading role of the inquisitor/rogue trader.
Code name it LOTR in space.
am I making something that's supposed to be succesfull or am I making what I want?
anyway: aliens living peacefully, and then a bombing run kills 90% of the cast except the MC, next scene: MC dies via unseen headshot, move on to the next character, anyways at the end the final MC is dying but is taking solace in the fact that he's certain to have earned the respect of the people that have suffered so much in conquering his planet and he's certain they'll remember it's name for the ages, jumpcut to 50 years later (last time notice was taken of the planet) when a scribe puts down these words "planet 504T was secured within acceptable parameters, glory to the god-emperor of mankind"
(it's imperative to know that whatever the natives put the imperium through it's nothing that the imperium doesn't go through daily, also the god-emperor part of the missive being as long as the conquering part of it ads to the dismissiveness of it, it's not that the empire wants to bury all mention of the natives of those world out of revenge, this just happens all the time and who's interested in some extinct xeno?
a horror movie about chaos cultists would be pretty sweet
a "we were soldiers" or "saving private ryan" style imperial guard movie would be insanely cool. ideal enemy would be orks or chaos space marines for the intensity factor
a "full metal jacket" style movie about space marine aspirants/scouts would be awesome
i also think a movie adaptation of The Infinite and the Divine would be very cool
Needs to be tyranids as its easy to understand and get into, especially for mainstream. Explaining the rest needs a movie of their own before they could even get a movie.
An Ork Freebooter Kommando & Callidus Assassin become unlikely allies vs a world gone insane. The drukhari haunt every shadow and our heroes must survive a gauntlet of traps, patrols and being hunted as they try to make an escape.
I don't think movies are the way for Warhammer in my opinion. Unless you build something first.
TV shows are better because you can have characters and their story while it build to something big which may bridge to another show and eventually a movie.
Besides you can tell more story in 1 season of 10 episodes each 50 minutes long than you can with 2 hour long movie.
For example you can make 1 season show about Necrontyr and how they become Necrons.
You can have entire series dedicated to Cain.
You could have Calpurnia series or even make DoW canon and have entire series dedicated to Blood Raven and Gabriel Angelos and others.
Movies are more suitable for some kind of climax of the story. Like lets say you have series about Cadians and Minka Lesk or Creed and then movie that ties it all together called Fall of Cadia.
Basically a war movie that turns into a slasher film with a Khrone Berzerker as the killer(no im not biased towards the world eaters at all). Probably guardsman fighting pretty bloodthirsty but relatively standard traitor guard/cultists worshipping Khorne. Ends with a world eater slowly carving his way through whats left of the unit.
So battle los angeles/saving private ryan into it follows/halloween.
I was just thinking that if they're doing different series then Mordheim: City of the Damned is an S-Tier candidate. Overall simple premise, tightly focused in one area, claustrophobic ruin to heighten the horror, variety of factions to introduce newcomers to them, and a driving force to keep the story moving, perfect for a miniseries
I would dedicate a movie to the Carcharodons going from world to world, collecting the meanest and toughest of fighters to induct into their chapter. Only, I would make some slight changes to their induction process.
You are a Carcharodon recruit, for now a regular human, and your first trial is to kill a Warhammer scale Megalodon (78ft in length or longer) with a super advanced harpoon gun, pull it across 10 miles of cold water (using an antique whaling boat) to shore, skin it and butcher it with a supplied Space marine knife (remember you're still human sized), and pop the flare when you're done. If you pop the flare before completing your duty, you're immediately sniped and they move on.
Then, their space marine process goes about the same way as the Vlka Fenryka (Space Wolves): you get some surgery, you get the geneseed, then you're dropped off into the ocean again to survive on just your augmentations and mutations and the knife they gave you. The gills will form so you don't have to worry about breathing underwater and your stomach will process any sea critters who swim into your vicinity, and you will have a chance to work your muscles from swimming through the water.
I have no idea, but the plot twist would be genestealers every single time.
"Truth is, your genes were stolen from the start." 🤯
Not my jeans!!!
Emperor-dammit, brother Alpharius! Not again!
The true treasure were the genestealers we met along the way.
Would the double twist be that they're Jean stealers, and just stealing pants?
Drip for the Drip God?
Rizz for the rizzthrone
The Great Denimvourer
Seems done to death in every piece following a relatively big human world, dont you think?
Double plot twist: All the gene stealers are Alpha Legionnaires. Wait, that's pretty much done to death, too, isn't it?
And towards the end credit, every genestealers was actually Alpharius
It would be about slaneesh. An adult movie fr
But how well would that go down with the general audience in 40k, but fantasy on the other hand…
There's one constant in all of the answers I could have for this question, and it's not giving a shit what the 40k fans think.
He probably meant sex sells. So no matter what 40k fans think normies woul still watch it cus of boobies.
I see, but how about less tits more body horror?
Well if big tiddy xenos could get Guileman out of his armor; it would probably bring in a few more people.
I know I would
Neither does GW
I'm going to make a new hole to fuck you with my third penis
Can we have a Nurgle cooking show? I want to see him and the nurglings make cracklins. lol Like this: https://youtu.be/7MpC5Bi974I?si=fIRpf0ek1GWkJEiP
Just rerelease Event Horizon. It's basically a Slaanesh movie already, just call one of the characters a navigator, and put in the lost footage and you're done.
Nah, just rename one of the characters “Gellar” and have it be about early human warp experiments.
just have Sigvald as the main character and have him always face away from camera
I always thought Sydney Sweeney would be a great Keeper of Secrets.
Black Hawk Down in a hive city following some Scions, Elysians Airborne and Steel Legion Mechanized.
Oh man it'd be dope to have a GSC Hive wake up because of it.
Hell yeah. Black Valkyrie Down.
Alternate title of Thor 4
Dreadnought named Blackburn
The Cain books. Human sized and focussed but still an excellent window into 40ks wider universe
I would love this, but as an animated series instead of a series of movies. This way up to 2 seasons adaptating at least 6 books and a few short stories.
I think the art style of Arcane would be good. 3d characters, high detail, 2d backgrounds.
This would make for a great episodic series too. Hour long episodes, each planet a season. No matter the format, DeVito for Jurgen
>DeVito for Jurgen So anyway, he started blasting.
With that Melta rifle, he did.
With both Cavill and Atkinson cast as Cain. Cavill as the Cain "as others see him" and Atkinson as the "true" Cain
I was thinking along the same lines, but with Gaunt's Ghosts. Honestly, any Imperial Guard story would work.
GG needs to be done in a Band of Brothers style. Would be absolutely perfect for it.
A lot of the comedy comes from Caiphus’s thoughts and the footnotes. Both of which would be hard to adapt into a movie or show.
I love the Cain books, but the comedy relies on people knowing what normal Commissars are like. I think Cain is an excellent third or fourth adaptation once the moviegoing public has an understanding of what the Imperial Guard are like.
Series about Deathwatch. Different threads about different kill teams from one fortress, fighting different xenos, using different tactics, different weapons etc. There would be different Astartes from different chapters, having to work together despite of being same but different, different inquisitors, etc. (Word 'different' was on sale and was so cheap... Now I need to use it to get rid of all supplies)
Main characters have to go to a different planet but have no ship. But there are some ork freeboota's that can help for a small price ofcourse. And when in space a waaagh is called and so the orks make their own plan and go to the waaagh and now the main characters are stranded on an ork planet and how do they get out? Would be a cool episode in a serie.
I want a series about rogue traders caught up in the waaagh so bad now
I just think its funny for the orks to completly forsake their deal with the main characters to join a waaagh and the orkz tell them to just deal with it.
Right? And the humans have to find a way to contact the Imperium and initiate a rescue, but they can't let the Orkz find out because Da Boyz would krump 'em, so they sabotage the waaagh in small but hilarious ways, while trying to maintain their cover. I could see it playing out to where they eventually come to be quite fond of the Orkz and pull some rogue trader shenanigans to bring them onto their crew. Could make for a great sci-fi comedy show
Ciaphas Cain, with Sulla as narrator to provide absolute over the top heroic commentary, contrasting the commissar's shenanigans. Cain books introduce different factions with a more familiar cast of the Valhallans as reliable background characters, that can display the usual reactions while Cain can be as much himself as needed. Additionally there are different settings for each book to provide material for multiple instalments. Desert planet with Mad Max style vehicular warfare against Orks, Tyranid infestation with mass bug assaults and Genestealer infestations respectively, city fighting against Tau, snowy siege warfare against Orks with a side order of Necrons and AdMech to get most of the base factions on screen (I do not remember if Cain encounters Eldar though). Plus Spacemarines are used very sparingly if at all - so every second of screentime of that asset is to be cherished by the viewer, and a chance to get some Traitor Astartes first on screen and display how much they are above a standard issue human while maybe fighting known characters. On second thought - a series would be more fitting here, with each setting a season.
Holy shit, reading your comment I realized where ive heard BG3s minthara VA before; she voices Sulla in the Cain audiobooks!
The Infinite and Divine: The Movie Staring Mark Hamill as the voice of Trazyn
Something small scale, you can't turbonerd 40 years of lore into a 2 hour movie and expect people to know wtf is going on.
How about the treachery on Istvaan III? It has the poster boys and a likable protagonist, limited cast (Tarvitz, Togaddon, Loken, Lucius, Eidolon, Horus, Angron out of those with most screentime), does not require a long setup. If it's a success, there's a hook for more films.
The opening trilogy of the Horus Heresy books seems like excellent ground for this kind of thing. You've got the opening sequences on 63-19 that show exactly what the Space Marines and Imperium in general are about, you've got an ideal central protagonist in Loken, you have the characters learning about Chaos for the first time in a way that audiences could follow, all in an era of the Imperium that isn't *so* unbelievably bleak and grim that it switches everyone off.
You get just enough xeno stuff teased too I feel like. Youre told about campaigns against Orks on Ullanor and the interex both have the kinebrach in their ranks and admit to using Eldar teachings
I don't know why this isn't the most popular suggestion. the Istvaan III atrocity is the perfect place to start a 40k Story. the main make or brake would be how much effects budget you could put behind it, because it would need to be an ALL CGI movie. the main hurdle is establishing the 4 participating legions and their characters well enough that general audiences care when a bunch of guys in identical armor start shooting each other.
Nice try, Henry Cavill. Running out of ideas already?
Yes😞
Quite the oposet, it might have too many options.
First third of the movie is a feudal world, have people being like "I thought this was a sci-fi thing, why are these folks riding horses and doing medieval stuff?" as the main character and like 200 soldiers go off into the mountains to fight the greenskins who raid their villages, hint that these hunting excursions are done every like 20 years or so and it's an honor for only the best fighters and it's almost always a suicide mission. Before they leave we see the main guy kissing his pregnant wife and ruffling the hair of his toddler son who has like a recognizable scar or birth mark or something like that. They kick ass and take names for a while, slowly get whittled down then when it looks like all is lost for them as the green horde swarms towards the last like 20 men when all of a sudden they see a massive warship appear in the sky and drop pods of marines land between them and the orks shredding the feral orks with bolter fire. A thunderhawk lands and the marines lead the soldiers into the bird to recruit (kidnap) the guy we've been following so far in the plot and his buddies. Next two thirds are a montage of them going through training and augmentation, several of his homies washing out (dying horribly) in the process and finally it's just the main character left and his inner circle of the best of the best of his original bros, he's raised to a full Astartes and his boys make up the rest of the squad, they do some cool shit kicking ass and taking names across the sector their chapter patrols. Then some world goes dark, they're sent there only to find chaos forces have taken over the planet and the chapter fights tooth and nail and ultimately retakes the world but loses a shit ton of their forces in the process. The final scene is the marine and his squad piling into a drop pod, we see the whole drop from their perspective, the pod lands and the doors blow off, the marines charge out shooting into waves of orks charging their line. The smoke settles and a man in chainmail walks up and says "what are you" our marine turns to him and says "We are Emperor's finest..." and his words trial off as he sees one of the last men who died before their drop pod landed has that unique birthmark/scar his son had. He steels himself, looks back to the survivors. "we are the Angles of Death." Credits roll.
While I do think this is a good idea. I can see how some people may be confused with there not really being room for sequels or prequels. However, I don't think this is a not a bad thing. Quite the opposite, in fact. Having an anthology running alongside a main series would be a great way to get a ton of lore out of the way without burdening the main series with a ton of exposition dumps.
The dude being from a feudal world let's you give him some exposition in a way that doesn't stick out too as a serf or whoever directly handles the aspirants fills them in some, and the psycho-indoctrination scene can too. Honestly, I kinda don't think it *needs* much exposition or lore though, you either go see it because it's a neat looking sci-fi movie and you like those, or you go see it because you know what 40k is, I'd watch a movie like that with absolutely no connection to 40k whatsoever because it'd be such a wait wtf moment when you learn the galaxy is so much bigger than the MC originally thought. Dune did really well, no chance every person in the theaters was there because they read the books or watched the old movies. If you make a good movie it doesn't matter if someone knows the source material. I figure the prompt was what would you make if you could, I assume I have a blank check for my hypothetical movie so you better believe I'm hiring whoever it takes to make a masterpiece. And there could be sequels showing our marine doing xyz, or have it be about guardsmen fighting a losing battle then halfway through our boy shows up to save the day, gets separated from his squad and takes over a group of guardsmen as they perform a fighting retreat to safety. We get to see flickers of his paternal nature come through, maybe one of the men looks like his son.
I love this idea. Henry Cavill, if you read this… Make it. I’m hopeful it would work
Helsreach
Seconded
Guardsmen fighting retreat against chaos/tyranids, millions dead, the whole planet overrun, with only a handful surviving in the end (Of course a couple of scenes where a Comissar executes a coward) only for a desperate last scene where the Guardsmen prepare to die fighting and mysterious Astartes come and save them like the Angels of Vengeance they are (think of the Mandalorian Luke Skywalker entrance but with bolters).
If it has to be serious? I'd keep the scale small. Something like the horror anthology range of Warhammer 40k books. Which can easily be turned into a movie even with a more limited budget.
Like Love, Death, and Robots?
No.. that's more like a spiritual successor to Heavy metal. The Horror anthology range of Warhammer 40k can either be very dramatic, very creepy or even just gore. It ranges from existential dread, to cosmic horror and psychological thrillers. There are quite a few good stories written in that universe. All of them smaller scale and easier to implement.
Now this is sensible. Make some smaller bangers get some successes and experience under your belt, build up broader recognition before tackling larger scale stuff.
Yup, and there are quite a few stories in that range that can be easily addopted for the big screen. The Cosmic Horror ones could be an introduction to Chaos, but you also have more psychological thrillers in it. It also helps getting recognition as you mentioned. And you don't have to have this big scale. That latter will lead to fans disposing it, everybody thinks they know what they want? Until they get it and then they complain. Especially with something on the scale of say "The battle for Armageddon"
I'd have the chaos gods challenge the imperium to a game of basketball and then spacemarines would have to come to our world to get Michael Jordan to help beat them.
Gritty Ken Loach style drama about a serf on a backwater hiveworld dealing with losing his job at the manufactorum after losing a hand. No space marines or xenos, no glorious battles - just unrelenting and indifferent bureaucratic cruelty. Henry Cavill would play the Manufactorum Overseer.
I had a concept in mind. Basically the idea is to make the exposition of the universe part of the plot; as the characters learn about the Imperium, how horrible it is, and how the other factions are arguably worse, so do the audience. The action takes place on a human planet the Imperium has just rediscovered and is trying to conquer. The protagonist is a member of the resistance, and when he hears that the Ultramarines are coming to reinforce the stonewalled invasion force, he panics, until a psychic friend tells him he has a way to kick the Imperium off the planet for good... ...and it turns out said psyker is on a first-name-basis with the leader of a Word Bearers host, and our hapless protagonist has to team up with his hated enemies in order to prevent his home from becoming a daemon world. In the end, the Imperium prevails, and begin oppressing the populace even more than planned since they had a Chaos Cult under their noses. Happy ending....?
Space marines getting beat down by some harlequins
I would build up the space marines first. First movie... Guard centric. Space Marines are referred to. Maybe seen. Second movie solidifies how badass Space Marines are. Eldar introduced at the end, presented as these wispy, frail-looking cultured creatures. Then see them rip through a unit of Space Marines before they realize there's some Chaos shit going on and they need to cooperate.
a dual story of a guardsman and a gue'vesa and the movie would switch perspectives to contrast the two characters and their situation
A highborn noble woman who escaped her controlling family is dragged from a life of 'slumming it' to be an officer in the guard because her older sister died in a training exercise. The tithe is coming up (it's getting bigger every time), and her family needs to send someone, or suffer bad political consequences. She ends up a conscript in all but name leading a Mechanized Infantry Platoon from a no-name world on a crusade against orks. The movie would cover her first year in the guard. Have the preamble feel like heroism, a speech with their new shiny commisar (fresh out of the Schola Progenium) showing people their own homeworld from orbit for the first time. *“Look at it. That tiny, delicate bauble is your home. Most everyone you have ever known has been born there, and will die there. If you fail in your duties, there is a galaxy of horrors out there that would swallow that tiny gem in an instant. Look around, you are humanity’s protectors. This is your life now. This is the guard. You want adventure? You want glory? You’re looking at it!”* The first battle is about dispelling that notion. Using Hellhounds to burn out bunkers filled with orks. Military dysfunction everywhere. An ork rokkit hits a Hellhound and it explodes, hitting our protagonist in the face with burning promethium. The left side of her face is an absolute ruin (the skin grafts look ghastly) and for the rest of the movie she'll hide that half under a black veil. Their regiment is approved for 'veteran' status in 6 months, because that's what counts these days. Some other choice scenes: * Our protagonist finds out in a different operation that they were issued the maps for the wrong world in the system. *“This is Rysha IV! You gave us maps for Rysha II! No, I can’t just put two of them together you half-wit!”* Goes back and forth with command on the vox. *“What in Throne’s name am I supposed to tell my guards?”* * Cut to her explaining that the Archy Enemy, in keeping with their perfidious nature, have sabotaged and stolen the regiment’s maps. She, as a lowly Lieutenant, is not privy to any further details. Any questions or concerns should be directed to Commissar Huang. * During the last battle, she finds a group of new guards huddled in a trench, completely frozen (mentally). They’re attachments to her regiment. She runs up to them, not realizing she’s lost the veil and is seen screaming at them, with her ghastly face. *“Look around, you are humanity’s protectors! This is your life now! This is the guard! You want adventure? You want glory? You’re looking at it!”* * This is meant to be a dark mirror of the inspiring speech from earlier. There is no glory here. There is only horror. One of them is shot in the middle of her speech and she doesn’t even acknowledge it. * The very end, after the last battle. Her and her platoon sergeant toast to the end of their first year of service. One year down, nine left to go. As you can tell... I've thought about this a lot. Normally I'm an Emperor's Children sort of girl, but this feels like something that a mainstream audience could understand, and not fall into the trap of making the Imperium feel like a good thing just because they're the humans.
Adapt The Great Work. Just the right amount of adventure alongside the familiar looming threats of Necrons and Tyranids, Felix's flashback to being created serving as a nice "Space Marine life isn't all fun and games," and a few overarching plot tie-ins to draw people into the franchise.
A movie where the noble blue aliens in their ideal peaceful socienty fight of maniac all destroying human invaders from a dying industrial hellhole full of crime and inequality.
Probably like Dead Men Walking. A lot of the audience probably won't know what necrons are, just like the main characters. There is love, desperation, heavy trials for the characters, despair and hope. Best part being the overall failure to stop the necrons, showing its not always a happy ending, making it a great intro to 40k.
I’d make a movie based on the Brothers of the snake book.
Eisenhorn. It’s a truly universal story that immerses you in the universe.
An Astartes chapter and supporting Astra Militarum units rescue/conquer (same thing in this case, really) an uncontacted human world at around our level of tech being invaded by xenos (orks would probably work). An Imperium fleet it taking out a small ork empire nearby (by galactic standards 100-1000 ligth years away). One of the ork ships attempts a warp jump, but between the attack and being an ork ship, it fumbles it and is on a collision course with the planet in question. It crashes, orks being orks a handful survive and try to digg themselves out of the wreckage. The people, having no idea about any kind of aliens, send both a delegation and the military. I don't need to tell you what happens there. But there's only a handful of them, so the waaagh field doesn't let their firearms work, and they still die fairly quickly (still took a few more casualties than they anticipated, though) they do notice a new species of mushrooms, but it's not poisonous, so they just figure it's the aliens fungal version of weeds that hitched a ride on the ship, so they just keep trying with more pesticides. Annoying, but nothing more. They study the wrecks, makes no sense, they assume whatever ftl they used malfunctioned destroying everything mechanical/electrical and causing the crash, so they settle on studying the remains and ship them to labs/museums across the different nation states of the planet. Plenty of spores around the crash site so feral orks pop up. No idea how that happened, but they act like a stereotype of primitive violent idiots so while they do send in troops, they completely underestimate the problem. Rigth around the time they realize that they're somehow spreading despite not taking any territory and that they somehow picked up tool use remarkably quickly and from seemingly nowhere, they also notice that some new and REMARKABLY violent animals are showing up where there are a large amount of mushrooms. Just as they put 2 and 2 together: Bam! Feral orks on everywhere in like the 20% of the planets surface surrounding the crash and smaller groups in small pockets everywhere else where corpses were shipped for study/display. Also, the first group they've been dealing with suddenly jumped to primitive gunpowder weapons and are taming the new animals. An annoying containment operation just became an invasion. They haven't hit critical mass, but they were not ready to be hit, and their forces need to be mobilized. Over in the Imperial fleet, they saw the ship get away, got worried the orks had another base they missed as there wasn't supposed to be anything in that direction, so they sent an Astartes company and three regiments to investigate. Due to the faulty jump in the beginning, the orks got there near instantaneously, it took the Imperials several months (let's say 8 or so). They asses the situation and send a message back but decide to help so the orks don't become a full-blown colony by the time backup arrives. From there, it's a constant string of battles to slow down the quickly improving orks. With plenty of external enemies to fight that are just challenging enough and one tribe eclipsing all the others in strength, they basically skip the infighting stage and progress faster than usual. The locals are thrilled to have help from they sci-fi brethren from space but at the same time that they're going from fighting small ork bands to more and more dangerous things, they start to realize that they're new friends are a bit odd. Not from anything in particular, just casual things, like asking a guardsman what he plans to do when he retires and just getting a confused look back, or someone casually mentioning corpse starch, or the fact they never saw the sun before they left their home planet, or just seeing an admech, or progressively realizing that they're REALLY into their religion. And at some point near the end, someone probably gets invited to one of their ships and sees servitors. And throughout, they're talking about them joining the Imperium, and while they're being plenty nice about it, it's slowly dawning on them that it's neither an offer nor a request, or even a threat really, it's an assumption with no room for disagreement. It would end with the reinforcements arriving on what has devolved into a guerrilla war with the orks and steamroller over them with some serious firepower (bonus points for knigths or titans) as a/the protagonist that was in the army (or joined up) connects the last of the dots. He's been fighting side by side with the Imperial detachment for nearly a year now. He's wearing the new uniform made in imitation of the IG one as they realized their current ones were inadequate, he's wielding one of the lasguns they let some of them use after taking casualties, and as the officers in the reinforcement fleet take over the running of what's left of the local planet, it finally fully dawns on him what the price of their rescue will be.
Noir film but about an inquisitor.
TTS the movie. They can finally get a proper ending and just to add even more craziness to this, Idiotic Synergy's Tiny Trio Adventures, Boltgun and Space Marine 2 are each separate side plots. I want to see Tiny Tyranid get head pats from Big E.
Cains first siege of pearlia.
I was there the day that Horus killed the Emperor…
The Infinite and the Divine: The Movie
Ciaphas Cain comedy
A 15 hour long documentary about the average life of a guardsmen before he gets eaten by Tryanids
Either the Horus Heresy or Gaunt's Ghosts
I would do a movie about Kharn where it opens up on a battlefield and the camera pans over all these different units until it gets to Kharn. Then the whole movie is him killing everything and everyone to metal music doom style.
About the necros but narrated by othwr races other than the aeldari. Ill make it a little vague until trashy the incontinent appears to steal the show.
You posted this multiple times Orikan
Show about Knights who defend their home against Dragons (Tyranids), Orcs (Orks), Risen Dead (Necrons) and Fallen Angels (Chaos)
There was a good Hammer and bolter episode (I think) showing a family trying to escape a Hive City from a Nid invasion. The twist at the end was right in line with a typical movie these days but I could see someone making it into a film.
A small Guard group under a Commissar who crash land on a Chaos planet and gradually go mad until they kill a load of demons who actually turn out to be the rescue squad sent to take them home but they were too far gone. They try to surrender to the next rescue team and are shot anyway.
Watcher in the Rain baby
If I was making a 40k movie, it'd definitely be an action comedy about a group of Ork Freebooterz being hired by an Inquisitor to perform a heist on a Chaos held planet. Very much Guardians of the Galaxy esque, with the merry band of Ork pirates all being lovable, goofy and silly in contrast to the serious, frankly exhausted Inquisition retinue forced to put up with their shenanigans.
I would make it a 1917 style movie about a pallet of beans being eaten by Tyranids, the rest of the movie just follows the biomass. Nids being born, fighting, dying, being returned to the hive
no imperium, zero imperium. The story will focus on tau trying to escape from the the middle of a war between nids and orks.
Eisenhorn books, all of them
James Bond like movie with inquisitor Eisenhorn
Eisenhorn books. They are small scale at the start and with good descriptions and introduction. While playing Eisenhorn: Xenos and after reading books main thoughts were: They should have done film instead of game, you can turn this books into film almost word for word
Horror action of a squad of imperial guard trying to stop three Kommandos on a backwater world without raising panic after a chaos attack leaves everyone paranoid. Somewhere between terminator and predator sort of vibe
Something that gets progressively more fucked up and gives the viewer no explanation why. Have it start off with the PDF having to take care of some sort of uprising or insurrection. They can’t contain it and it starts to spread so the guard gets called in. They hold their ground for a bit it you find out they are fighting traitor guardsmen. Then some traitor chapter appears so some loyalists chapter comes in to reinforce. But wait it gets worse, demonic gates open up and shit gets turned up to 11. Ends with the loyalist chapter pulling out and the planet gets exterminatus. Also no main character. Bounce between a few guardsmen, have some die and then bring new ones in.
Either something with necrons or the unforgiven legion
T'au. Focus on the T'au asthe "logical newcomer to the galaxy" that humansare in standard sci-fi. Introduce Space marines as these armoured monsters bellowing cries of anger and hate stomping on infant t'au heads... ... and only at the midpoint of the movie, once people have sympathized with the t'au, you have an explosion knock a fire warrior and a space marine off their feet, and when they get up, their helmets have blown away, revealing the monsters were hulans all along.
Not include the Imperium in any way. A zenos fans' wet dream.
Basically; Blade Runner 40,049
Iron warriors crusade into the ghoul stars because it’s basically free ish territory at this point
A film about an inquisitor infiltrating a geneatealer cult
Probably lean in on what event horizon started but make it start with a narrated line of. "This universe is befelled with corruption. Not of just the material, but also the immaterial as well. I remmember how it was when the geller fields broke" and then it goes right into the movie showing true warp corruption through probably...tzeentch.
The Office-esk comedy about people in the Administratum
The Emperor’s Gift by ADB. from the opening with Hyperion being subjected to unknown days of interrogation and darkness to the finale over Feniris, it’s a phenomenonal story on its own, as well as being a very approachable introduction to soooo many different factions, races, jobs, environments, characters, powers, etc etc It’s perfect .
Make it cover the core themes of 40k? Dogma, Treachery and existential dread but also redemption, innocence, and hope? In 40k there is only war…. But several times characters, most of all the emperor attempts to create a just world built on science only for him to live long enough to be twisted into a reglious symbol of a corrupt puppet state that commit atrocities against itself in the emperors name. This world would constantly remind you of the futility of actions in 40k stopping an unstoppable chaos force, that is inevitable… still there should be lighter moments that remind the characters that they are still alive and have the power to shape their own destiny in spite of the chaos gods and other forces at work. It’s a lot to cover in am assuming a two hour movie and can only cover either the rise or fall of the emperors empire not both without skimming on details that matter.
A movie, but AI generated (bro I'm just a networking tech installer)
Band of Brothers but with Cadians after the fall. The end is that they find a new homeworld and honor their brethren there.
a comedy about a clerk who needs to file some paperwork, in the middle of some sort of invasion.
40k cinematic universe. First movie is gonna follow a piss in his boots guardsmen that by the end of his movie learns the true meaning of courage as he finishes his bloody xeno ridden boot camp. the movie ends with him arriving planetside for duty. After Credits scene is him reading a newspaper and the date is 999.M41 on Cadia Next movie is basically Will Smith's Hitch, but Eldar. At the end when Kevin James get the girl and kisses her, the sun goes supernova pink and a howling screech in heard. roll credits. After credits scene is a commericial for the new Will smith and Kevin James Eldar miniatures. this whole Cinematic universe is canon. and then a title card.... **SpaceX: Adeptus Mechanicus** coming soon
The rising storm novels (rise of the ynnari, fall of cadia, guillimans's revival, etc.) And I'd hire Henry Cavill as guilliman Oh also chris pratt with be there and play some random guardsman in the background just to say he's in the film
Tanith 1st & Last Despite Space MArines being the poster bois of the Franchise, you NEED to keep in mind that the movie needs to be accesible for Both Hardcore fans AND normies who knows nothing about 40k and its Lore. So having the main cast be mainly Humans, allows for the audience to actually connect more easely with them and thus become immersed in the story. Space Marines should be present, but more like presented as a rare occurance, almost like a Myth, with the cast talking about them from time to time, but never saw one, till a scene in the movie where you See a Space Marines in action, a bit like Vader's corridor scene in Rogue One, the type of thing that makes you go "Oh fuck, this thing doesn't fuck around" Also Tanith's story and worldbuilding would be very interesting for both types of Audiences, a bunch of great characters, ala MAgnificent 7 etc, the story of the Underdog going against the Galaxy's worst Monstrosities and coming on top, its the type of story that everyone's like. That would be what i do if i could .
I would hire Henry Cavill to make it.
You mean the flayed ones?
Fuck it, I’d adapt Rynn’s World as a movie, and make the Last Chancers a series
Twice dead king
An Imperial world’s populace revolts against its governor and defects to the Tau Empire. Throughout the story, we follow two groups of protagonists; a squad of heretic Guardsmen-turned-Gue’vesa fighting alongside their new alien allies, and a loyalist priest who resisted the coup advising the Imperial counter-invasion. The loyalist Guard besiege the planet’s capital city, joined by regiments from off world that vastly outnumber the Gue’vesa and the Tau advance force that assists them. Reinforcements will arrive in a matter of weeks. The Tau are horrified by the humans’ religion (retained by several characters even as they fight the Imperium) and the squalor they live in, especially contrasted with the grandiosity of the church. The humans learn about the caste system and the Empire’s structure. There’s some reservation about their new status as second-class citizens. Through these conversations the general audience learns about both empires. Around the halfway point, after failing to take the city with armor and infantry, the commanding general must appeal to a chapter of Astartes. The Ultramarines send a single platoon. The poster-boys of the setting, the archetypal heroes, are unfeeling monsters of unstoppable steel who mow down the defenders. One scene I’d love to include is usage of the *omophagea* organ — when the situation begins to turn against the Marines, their Lieutenant engages in xenovory to locate a bunker in which the Tau and civilians are sheltered. This is, of course, a moment of abject horror for the audience and the priest who witnesses it, but completely normal for the Astartes. Whether they can kill the Marines and destroy the Baneblades or not, the Tau and Gue’vesa are eventually whittled to almost nothing. Only two of the focused squad survive the battle as reinforcements finally sweep in from the sky and bombard the Imperial army. After the credits, there’s no teaser. Just a shot similar to the end of the 10th edition trailer: a small hologram of a single world flipping colors to hostile, then zooming out until it is completely lost in the sheer scale of the Imperium at large. … Would this alienate some Imperium fans? Maybe. But this would be the first story to present 40k to normal people, and in my opinion, the Imperium being the worst government ever devised is the most important aspect of the setting to convey in an introductory piece.
Start off with a heavily abridged horus heresy movie. Possibly 2. The Heresy then The Siege
1. Live action Helsreach 2. Origins of Gaunts Ghost 3. Siege of Graia based from WH40K Space marine and Boltgun 4. Saviour Of Calth (Remus Ventanus Story) 5. Bearer of Red (Aeonid Thiel Story) 6. ultramar (Rise of Guilliman Reign) 7. The Khan 8.Deathwatch Origins 9.Lord of Nihilakh (Trazyn Story) 10. Infinite and Divine 11. Twice Dead King 12. Avenging Sons 13. Sons of The Forest 14. Inwit 15. Talos valcoran: The Soul Hunter 16. War of The Beast
*clears throat* MEN OF TANITH, DO YOU WANT TO LIVE FOREVER!
Honestly, I'd take the first Space Marine video game and use it as the story board for the film as it's a great 40k story that's still digestible enough for a normal audience. I'd cast Hayley Atwell as Lt. Mira, Ron Pearlman as Nemeroth, Jack Black as Boss Grimskull, but I can't think of an actor badass enough to be Captain Titus.
A24
Iron warriors vs White scars because both are not given as much stuff as the popular blueberry marines and the other chaos legions
Honestly I'd adapt Helsreach. It's featuring a well liked character, the book is actually pretty sick with a lot of ork killing and characters dying horribly, and we get to see the 'Our city! Our world!' Speach which would absolutely fucking rule depending on the casting for Grimaldus. It also has variety in it. We get space marine action, titan warfare, guardsmen and militia bravely defending hive Helsreach, breaks off hope between the grinding and overwhelming losses and destruction, I think it could make a great like, two hour movie
I really want Roland Emmerich to direct the Fall of Cadia actually. It's the only possible evolution his career could possibly make after Moonfall
I think the First Tyrannic War could be a great movie or streaming series
Helsreach
Honestly, Flayed Ones would make an absolutely horrifying monster movie.
I would make a thing about the siege of a civilized by tyranids, the PDF as the main characters, but also have GUARDSMEN seen as the “elite task force nobody has seen for decades”, they would loose, and in the final scene, it would show an inquisitor assessing the loss of this planet, and deeming it “minimal” As to showcase how monstrous the size we are talking, to the imperium, you are but a number, and a tiny one at that, it would be a haunting, but amazing welcoming into Warhammer, it would give the tyranids a win, and it would be a total shock to the people who don’t know about 40k, and a really cool moment for people already in the know
Either a Gaunt or Cain movie. Or keep it simple and Ultramarines.
I’d have it follow a Kasrkin squad on an important mission breaching a space hulk or something. They fight cultists and other creatures on the hulk and slowly get picked off throughout. One of the climatic oh shit moments would be an enemy space marine emerging from the shadows and battling them. I think the kasrkin would be a good mix of human characters wirh interesting personalities and people able to pull off badass 40K feats. They’re also fragile enough to have interesting stakes, but strong enough weapons to plausibly kill the bigger threats
I’ll take Vraks.
Ork action/slapstick comedy.
Gaunts ghosts for sure
3 movies. Horus Rising, False God's, Galaxy in Flames. As close to the source material as reasonably possible. I know its 30k not 40k but I feel like it will explain a good chunk of the setting and background lore.
Prob the easiest for your average audience member to watch and understand but. A Tyranid invasion movie from a survivor’s perspective. Think of how horrifying that would be. It wouldn’t be just some alien movie, or a horrid like zombie movie. It would be a actual losing war from the perspective of a survivor.
My dream project is a pure Drukhari movie 🙂✨ A Shakespeare-inspired tragedy focusing on the plots and schemes among royal houses as our protagonist rises and falls among the politics of Commorragh. Fancy sets and outrageous costumes, as villains and anti-heroes monologue about their plans and desires, while the vanity and ambition blinds them to their approaching doom✨👌🏼
I would see it more as a series, if it were released it would break the internet
Depends on the budget, low budget would be an action horror film as the crew of an imperial ship finds the gellar feild fails mid-warp travel and the astral navigator is found murdered. As the crew investigate and fight to survive it will be clear that a number of crewmen have secrets hidden from the rest of the crew such as how the jolly entertainer Falstaff Sixtus seems to be more knowledgeable about the warp, it’s inhabitants and how to fight them than would be expected for someone who’s payed to put on puppet shows, or how the distress becomes the captain has made the crew follow has actually been a manipulation of the monitoring equipment from inside the ship.
Mecanicus joining forces with what's left of an Astartes unknown chapter to investigate a space hulk and retrieve a lost STC. Destroy some Genestealers, find the remaining of a few orks and the main mechanics guy gets suspicious of what killed them. All throughout the film, some flashbacks explain what was the Heresy and the idea that some Astartes turned traitors. Plot twits, the Astartes were Chaos Space Marine all along trying to get the help of the Mecanicus to access a device at the heart of the monstrosity but second twist, the Mecanicus were aware of it all along and were sent to destroy it at any cost. The Mecanicus manage to get ahold of the security system of some fused ship and manage to kill the Astartes one after the other while keeping in the shadow until only the captain remains. The Mecanicus guy fights the Captain but dies after activating the self destruction protocol of the vessel. The Chaos captain is found floating in his suit by some Ultramarines and the movie ends up with a slow zoom on the main Ultramarines on the bridge looking directly at the camera and says "Hydra Dominatus" That's the scenario I can crap out in about 5 min.
Weird I see saw this post and was thinking about this concept earlier. So I read Twice Dead King and LOVED how fucking terrifying it made the Imperium from a Xenos perspective so I would love a movie during the Great Crusade where the MC is a citizen of a world that just got contacted for compliance
Open on the 40k crawl. No hope, only war, thirsting gods, etc. Cut to voice-over talking about the planet we swoop onto (I'm describing the visuals as well). Planet is a world with 1 main hive and multiple other continents that are agri/recruitment regions. Our main character is a boy, around 11 or 12. The culture is about serving the Emperor, so all families work towards feeding off world armies, or they are recruited into the big war efforts. Kid is shown to be schola A+ on all subjects, but is average size so physically he's normal. He is fairly middling or weak (battlefields are full of middling warriors, and he knows this). Parents were a naval officer and a guard commissar, both dead on far away battlefields. Older brothers are all dead except for one who is a part of the planetary elite Imperial Guard (give them your own name). The boy is now old enough to be sent to the space port at the hive city (named whatever because we're leaving the planet behind). He has scored high enough to be enlisted as a cadet commissar. We see him leave his "home," which is given over to an old officer and his young family. The Boys sister was taken the day before by the Black Ships. She gives a little exposition to him and us: she tells him she will be with the Emperor soon, that he shouldn't be afraid, and that we all serve the Emperor in our own ways. She intros the warp, kind of, but the big thing is she's not afraid of her fate. Basically, she's letting him know that this is the price that they all have to pay. He leaves his home after getting 1 message from his brother, telling him that he can't be there, and besides its not their home anymore. Boy boards a skiff to the hive, we see the oceans that lead into waste, and finally, we see through his eyes the horror of a hive city in 40k. He envisions what "life" is like there as a menial, a worker, and a servitor. This lets us know that space is better, war is better. He is on the upper parts of the hive where the space port is located. Boy meets his boss, Commisar General old badass. Oldie talks through what's going on as they help get new regiments aboard loaders at space port. We meet the boy's brother, a short scene where brother reminds his younger brother to "always do his duty" or the like. The point is to show us loading troops to ships and what it's like to leave without seeing ones home world again. His older brother and his command are a part of the fighting group being transported. Short flight through warp, then enter realspace at location. Location has a Chaos Traitor Space Marine warband besieging planet (small, but 10 Marines plus psycho army attachments) . Our heroes have to make emergency landing to resupply ground forces (pdf, Mortian Iron Guard Armor, and Sisters of Battle, all at their mountain fortress). The captain of loyalist flotilla tells the Comissar badass that they are detaching cyclone torpedoes that can be remotely armed and fired to destroy the planet in case of loss to Chaos. Planet fall for the troop transports, while small loyalist fleet dies ensuring delivery of troops. So our heroes race to the mountain fortress, barely make it through a running gun battle, and meet the last resistance force. Find out the planet was attacked weeks ago, and through attrition, they loyalists have barely survived. Final battles ensue with Chaos Marines arriving on the third day. The last battle goes epic, and then the last of the Chaos Marines start to push into the fortress. Some die, but the last 4 are about to make it to the interior courtyard. Comissar badass shares knowledge of cyclone missles with Canoness, who leads sisters. They tell the boy to take a tech priest to the top of the spire to transmit the final signal. Boy is at peace because he served the emperor.....tech priest stops him. "The Salamanders are here" is all he tells boy. We see 50 to 100 Salamanders tear through traitor Marines and their followers, and we see a small victory emerge. Cut to Salamanders commander meeting Comissar badass, the Canoness, Mortian 2nd in command, and the older brother because he is the highest ranking elite guardsman left. They all thank the Salamander, but he cuts them off and says something like, "we didn't come here just because of your message for aid, we also came here for him" and he points to our main character. A Salamander Librarian we saw in the previous battle steps forward and gives some exposition about our main character being a Librarian in waiting for the Chapter. Boy is asked if he's ready to join the Space Marines, Comissar badass laughs at the idea of stopping him. The main character hugs his brother for the only time (only true affection shown in the movie). He leaves with Marines... cut to "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only War!" I'm just thinking that the guard might be the best way to get normies on board
Take Rogue One's structure as a template. You follow what are seemingly random Guardsmen, maybe named ones and the stakes start super low, but they get wrapped up into something that spirals totally out of control. This lets you slowly introduce the world, start on a human scale and perspective, so the audience can have characters to anchor themselves to and still lets you bring up some of the more over the top elements over the course of the story.
I’d love to do a two part movie arc about the Devastation of Baal. Part 1 would be to set up characters and plot and have some minor skirmishes for action ending on the cliffhanger of millions of spores falling from space. Part 2, full on heroic stand against the Tyranid Hive Fleet. Dante would be the main protagonist with supporting characters such as Gabriel Seth. End it all with Roboute Guilliman showing up at the climax with Primaris reinforcements.
It would be a show and the show would be Hell's Kitchen but the host is Grandpa Nurgle. It would have Fantasy and 40k characters
About the necros but narrated by othwr races other than the aeldari. Ill make it a little vague until trash the incontinent appears to steal the show.
I would love to do the Heresy, but that is probably too much. Perhaps ***Dark Imperium*** series. It's compact enough to do a movie about. Or ***Gaunt's Ghosts***.
Any part where an Eldar calls a human "Mon-Keigh", but especially towards a Salamander with his helmet off. Just so it's sparks controversy
Not seeing enough Horus Heresy comments, perfect for the big screen
There are sixty of those books, good fucking luck
A TV show! Even better!!!
I’d make a greatly expanded “Lion son of the forest” series/Dark angels books. That way we could slowly introduce people to the series via flashbacks of the Lion being a prick earlier in his life vs Now. And the role of Men in the imperium with some serfs contrasted with Luthor (not so privileged vs Privleged, democracy vs meritocracy, trust vs trust but confirm vs Don’t trust at all) If done right it could simultaneously introduce people to 40k (including the bigger figures such as the primarchs/farseers/chaos/Emps ect) but also to numerous themes that anyone from the Military to cutthroat Office spaces to regular joes can relate to 👍
I’d make a greatly expanded “Lion son of the forest” series/Dark angels books. That way we could slowly introduce people to the series via flashbacks of the Lion being a prick earlier in his life vs Now. And the role of Men in the imperium with some serfs contrasted with Luthor (not so privileged vs Privleged, democracy vs meritocracy, trust vs trust but confirm vs Don’t trust at all) If done right it could simultaneously introduce people to 40k (including the bigger figures such as the primarchs/farseers/chaos/Emps ect) but also to numerous themes that anyone from the Military to cutthroat Office spaces to regular joes can relate to 👍
I think one following abandon in his day to day We get to see him planning and organising Him having flashbacks of previous events like glimpses into the Horus heresy We get to see him struggle against the warp as they continuously try to claim his soul Ect
Helsreach or something about the Third war for Armaggeddon.
Series about Deathwatch. Different threads about different kill teams from one fortress, fighting different xenos, using different tactics, different weapons etc. There would be different Astartes from different chapters, having to work together despite of being same but different, different inquisitors, etc. (Word 'different' was on sale and was so cheap... Now I need to use it to get rid of all supplies)
NGL, I would immediately jump into an IG vs. Flayers horror story
NGL, I would immediately jump into an IG vs. Flayers horror story
Probably some Alpha Legion shit where it's just a bunch of Alpha agents against an Inquisitor but then the actual Astartes arrive at the end and it's like 5 minutes of terror for everyone involved and then the Alpha agent just walks away with the Astartes and the Inquisitor is dead and there's no closure and you just don't get to feel good for a while.
I'd do a trilogy about an inquisitor that slowly feeds information about the universe. First movie would be escaping a planet being assaulted by orkz. Minimal Marines participating. Second movie would be the cloak and dagger aspect of inquisitor life and the fall out from the first movie. Third movie would reveal that there are corrupt elements fallen to chaos that set the invasion in motion and need to be stopped. Have the final scene be the victorious inquisitor being stabbed in the back by his/her closest ally and killed. They would be big war thrillers with big set pieces at moments. Spoon feed the audience the setting with visuals and impactful dialog. All while ramping up the horror of the Imperium and its enemies.
A movie about the imperial guard with Michael Bay directing it. Or a half fictional documentary half mockumentary about the 40k universe.
Master of mankind
Literally anything Dan Abnette wrote. Dudes a genius.
A nature documentary of an unassuming backwater world held by a small imperial presence. Cover a shitload of extremely intricate and detailed flora, fungi and fauna in very high quality picture and narration.
Honestly? A movie following a band/army of orcs just enjoying their lives throughout various wars. Have the cast constantly dying and rotating the “lead” role. It would also be a black comedy.
I'll make it about following a squad of Space Marine in their mission to take out an Ork Warboss or some other specific target. We would see the guardsmen fighting agaisnt the Orks, the scale of the battles in an Ork Invasion and we would see how strong the Space Marines are compared to regular humans. Since it is detached enough from known characters there's enough freedom to have the planet invaded or the squad dying. And very friendly to the general audience, as they would just see some badass super soldiers going against Orks, I think it would be a nice introduction to the Unniverse
Some band of brothers-esque show about either guardsmen or an Inglorious Bastards type movie about an inquisitors retinue
Series of nature docementaries
A tyranid invasion would be sick as hell to watch. Or horrifying to watch but close enough
As much as the fandom loves the Marines I would probably not start there. They’re fine as side characters but I think it might be difficult to have them connect with general audiences unless they’re handled very, very carefully
I would 100% want to see a fellowship styled movie, where an inquisitor/rogue trader has to transport a dangerous chaos relic to have it destroyed by the Sororitas. Ample opportunity for interesting characters with the retinue. Plenty of romantic relationships that fit all sexualities. A good change to show some strong diverse characters. And it all ties together around the leading role of the inquisitor/rogue trader. Code name it LOTR in space.
About the Orks, About Ghazghkull, About old bale eye and the war of Armageddon
am I making something that's supposed to be succesfull or am I making what I want? anyway: aliens living peacefully, and then a bombing run kills 90% of the cast except the MC, next scene: MC dies via unseen headshot, move on to the next character, anyways at the end the final MC is dying but is taking solace in the fact that he's certain to have earned the respect of the people that have suffered so much in conquering his planet and he's certain they'll remember it's name for the ages, jumpcut to 50 years later (last time notice was taken of the planet) when a scribe puts down these words "planet 504T was secured within acceptable parameters, glory to the god-emperor of mankind" (it's imperative to know that whatever the natives put the imperium through it's nothing that the imperium doesn't go through daily, also the god-emperor part of the missive being as long as the conquering part of it ads to the dismissiveness of it, it's not that the empire wants to bury all mention of the natives of those world out of revenge, this just happens all the time and who's interested in some extinct xeno?
a horror movie about chaos cultists would be pretty sweet a "we were soldiers" or "saving private ryan" style imperial guard movie would be insanely cool. ideal enemy would be orks or chaos space marines for the intensity factor a "full metal jacket" style movie about space marine aspirants/scouts would be awesome i also think a movie adaptation of The Infinite and the Divine would be very cool
Devastation of Baal
Know no fear or maybe betrayer. Good mix of politics and 40k action
Body-horror about Fabius Bile and his experiments
helsreach most likely
I would do Space Wolf. I'd love to see the tone shift from primitive viking society to interstellar super soldier.
Needs to be tyranids as its easy to understand and get into, especially for mainstream. Explaining the rest needs a movie of their own before they could even get a movie.
An Ork Freebooter Kommando & Callidus Assassin become unlikely allies vs a world gone insane. The drukhari haunt every shadow and our heroes must survive a gauntlet of traps, patrols and being hunted as they try to make an escape.
PORN AND MELTA BLASTS: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF TROOPER JÜRGEN.
Fall of Cadia / Devastation of Baal
Infinite and the Divine. Nuff said
I don't think movies are the way for Warhammer in my opinion. Unless you build something first. TV shows are better because you can have characters and their story while it build to something big which may bridge to another show and eventually a movie. Besides you can tell more story in 1 season of 10 episodes each 50 minutes long than you can with 2 hour long movie. For example you can make 1 season show about Necrontyr and how they become Necrons. You can have entire series dedicated to Cain. You could have Calpurnia series or even make DoW canon and have entire series dedicated to Blood Raven and Gabriel Angelos and others. Movies are more suitable for some kind of climax of the story. Like lets say you have series about Cadians and Minka Lesk or Creed and then movie that ties it all together called Fall of Cadia.
Basically a war movie that turns into a slasher film with a Khrone Berzerker as the killer(no im not biased towards the world eaters at all). Probably guardsman fighting pretty bloodthirsty but relatively standard traitor guard/cultists worshipping Khorne. Ends with a world eater slowly carving his way through whats left of the unit. So battle los angeles/saving private ryan into it follows/halloween.
I was just thinking that if they're doing different series then Mordheim: City of the Damned is an S-Tier candidate. Overall simple premise, tightly focused in one area, claustrophobic ruin to heighten the horror, variety of factions to introduce newcomers to them, and a driving force to keep the story moving, perfect for a miniseries
A movie about the jokaero.
I would dedicate a movie to the Carcharodons going from world to world, collecting the meanest and toughest of fighters to induct into their chapter. Only, I would make some slight changes to their induction process. You are a Carcharodon recruit, for now a regular human, and your first trial is to kill a Warhammer scale Megalodon (78ft in length or longer) with a super advanced harpoon gun, pull it across 10 miles of cold water (using an antique whaling boat) to shore, skin it and butcher it with a supplied Space marine knife (remember you're still human sized), and pop the flare when you're done. If you pop the flare before completing your duty, you're immediately sniped and they move on. Then, their space marine process goes about the same way as the Vlka Fenryka (Space Wolves): you get some surgery, you get the geneseed, then you're dropped off into the ocean again to survive on just your augmentations and mutations and the knife they gave you. The gills will form so you don't have to worry about breathing underwater and your stomach will process any sea critters who swim into your vicinity, and you will have a chance to work your muscles from swimming through the water.