Ultramarines - A Warhammer 40,000 Movie

Codex Pictures have announced production of Ultramarines, the first feature film to be based upon Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40k. If you don’t know what 40k
is then it seems, somewhat surprisingly, that you aren’t quite as geeky
as me. Simply put, it’s a tabletop wargame, as played with little
miniature figurines and dice of many sides. Created in the late 80s as
a spacey shooty spin off to a trolls and goblins original, Warhammer Fantasy Battle, the 40k
version seems to have developed a following all its own and, at least
whenever I walk by the local Games Workshop store, seems to be getting
played at least as much as its ‘classic’ swords and sorcery ancestor.

The film has a freshly minted official site, but there’s nothing much to see yet. Meanwhile, Codex Pictures have a press release page that tells us how “hugely honoured” they are to be making the film, and similar puffy fluff.
The game’s mythology is obviously geared to little more than
providing context for violent and often epic confrontations. The hero
characters, such as they are, are massive great genetically modified
marines, Hulk scaled and armour clad and equipped with some seriously
tasty boomsticks. They’re all happy to kill and die in service of the
Emperor (sounds… familiar…).
Meanwhile, there are other species cluttering up the Milky Way and
lining up to be bashed around a bit. These include the Eldar,
essentially space elves, and the Orks who are, to all intents and
purposes, Orcs. There’s also a hive-mind species called the Tyranids
and some nasty things called Necrons who are living creatures made of
metal and therefore (though obviously I don’t mean this literally) rock
hard. Quite which of these will be turning up and getting shot at in Ultramarines is, so far, anybody’s guess.
If ever there was a film that had direct to DVD written all over it,
its this one. Niche market. Having said that, I know an awful lot of
people who’d never dream of touching a 28mm lead model but would like
to see a movie full of epic space smackdowns just like this, so just
maybe its a breakout waiting to happen.