I would personally be much more interested in a HBO series along the lines of Band of Brothers. With that much time one could cover the many facets of the 40k universe. It would be interesting to see the universe through the eyes of a guardsman whose whole life may be encompassed in one conflict and then widen that view and see the conflict that has consumed the better part of that guardsmans life as just one small skirmish in the eyes of an inquisitor and his retinue... With that frame of reference it would be easier to wade into the more alien viewpoint of the Space Marine, whose whole concept of time and war would make no sense to the average human. I felt as though that was nicely touched upon in DoW2 when the young marine discusses his view of conflict and how he was shedding the emotions of his humanity, making the act of conflict a simpler and more pure essence that humanity could not understand in its short life.

Hadriel said:

That would be lovely, but I think we've as much chance of seeing something like that as ... erm ... finding an Eldar warp gate ourselves and actually falling through dimensions into the 40K setting itself.

Adam France said:

Haha! I think that the idea is unlikely but it would definitely make an excellent show. It would be alot easier to pitch as well if you came at it from the world war guardsman perspective. Anyway, some things just can't be shoehorned into a 2 hour movie and expect to feel polished and fulfill the desires of both fans and the uninitiated.

There's a big difference between 'showing that love exist' in the Warhammer 40k setting and a typical Hollywood love interest.

I don't think any self-respecting 40K fan wants to see a story where a young dashing Space Marine ignores orders and jump directly into the maw of hell to save the eldar farseer he loves in somehow along the way manage to kill all the big baddies, following by him coming back to the Battlebarge with the beautiful farseer nestled in his arms and all his battle brother cheering because he's a big **** hero

Oh yeah, and somewhere near the end, his immediate superior (sergeant) who was against him saving the farseer dies, but the not so immedaite superior (a gray haired captain) who was cool with it all along validates everything he does. So on top of the cheesy love conquer all theme, you also have the 'flip off your boss' and 'your father loves you!' theme.

/puke.

Change a few words around, and that's the basic jist of so many action movies (altho in recent years the damsel in distress gets at least a few scenes where she kicks ass too) ... which is a shame, because a love interest simply isn't necessary to make a good sci-fi/action movie (Alien, Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Predator, etc)

Even if it's not the Marine doing it, and the story follows some normal people, with the Marines just following around... you end up with something like Transformers or Godzilla (The 2000 version), where there's tons of characters nobody gives a **** about while the star(s) everybody came to see are relegated to supporting casts that barely get any screen time and/or character development/personality.

It's a tricky situation. It can be done of course, several of 40K book do include some kind of romantic element... but you need a talented team who respects and understands the IP... and if there first concern is : 'How do we get a love interest in here? Ke$ha is very popular right now and we could give her a role in this!' , than I can understand why GW balks away from it.

I think the problem is not that there would be a love story, but where and how they would expect it to be done.

In my opinion any interesting film set in the 40k universe cannot have Space Marines the main characters. However, due to their iconic status the studio would want to have them being the main feature (and I suspect GW as well... remember they are wanting to sell models off the popularity of the film). And that's where the love story element would be problematic, as they would want the Space Marines to have a love interest... in the middle of a battlefield.

While I think an Inquisition style story, which would certainly provide scope for romantic elements, would be good, I don't think GW or any studio would be terribly interested in doing that. That is not what is iconic about 40k, so you are going to get a war story, even if that means not getting as good a story as is possible. However, if you are going to have a war story, have it from the point of an Imperial Guardsman, which allows greater freedom for characters people can relate to, interpersonal relations of different types (including love stories), and allow characters to serve traditional narrative roles (young dude with older mentor, man with photos of wife and child who you know is going to die before the end etc) without breaking canon of 40k. Space Marines would feature, but as the Angels of Death that descend from the heavens in pods and slaughter the enemy at some dramatically appropriate moment, with no verbal interaction with the main characters (and all with helmets on). Basically showing them from the perspective of a normal 40k citizen, ie almighty killing machines which are as much feared as they are inspiring.

Terminator was better than Termanitor 2, yet it had a love element to it... not a major focus of the plot (even if it was a vital element to the story), and I am not saying it is better because of that, but good action sci-fi films can have love interests.

Oh, and I am not sure there is any intention to release Ultramarines as anything but the "limited edition" collectors set.

And **** me its £25... 15 I could maybe have justified buying it, but £25? And from the clip on the website the dialogue as unbelievably wooden... Terrance Stamp seems to not care how he reads the lines at all.

Okay... Gonna jump into the fray here.

First let me say that I believe Hollywood is full of untalented hacks, many who know nothing about writing a good story. Secondly, they aren't all bad.

Now, to the main point. A love story does not have to be about romance. How about it, if they really really want a space marine in it, it starts with him as a boy, a girl in the village likes him, he gets selected to become a SM, off he goes, of course she stays, he grows up, she grows up, the planet is attacked by XYZ xenos/cultists/whatever, back come the SM to save their recruiting world, perhaps previous boy is in group, now a scout (Hollywood will make him a full brother, but we all know it should take longer than that) and boy and girl cross paths, girl recognizes boy, just when you think something will happen, boy does not recognize girl and does his **** job! And girl dies, because of course she was an evil cultist all along. Roll credits.

A story of love lost. lol

E

borithan said:

£25 is way too much. If they're not going to release a non-special edition, I won't buy it. I'm sure it's good, but I'll probably only watch it once. They've priced themselves out of my interest range.

The collector's editional is working on the same principle as hardback novels. They publish the high-margin hardback exclusively for a few months - the serious fans purchase it and then they print the paperback. After a while you often find the paperback discounted.

In short - it's not going to be £25 for ever.

Lightbringer said:

They're releasing the basic DVD (without extras) next spring. Being a small company producing an independently-financed movie, they're trying to get back as much money as they can now, without the additional drain of distributor's fees (if they're anything like those in the RPG industry, that's a considerable cut of the cake), before they go to general release.

ejacobs said:

Sounds like a good plot - could be an interesting sub plot to throw into a Deathwatch adventure........with the right players.......