: I would like the movie to be set in an gaunt's ghost like universe, or Eiseinhorn and such, where we are centered on regular humans most of the time.

Agreed. I like Eisenhorn, Arbitrator and Purge The Heretic because they are about normal(ish) people and 'behind the lines' - you get to appreciate the scope, scale and weirdness of the 40k universe.

Gaunt's Ghosts, by comparison, aren't bad war novels, but they are war novels and would lose little of their emotional content by replacing lascarbines with M-16s.

It reminds me of Jupiter Ascending. No, I didn't think too much of the story or actors....but the universe was visually impressive and interesting, and I'd love to see more of that .

Firstly I'd animate a 40k series - good art style no CG needed - next I would do each season as a separate character from a group - last two seasons would see said group go up against antagonist / big campaign problem (protagonists vs. antagonist) with lots of intrigue, action, and 40k window dressing to help cement in the 40k culture...

I'd make the series about an Inquisitor that wants to keep the larger Imperium out of some business - thus the characters job over the course of the series to not only to keep things quiet from the populace but also hedging the larger Imperium or man and maybe said Inquisitor's "peers" out of the business - burning the match at two ends - so to speak!

That's my formula for an award wining animated series; enjoy LOL!

A Dark Heresy /Inqusition-based show would be perfectly workable, of course, but for the first 40K TV show (and thus most viewers' introduction to the universe), I would prefer one based on open warfare . Assuming a cable show were a 'season' is 13 episodes, I would have the first season depict the climactic stages of an Imperial offensive against an Ork Waaaagh! I'd use the later Star Trek pattern of having 6-7 'main' characters, but instead of a close-knit group, I'd made the main characters a sampling of Imperial characters from wildly different walks of life (a larger-than-life Space Marine commander, a lowly Imperial Guard grunt, an elderly Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, an Imperial Navy junior officer, etc), each giving the viewer a different perspective on the same conflict and sometimes crossing paths with each other, unaware that they are meeting another 'main' character. For the finale, it turns out that this seemingly random sampling of characters each play a pivotal role in the climactic battle, their individual actions turning out to be instrumental in turning the tide in the Imperium's favor.

If the show was renewed, I'd keep about a third of the characters, add some new ones, set it a few years later (thus the IG grunt is now a veteran sergeant, etc), and have the adversary be Chaos.

Third season, Tyranids.

Don't you mean last season Tyranids?

A goofy sitcom:

"Full Palace" The Emperor and Malcador are living together and try their best to raise 20 infant primarchs.

"Everybody loves Lorgar" Follow the wacky misadventures of Lorgar and his more popular brother Roboute.

"The Alpha bunch" A family show in wich (almost) all characters are called Alpharius.

Real life show:

"Keeping up with the Emperor's Children" Follow the day to day life of primarch, fasion model and celeb, Fulgrim.

Drama series:

"All my Primarchs" Longrunning drama series about the heresy seen trough the eyes of the Emperor.

"Nighthaunter" Dark and violent crime drama.

"Mortarion M.D." Hospital drama show starring Hugh laurie as Mortarion and Dougy Houser as Typhon.

Talk show:

"Anger Issues with Angron" Jerry Springer meets gladiatorical combat.

"The tonight (we come for you) show" with Conrad Curze.

"Politics with Roboute Guilliman" Live debate show.

"Seconds from disaster" This week: Calth.

Wrestling:

"IWF: Primarch Piledriver": Heresy event matchups: Leman Russ takes on Crimson King for the belt!

Okay okay enough goofyness from me. here's my proper answer:

Imperial guard: a Tour of duty/Band of Brothers/ Generation kill style drama of a squad (or regiment) of guardsmen.

Inquisition: Follows the actions of a group of acolytes, think of it as Firefly meets agents of shield

Or alterantivly make it a horror series focusing on ordo mallus fighting chaos.

Rogue traders : star trek + master and comander + a bit of Dynasty.

Death watch : I'd be tempted to almsot treat it like a superhero drama/action series.

Horus Heresy : Game of thrones in space (but with a lot less nudity)

RT opener for the show "The warp, gateway to a frontier of profits. These are the expeditions of rogue trader Ander Preese, called on by the Emperor to exploit profitable new worlds, to seek out and destroy xenos threats to the imperium, to gloriously bring all under the Emperors rule".

RT opener for the show "The warp, gateway to a frontier of profits. These are the expeditions of rogue trader Ander Preese, called on by the Emperor to exploit profitable new worlds, to seek out and destroy xenos threats to the imperium, to gloriously bring all under the Emperors rule".

To boldly go where man has gone before, but was driven out by the scourge of the xenos, and the darkness of the age of strife.

Don't you mean last season Tyranids?

Nah, last season is the necrons letting loose the C'tan.

Que sudden cut to black like the end of The Sopranos.

CHARLIE'S ANGELICUS

three Battle Sisters work for a shadowy inquisitor, they often don't wear power armor.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/137248-tv-shows-on-a-40k-world/

Maybe a noir show. A PI dealing with cases that the local enforcers don't care about. Case of the week format. One week it's finding some lower hive girl who went missing. Another week it's getting proof that one noble is having an affair.

The Inquisition doesn't even need to get involved. But if they do, then the writers can show just how terrifying they are to this PI.

I was under the impression an anime already existed. Though that may be a parody. You can never really be sure there.

Come to think of it syfy would be the only real channel I see running with a 40k show ( out side an Anime which I suggested before) They work fairly well with low budget shows... That are not complete rubbish ... Sometimes ...

HBO, if they decided to run it, would certainly be able to make a 40k show an instant hit. Same for AMC I think.

Or Netflix, if they work as musch as they did with Daredevil or Jessica Jones or others I don't know.

And yeah, I like the idea of a 40k PI. A good way to slowly learn, for anyone, about the 40k universe.

It would probably be ****.

Let me be honest here. 40k is a great setting. It's got elements of Blade Runner, Dune, Judge Dread, distopia, science fiction, fantasy, and all the rest in a great nightmarish blend.

Dam Abnett did some wonderful things with that setting. The problem is that those things are very hard to translate to the big or small screen. A few years ago I probably would have told you that Game of Thrones was un-filmable. Well HBO found a way to bring very complex characters in a massive story to light and eventually I think it will crash and burn, but that's another matter. It still made a lot of money and did well.

The Imperium though is much more difficult to get right. There is the Hours Heresy story. It's a bit long, a bit rambling, and all the characters wear massive suits of armor and fight in big expensive battles. Most of them look the same and there are not too many women. Some of the books in the series are awful. Some of them are pretty good. They don't get much recognition from people that don't already know about the tabletop game.

You then get into the civilian sector. Warhammer 40k as opposed to 30k. Inquisition. Probably the best path. You'd basically be making Dark City meets Dresden Files. Again, it would be hard to get right. Eisenhorn is a good character. He doesn't have the appeal of Harry Dresden. I'd rather bet on a Dresden reboot.

Finally, we look at the Gaunts Ghost direction. This is 'Tour of Duty' in the 40k universe. Funding odds are next to zero. The studios would rather bet on Starship Troopers or Clone Wars.

All these projects would be really cool to see, but the mathematics of them doesn't check out. This isn't Marvel with it's decades of appeal or Dune with its first pas the post thing. This is 40k. A weird British thing by gamer geeks for gamer geeks.

It would probably be ****.

Let me be honest here. 40k is a great setting. It's got elements of Blade Runner, Dune, Judge Dread, distopia, science fiction, fantasy, and all the rest in a great nightmarish blend.

Dam Abnett did some wonderful things with that setting. The problem is that those things are very hard to translate to the big or small screen. A few years ago I probably would have told you that Game of Thrones was un-filmable. Well HBO found a way to bring very complex characters in a massive story to light and eventually I think it will crash and burn, but that's another matter. It still made a lot of money and did well.

The Imperium though is much more difficult to get right. There is the Hours Heresy story. It's a bit long, a bit rambling, and all the characters wear massive suits of armor and fight in big expensive battles. Most of them look the same and there are not too many women. Some of the books in the series are awful. Some of them are pretty good. They don't get much recognition from people that don't already know about the tabletop game.

You then get into the civilian sector. Warhammer 40k as opposed to 30k. Inquisition. Probably the best path. You'd basically be making Dark City meets Dresden Files. Again, it would be hard to get right. Eisenhorn is a good character. He doesn't have the appeal of Harry Dresden. I'd rather bet on a Dresden reboot.

Finally, we look at the Gaunts Ghost direction. This is 'Tour of Duty' in the 40k universe. Funding odds are next to zero. The studios would rather bet on Starship Troopers or Clone Wars.

All these projects would be really cool to see, but the mathematics of them doesn't check out. This isn't Marvel with it's decades of appeal or Dune with its first pas the post thing. This is 40k. A weird British thing by gamer geeks for gamer geeks.

This is why I like the using Acolytes and the inquisition, no named characters from the books, gives the viewers a easy to digest impression of the empire, episodic, not that powerful and more people can relate to it (see space marines), Slanesh episode during sweeps week, and a G I Joe ending where the Acolytes win the battle but things are worse.

Three pages already, and that we already have this hasn't been mentioned:

I r disappoint.

That is more of a parody than a TV show. There are plenty of youtube channels doing something with 40k. This one just happened to be marginally successful at it.

It would probably be ****.

Let me be honest here. 40k is a great setting. It's got elements of Blade Runner, Dune, Judge Dread, distopia, science fiction, fantasy, and all the rest in a great nightmarish blend.

Dam Abnett did some wonderful things with that setting. The problem is that those things are very hard to translate to the big or small screen. A few years ago I probably would have told you that Game of Thrones was un-filmable. Well HBO found a way to bring very complex characters in a massive story to light and eventually I think it will crash and burn, but that's another matter. It still made a lot of money and did well.

The Imperium though is much more difficult to get right. There is the Hours Heresy story. It's a bit long, a bit rambling, and all the characters wear massive suits of armor and fight in big expensive battles. Most of them look the same and there are not too many women. Some of the books in the series are awful. Some of them are pretty good. They don't get much recognition from people that don't already know about the tabletop game.

You then get into the civilian sector. Warhammer 40k as opposed to 30k. Inquisition. Probably the best path. You'd basically be making Dark City meets Dresden Files. Again, it would be hard to get right. Eisenhorn is a good character. He doesn't have the appeal of Harry Dresden. I'd rather bet on a Dresden reboot.

Finally, we look at the Gaunts Ghost direction. This is 'Tour of Duty' in the 40k universe. Funding odds are next to zero. The studios would rather bet on Starship Troopers or Clone Wars.

All these projects would be really cool to see, but the mathematics of them doesn't check out. This isn't Marvel with it's decades of appeal or Dune with its first pas the post thing. This is 40k. A weird British thing by gamer geeks for gamer geeks.

40k is no more complex nor harder to bring on the screen than Star Wars or Star Trek. Hell, Starship did also well.

No need to take actual books to make a serie.

In the end, it will be crap if people that writes it write crap, and producers produce crap and actors enlisted acts like crap.

If they take the good people, it will be good. There is interest for Sci Fi, there is interest for Fantasy, there is interest for crime stories. The hard part, is to put many of these things together, and some universes already did it (star wars and star trek).

It would probably be ****.

Let me be honest here. 40k is a great setting. It's got elements of Blade Runner, Dune, Judge Dread, distopia, science fiction, fantasy, and all the rest in a great nightmarish blend.

Dam Abnett did some wonderful things with that setting. The problem is that those things are very hard to translate to the big or small screen. A few years ago I probably would have told you that Game of Thrones was un-filmable. Well HBO found a way to bring very complex characters in a massive story to light and eventually I think it will crash and burn, but that's another matter. It still made a lot of money and did well.

The Imperium though is much more difficult to get right. There is the Hours Heresy story. It's a bit long, a bit rambling, and all the characters wear massive suits of armor and fight in big expensive battles. Most of them look the same and there are not too many women. Some of the books in the series are awful. Some of them are pretty good. They don't get much recognition from people that don't already know about the tabletop game.

You then get into the civilian sector. Warhammer 40k as opposed to 30k. Inquisition. Probably the best path. You'd basically be making Dark City meets Dresden Files. Again, it would be hard to get right. Eisenhorn is a good character. He doesn't have the appeal of Harry Dresden. I'd rather bet on a Dresden reboot.

Finally, we look at the Gaunts Ghost direction. This is 'Tour of Duty' in the 40k universe. Funding odds are next to zero. The studios would rather bet on Starship Troopers or Clone Wars.

All these projects would be really cool to see, but the mathematics of them doesn't check out. This isn't Marvel with it's decades of appeal or Dune with its first pas the post thing. This is 40k. A weird British thing by gamer geeks for gamer geeks.

40k is no more complex nor harder to bring on the screen than Star Wars or Star Trek. Hell, Starship did also well.

No need to take actual books to make a serie.

In the end, it will be crap if people that writes it write crap, and producers produce crap and actors enlisted acts like crap.

If they take the good people, it will be good. There is interest for Sci Fi, there is interest for Fantasy, there is interest for crime stories. The hard part, is to put many of these things together, and some universes already did it (star wars and star trek).

It's a lot harder to adapt than many things. There are a lot of 'problematic' elements to 40k. It also does not have a massive fanbase and widespread appeal. All three of the things you've mentioned have pretty big fanbases or were the first of a type.

The nearest thing you could compare it to is something like 'The Expanse', 'Dark Matter', or 'Killjoys'.

It would be like adapting Gears of War or Mechwarrior. I admit of course Mechwarrior did have a cartoon which I enjoyed.

I could believe we'll see another 'Ultramarine' attempt with the costs of special effects and CGI dropping, but I wouldn't hold out for Eisenhorn or anything 'good'.

It's unquestionable too at this point after Guardians of Galaxy, based on an Abnett comic, that Eisenhorn hasn't made the rounds of Hollywood.

Meh, 40k doesn't really bring anything new to the table -- any "problematic" elements it has were already present in other works of fiction where 40k stole was inspired from. Certainly, some of the new combinations can make it seem worse, or the source material was already inappropriate for general (PG-13) distribution, but it's not as if you have to include this into the show. After all, the setting is merely a backdrop, and a good story would be largely independent of such details.

In the end, anything you can put into a novel, you can put on the screen. It's just another medium. With its own set of conventions requiring some adaption, for sure, but in the end it's just a matter of conversion just like it happens with any other film based on a book.

In the end, what's the difference between Mechwarrior and, say, Patlabor or Gundam? There also was a Dragon Age movie and a Mass Effect anime. And the Mutant Chronicles movie presents us with an example from another, even less well-known tabletop game. Cheaply made, but showing what is possible.

Ironically enough, The Expanse and Dark Matter are examples that sprung to my mind as well, and I would hope that any 40k TV show would go down a similar route. Alas, I still consider Games Workshop's awkward handling of its own IP to be the primary demotivator here, as they really did not seem very interested in marketing their product on ventures other than the miniatures market and maybe the novels. Just look at this very forum: Did FFG truly fare so badly with the 40k RPGs, or what was the real reason behind GW dismantling Black Industries and selling the license?

The thing about a 40k show would have to be that it needs to stand on its own rather than catering solely to the small (and shrinking) existing fanbase. It should be a vessel to get new people interested in the franchise in general. As such, I also don't believe in sticking with existing characters and storylines like Eisenhorn, but rather a brand new collection of interesting characters that simply use the setting as a backdrop for their adventures.

Unfortunately, I too only consider another Ultramarine movie a realistic expectation. Another bolter porn flick limited in appeal to the same niche group of people that GW considers the target audience for 50% of its products.

Then again, maybe that is for the better and just what we deserve, because anyone who came into 40k based on an interesting movie or TV show would probably end up being disappointed by how much of its potential is squandered by the controlling studio. Ah, I miss Warhammer Monthly ...

Game of Thrones, with bolters, how hard can it be?

They gotta have believable ot larger than life characters. Likable heroes and hatable villains, or vice-versa.

Also why always Ultras? The fists are vanilla enough. and you can throw in some space wolves to liven things up.

Or blood angels. Vampires are hot, Mad max is hot: rad mutants turned into superhuman vampire angel dudes should work

Graham McNeil is on record for liking Alfabusa's show. That as an aside.

Point being, the majority of 'serious' and 'grimdark' 40k stuff is simply bad. Like, Stephen Seagal movie level bad. You can't make a movie out of it, because it's going to suck in terms of completely idiotic character motivations and, for the audience, flat out retarded actions excarbated by plot armour. Those formats that would work well, such as the Gaunts Ghosts Band of Brothers, well, there's already been a blockbuster movie about that stuff. It had Tom Hanks in it. Can you afford Tom Hanks on a GW budget? Probably not. Most of 40k's big works are fairly obvious deriatives and in an attempt to deliver them seriously with a sci-fi paint job, you won't get very many fans. The other possible movie idea that might work, namely Starship Troopers, has already been shot, too. 40k is simply too deriative to work as a serious setting, sorry.

Where 40k would excel is hamming up the extreme and embracing the utterly ludicrous. The comedic and satirical aspects, once so integral to the setting, would make great movies. Unfortunately, that ship has sailed, as everything must be more grimdark and Marvel has released Guardians of the 40keks before the idea even occurred to GW. They missed out bigtime on the comedy aspect and not taking themselves so seriously, and as GotG proved, you can still tell a good, serious story with a lot of laughs. Sadly, Caiphas Cain and co. who would work in this format are the unloved stepchildren.

It's a lot harder to adapt than many things. There are a lot of 'problematic' elements to 40k. It also does not have a massive fanbase and widespread appeal. All three of the things you've mentioned have pretty big fanbases or were the first of a type.

Sorry, but no.

40k isn't popular because there is nothing much than the game. But if you give a good tv serie, their will be fan of the tv series, as much as there have been fan of the star wars movie.

You know, there wasn't many star wars fan before star wars existed. The difference here is, if the movie/tv series is very good, you'll have the same appeal and get a great fanbase. More than this, you have at least thousand of 40k fan that will still see the movie and like it, so you start a step ahead.

The thing about a 40k show would have to be that it needs to stand on its own rather than catering solely to the small (and shrinking) existing fanbase. It should be a vessel to get new people interested in the franchise in general. As such, I also don't believe in sticking with existing characters and storylines like Eisenhorn, but rather a brand new collection of interesting characters that simply use the setting as a backdrop for their adventures.

Exactly. If you create a 40k product that has an other intent than selling figurines, you can get an excellent 40k product for people that want an excellent product.

Those formats that would work well, such as the Gaunts Ghosts Band of Brothers, well, there's already been a blockbuster movie about that stuff. It had Tom Hanks in it. Can you afford Tom Hanks on a GW budget? Probably not. Most of 40k's big works are fairly obvious deriatives and in an attempt to deliver them seriously with a sci-fi paint job, you won't get very many fans. The other possible movie idea that might work, namely Starship Troopers, has already been shot, too. 40k is simply too deriative to work as a serious setting, sorry.

You start all your thinking on wrong basis.

If you create a scenario that is good, like there are many other good tv series with good scenario, in the 40k universe, there will be people interested.

And yes, GW could afford Tom Hanks, or Arnolrd Schwarzenegger, or Bruce Willis, if they budget a success to pay them, and work for that success to happen.

Or otherwise they get to find new actors that are not nown yet but have a bright future and create a frigging good movie or serie where said actor will progress and make his name.

Like, say, many actors in game of throne. There is no Thom Hanks in game of throne, but the show is still pretty good.

And Starship trooper was nice, yeah. But not as nice as anything 40k could produce if it decides to.

In the end, the possibilty of making something on screen is a choice for said productors. It depends of the objective and the quality of what is done (which depends of the objectives).

If the objective is to make something for people that will anyway buy it, whatever is the quality of it, then yeah...it won't work for a larger audience, because it wasn't made to.

If you make something with this in mind, you'll work for it to work, and you'll put what is necessary in it.

Otherwise, if we assume what is said here against the workability of such a serie, star wars would never have worked, star trek either, Gi. Joe neither (which ran for years), Game of Throne neither.