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Amazon Acquires Film Rights To 'Warhammer 40,000' (arstechnica.com) 44

Posted by BeauHD from the new-cinematic-universe dept.
Longtime williamyf writes: Both ArsTechnica and The Register report that Amazon, Vertigo, and Games Worksop have entered a preliminary deal for the movie, TV, and merchandising rights of the Warhammer 40K franchise. The deal also brings Henry Cavill -- longtime Warhammer 40K fan, actor who played Geralt in Netflix's The Witcher series and Superman in the Zack Snyder DC superhero films -- as both executive producer and actor.

While this is only a memorandum of understanding, it's highly likely that the deal will pass. What is still not clear is if this will be handled by MGM (meaning a higher probability of theatrical releases and physical media) or if it will go to Amazon Studios (increasing the probability of a streaming-only affaire), or both.

What is your opinion? Let us know in the comments. "Warhammer 40K is set in the very distant future (the 40K roughly refers to the years when it takes place) that is analogous in some ways to what historians used to refer to as Europe's Dark Ages," reports Ars. "The franchise is the definition of 'grimdark,' painting a picture of a universe in which billions toil to serve a God-Emperor and vast, brutal warfare."

"The universe is much more expansive than its politics, though, with countless threats to humanity, including Starship Troopers-like insect hordes and space orks, among other beings." It started as a tabletop game and has gone on to spawn numerous popular video games and books over the almost 40 years it's been around.
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Amazon Acquires Film Rights To 'Warhammer 40,000' More

Amazon Acquires Film Rights To 'Warhammer 40,000'

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  • Major Studio + Amazon's Resources . . . (Score:5, Informative)

    by Kunedog ( 1033226 ) on Friday December 16, 2022 @08:31PM (#63137130)
    . . . yet how many think they'll even come close to the quality and faithfulness to the source material that one fan was able to achieve on his own:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
    • I wish I could mod your post up. That was exactly my thought - those videos are absolutely amazing, a work of love from a fan. Let's see if Henry can steer it in the right direction.

    • Re:Major Studio + Amazon's Resources . . . (Score:4, Interesting)

      by guest reader ( 2623447 ) on Friday December 16, 2022 @08:56PM (#63137168)
      Event Horizon movie is good.

      Screenwriter Philip Eisner acknowledged that Warhammer 40,000 influenced the story.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

      This seems to be a higher quality version (and easier to watch); the originals were taken down, but this seems closer to them than the first link I posted.

    • how many think they'll even come close to the quality and faithfulness to the source material

      I think Amazon has done a good job on SF works so far (thinking of The Expanse), they just seem to drop the ball when it comes to fantasy titles (Here I am looking at not just rings of power but wheel of time).

      At least there's a lot better chance of it turning out well than other places.

      • Hey!! Hey!! The Wheel of Time shown on Amazon just happens to be a very different turning of the wheel!

        As a WoT addict I just couldn't find much enjoyment in what Amazon made. It was painful.

        I got much more enjoyment out of the Lotr stuff they made but that's because I just have a cursory knowledge of the lore and a fraction of the passion compared to WoT.

        I would rather someone do WoT just like the books with animation. It would take forever and likely wouldn't make money. If I won billions in the lottery,

        • I would rather someone do WoT just like the books with animation.

          I think that would be a great project, probably realistically that's the only way you get get through many of the books on any kind of reasonable budget and timeframe.

          I don't know what compels people to buy a great IP that people obviously really liked and then just twist it out of recognition into soemthing people may or may not like. It's pretty simple just to follow the story you already know people love, and just adapt it for live action.

    • Re:Major Studio + Amazon's Resources . . . (Score:5, Insightful)

      by GrumpySteen ( 1250194 ) on Saturday December 17, 2022 @12:18AM (#63137432)

      I think you're ignoring a few things...

      Henry Cavill has been playing Warhammer for decades and he openly nerds out about it. He's also got a couple of decades of experience in the movie industry, so he knows what goes into making a movie.

      Amazon is turning a fanboy loose with a budget, a starring role and an executive producer position that gives him some power to control what goes into the movie.

      It could go all to hell, but there's a good chance that it'll turn out great.... at which point the gatekeeper fanboys will still make up every excuses to say it was bad because it introduced the franchise to a wider audience.

      And here you are... starting your gatekeeping practice already. I look forward to you reviewing the movie at one star before it's even finished being made, much less released.

      • "And here you are... starting your gatekeeping practice already. I look forward to you reviewing the movie at one star before it's even finished being made, much less released."

          And it always amazes me that the gatekeeping is done by people who did not create the IP in the first place.

          Rarely have I ever seen creators play this kind of gatekeeping to their own works.

        • In GamesWorkshops case they do their gatekeeping via hyperactive lawyer watchdogs instead of weirdly possessive grognards like the rest of fandom

          Alas.

      • Gatekeeping? Really? Because people want a movie to be faithful to the material it's based on?

        Has it ever occurred to you that the reason for the success of a story is that it is the way it is? And that this may actually be something that could apply to a wider audience that just didn't hear the story yet? How arrogant can you be that you think people are too stupid to grasp a complex story if you don't dumb it down for "general consumption"?

        How many times do we have to see stories being watered down and tu

      • Cavill also has enough artistic integrity to want to stay true to the source material. That's one of the reasons he walked out of the Witcher. If he is part of the deal, I at least have faith in them respecting the source material.
      • To be fair, Amazon has earned their reputation of not giving a shit about the source material or hiring people who will be faithful to it. I wouldn't blame someone whose first reaction is despair that their favorite franchise is about to be fucked into the ground to turn out sub par crap that even mass audiences won't like, let alone the fans.

        Also a 40K show is going to be difficult to pull off. A lot of it would require expensive CGI and there's a question as to how much a mainstream audience would be i

    • Source material or books which are not that great?

    • Enjoy that vid while you can. GameWorkshop had it pulled down from its official channel. (Apparently it was supposed to be moved to the GW website, but it never happened. Its gone. Apparently they've been cease and desisting fan stuff all over the place)

    • How many think they'll realize that the source was parodic and ironic? [archive.org]
      After all, most fans of the franchise kinda missed that bit. [wikipedia.org]

      "Unless you've read Paradise Lost you don't get it. The whole Horus Heresy is just a parody of the fall of Lucifer as described by Milton."

      The civil war within the human Imperium would set the scene for 40k's entire backstory, and the Space Marines would become the most recognisable figures in its fictional universe.
      But while recent editions of the game have cast them in a heroic light, Priestley argued that Games Workshop had misinterpreted the intent behind the characters.

      "To me the background to 40K was always intended to be ironic," he said.

      "The fact that the Space Marines were lauded as heroes within Games Workshop always amused me, because they're brutal, but they're also completely self-deceiving.
      The whole idea of the Emperor is that you don't know whether he's alive or dead. The whole Imperium might be running on superstition.
      There's no guarantee that the Emperor is anything other than a corpse with a residual mental ability to direct spacecraft.

      "It's got some parallels with religious beliefs and principles, and I think a lot of that got missed and overwritten."

  • I couldn't skip the chance... (Score:3)

    by sarren1901 ( 5415506 ) on Friday December 16, 2022 @08:37PM (#63137136)

    https://www.penny-arcade.com/c... [penny-arcade.com]

  • We know how this goes (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Daemonik ( 171801 ) on Friday December 16, 2022 @08:55PM (#63137166) Homepage
    Every fan gets their hopes up, Amazon hires a showrunner who has barely glanced at the source material and they then proceed to spend a billion dollars wiping their butts with the dreams and hopes of the fans as they try to shove decades of reference material into 8 episodes. Abandon all hope, nothing to see here.

    • The Age of TV Horrors (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Roger W Moore ( 538166 ) on Saturday December 17, 2022 @03:58AM (#63137634) Journal

      Every fan gets their hopes up

      Not after the Rings of Power and the Wheel of Time. Now every fan of any franchise out there is desperately hoping that they will run out of money before they buy up the rights to the franchise they love. What was heralded a few years ago as the golden age of streaming has turned into an age of TV horrors with astounding rapidity.

      • That's kind of how it goes. The studios turn up their noses at something until someone with a lot of passion brings a production to bear and finds critical market success because they understood what made the original work resonate and took care in adapting it to film. Then the studios see the financial success and want more of it, but don't have the faintest clue about why those first projects succeeded and start throwing out whatever they can to try and cash in while turning their noses up at someone else

      • "TV Horrors"?? The Expanse fans would beg to differ.

        • The Expanse was a few years ago and in the golden age. Look at the stuff that's been churned out now. That's how rapidly it all went down hill.

    • Huh? At least read the announcement. Executive producer is Henry Cavil, an infamous Warhammer nerd and a guy who openly fights with show runners who deviate from the source material. Healthy skepticism is a good thing, but that's not what you are demonstrating.

  • My time slot for fantasy fiction was from 1959-1967. I'm a grownup now and enjoy the memories. Sorry I don't have time for such things while I have responsibilities to consider. Oddly enough, I now write stories, including fantasy fiction and I hope there will still be generations of young people who enjoy that. And grow out of it.

    • I dont think "Growing out of" fantasy is a good thing at all. Lifes too short to be a screwed down boring fart who only likes NICE REAL THINGS. We get 80 years on this earth and then thats it forever. And we have a giant brain capable of generating breathtaking vistas of creative fancy. Its a waste of matter and opportunity not to let that brain go bananas on imaginative fun.

      âoeI tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different.â - Kurt Vonnegut.

  • That is better than everyone else without training.

  • fitting (Score:1)

    by Tom ( 822 )

    Ya, that fits. Amazon, a company interested in being a dominant force in its market and making tons of money (by forcing their employees to pee in bottles, etc.) partnering with Games Workshop, a company interested in being a dominant force in its market and making tons of money (by forcing their customers to constantly buy new stuff through rules changes).

    I like the GW games, honestly. Took me a while to understand they don't make them out of a desire to make good games, but only as vehicles to sell more m

  • But... but... but... I haven't even see Warhammer 39,999 yet!

  • Is the emperor going to be an empress? Cast your bet now!

    Because, let's face it, is anyone interested in seeing it? Either you're not a fan of Warhammer, then you couldn't give a fuck. Or you're a fan of Warhammer, then you probably hope you can't give a fuck.

    • I'm not a "fan" of anything per se, but I've still got my space marine army because it's not worth anything (not much anyway, I think I might have some beta speeder bikes and I do have some old rhinos, they are somewhat coveted because they are smaller) and I just don't see how you make a satisfying movie. There's been enough trouble trying to make really enjoyable games, and that you would think would be a shoo-in.

      • I could see an interesting movie in that universe. Now, I don't have any figures and I never played it, I mostly read about the lore to find out what the hubbub is about, and yeah, the universe canon is pretty interesting. You should be able to create a few stories out of that.

        Given the track record of Amazon, I don't exactly hold my breath, though.

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