HeavenShallBurn
First Post
I like the WH40K setting and fluff and after reading the latest omnibus I realized that if it was done right a movie set in that background would be great.
But it would have to be done right, for one it simply could not be associated with Hollywood in any fashion and retain the features that make it what it is.
The novels would make a great place to start, some of them would be great as a movie. I'd start with (EDIT title change)Warriors of Ultramar. It's part of the Ultramarines omnibus and involves the defense of a world from a Tyrannid invasion. It would put the focus on the defense against an implacable alien horror and allow an introduction that at once doesn't specifically focus on some of the worse aspects of the Imperium and at the same time illustrates WHY those same darker aspects exist without needing a great deal of explanation.
1.) It could not be produced in America and it couldn't be bankrolled by Hollywood, they've fallen so far they can only do formula movies anymore and would never be able to stomach the darker aspects of the WH40K setting.
2.) Don't use any actors with name recognition. Pick actors who are unknowns and who can do serious. It may not be possible to find appropriate actors in the US.
3.) Ugly actors are needed. In the US at least actors tend to be attractive, but this is WH. Aside from isolated incidents you don't want pretty in this movie. It would focusing almost exclusively on soldiers and Space Marines. They should NOT look pretty, they should be battered and scarred, they need to be people who look the part and extra scarring and such can be applied on top where necessary.
4.) Avoid most explanations, they're not really necessary and the audience can figure it out from the context fairly easily.
5.) No Wisecracking/Witty heroes. There can be humor but it should be dark, fatalistic humor. This is not a lighthearted thing.
6.) Don't screw up the story with the Hollywood required romantic sub-plot. This is not the movie for it, and in fact attempting to place one of those plot by numbers jobs would completely screw the movie.
7.) It'll have to be an R rated movie, nothing else would do for WH0K. Don't pull any punches, audiences have actually become fairly used to movies involving vicious and bloody battles.
Example Intro-pulled straight from novel
[sblock]Starts with a harvester rolling across a farm field. It can be repainted and altered slightly to emphasize a blocky low-tech appearance. The two people in the cab make a few lines of pointless small talk with the camera inside the cab looking past them out the front windows.
There's a massive impact that knocks the harvester over on its side and it slides into the irrigation ditch it was driving along the edge of. Camera focuses on the two farmers who get out of the cab and look at the hole punched straight through the hopper of the combine.
Then out into the next field over at a column of smoke and smouldering plants around where something has fallen into the field. They argue a little and grab the fire extinguisher and shotgun from the cab of the harvester then start walking toward the smoke.
There's a crater in the field and one of them refuses to go in after they argue about it a little instead he gives the other the fire extinguisher and starts walking back toward the harvester to "call it in"
As he's walking back there's a loud cracking sound and then the other guy starts screaming. The person who was walking back runs for the harvester. Before he makes it something which shouldn't be shown as more than a blurring shape for a second throws him to the ground and begins tearing him apart. Focus close in on the person creaming and dying while blood spurts everywhere. His severed and mangled arm is visible being dropped by his head where the view focuses on. Then the screen fades out as the screams stop.
Flash the Aquila logo onscreen and the a voiceover says "In the grim future of the 41st millennia there is only war" or something along those lines. It'll need to be someone who sounds like they've seen every horror in the universe and it's burned the very life from their soul.
Underneath the Aquila logo the short preface from the WH40K novels should scroll past like the text at the beginning of the Star Wars movies.[/sblock]
But it would have to be done right, for one it simply could not be associated with Hollywood in any fashion and retain the features that make it what it is.
The novels would make a great place to start, some of them would be great as a movie. I'd start with (EDIT title change)Warriors of Ultramar. It's part of the Ultramarines omnibus and involves the defense of a world from a Tyrannid invasion. It would put the focus on the defense against an implacable alien horror and allow an introduction that at once doesn't specifically focus on some of the worse aspects of the Imperium and at the same time illustrates WHY those same darker aspects exist without needing a great deal of explanation.
1.) It could not be produced in America and it couldn't be bankrolled by Hollywood, they've fallen so far they can only do formula movies anymore and would never be able to stomach the darker aspects of the WH40K setting.
2.) Don't use any actors with name recognition. Pick actors who are unknowns and who can do serious. It may not be possible to find appropriate actors in the US.
3.) Ugly actors are needed. In the US at least actors tend to be attractive, but this is WH. Aside from isolated incidents you don't want pretty in this movie. It would focusing almost exclusively on soldiers and Space Marines. They should NOT look pretty, they should be battered and scarred, they need to be people who look the part and extra scarring and such can be applied on top where necessary.
4.) Avoid most explanations, they're not really necessary and the audience can figure it out from the context fairly easily.
5.) No Wisecracking/Witty heroes. There can be humor but it should be dark, fatalistic humor. This is not a lighthearted thing.
6.) Don't screw up the story with the Hollywood required romantic sub-plot. This is not the movie for it, and in fact attempting to place one of those plot by numbers jobs would completely screw the movie.
7.) It'll have to be an R rated movie, nothing else would do for WH0K. Don't pull any punches, audiences have actually become fairly used to movies involving vicious and bloody battles.
Example Intro-pulled straight from novel
[sblock]Starts with a harvester rolling across a farm field. It can be repainted and altered slightly to emphasize a blocky low-tech appearance. The two people in the cab make a few lines of pointless small talk with the camera inside the cab looking past them out the front windows.
There's a massive impact that knocks the harvester over on its side and it slides into the irrigation ditch it was driving along the edge of. Camera focuses on the two farmers who get out of the cab and look at the hole punched straight through the hopper of the combine.
Then out into the next field over at a column of smoke and smouldering plants around where something has fallen into the field. They argue a little and grab the fire extinguisher and shotgun from the cab of the harvester then start walking toward the smoke.
There's a crater in the field and one of them refuses to go in after they argue about it a little instead he gives the other the fire extinguisher and starts walking back toward the harvester to "call it in"
As he's walking back there's a loud cracking sound and then the other guy starts screaming. The person who was walking back runs for the harvester. Before he makes it something which shouldn't be shown as more than a blurring shape for a second throws him to the ground and begins tearing him apart. Focus close in on the person creaming and dying while blood spurts everywhere. His severed and mangled arm is visible being dropped by his head where the view focuses on. Then the screen fades out as the screams stop.
Flash the Aquila logo onscreen and the a voiceover says "In the grim future of the 41st millennia there is only war" or something along those lines. It'll need to be someone who sounds like they've seen every horror in the universe and it's burned the very life from their soul.
Underneath the Aquila logo the short preface from the WH40K novels should scroll past like the text at the beginning of the Star Wars movies.[/sblock]
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