Cool News
General Zod and Professor Bloom are suiting up for ULTRAMARINES!
Hola all. Massawyrm here.
To many of you this is going to seem positively foreign; but to those of you Warhammer 40,000 players out there, it’s gigantic news. Several months back, GAMES WORKSHOP revealed that they were working on a direct to video CG adaptation of their 40K universe titled ULTRAMARINES. In true GAMES WORKSHOP style, they’ve been holding a tight grip on any and all information. And while that might work fine in the realm of tabletop gaming, it’s a terrible way to promote a movie. How tight have they held the reins on this one? After announcing the film (long in production) in November, they’ve only now gotten around to telling us who’s even in it.
I’ve gotten a lot of mail about this one, both from inside the production and out, asking why I haven’t been writing about this. To be honest, this is the first bit of news that has REALLY excited me about the project, let alone that I thought would be interesting to non-Warhammer fans. Thus far all the news has been releases of concept art of things like Bolters, Heavy Bolters and Land Speeders – in other words, concept art of things I can reach miniatures of from where I sit most of my day. WHOO! (spins beanie) But the latest casting news? This is cool. So here’s a rundown of everything we know.
-The movie is entirely motion capture CG and will be released on Blu-Ray and DVD – though there is apparently hope for some sort of theatrical run. To those within the production, might I suggest considering a festival run? They’re looking late year – possibly October/November – which puts it smack dab in the middle of the world’s best genre and animation film fests. Fantasia, Sitges, Fantastic Fest. Good place to start guys.
-The film will center around the ULTRAMARINES, most likely the 2nd Company. The Ultra’s are the premiere group of Space Marines – 8 foot tall, genetically modified bad asses who wear power suits powered by small nuclear generators while carrying machine guns that fire explosive rounds of ammunition that can split a man in half. They're bad hombres.
-No word on who they’ll be up against, although I’m hearing from a couple different places that the film is going to be smaller in scope than some might be theorizing. I’m guessing (and this is ENTIRELY a wild ass guess) that this might be about a squad of Ultramarines trapped on Macragge during the Tyranid invasion. Although I’d love to be wrong about that. Too much like Starship Troopers and not enough like this:
-Signed to play major parts are Terence (General Zod) Stamp, John Hurt (ALIEN, HELLBOY, HARRY POTTER) AND Sean Pertwee (DOG SOLDIERS, EQUALIBRIUM, DOOMSDAY) as well as a handful of lesser known actors (all brits) such as Donald Sumpter, Johnny Harris, Ben Bishop, Christopher Finney and Gary Martin. I don’t know about you, but I could listen to Stamp and Hurt read TWILIGHT aloud to one another all day while taking breaks to clear their throat with technical manuals, so this bodes very well. Here’s the cast sharing anecdotes about Warhammer and getting the gig.
-The film is directed by a first time feature director Martyn Pick from a script by 40K Novelist Dan Abnet. Warhammer fans were pretty happy about Abnet being aboard, although I don’t join their enthusiasm. Abnet is pretty much the reigning king of fluff (backstory) when it comes to the Space Marines, and a solid writer - but novelists don’t often make a perfect transition to screenwriting. I have my fingers crossed here that Abnet nails the pacing and structure of a film, but kind of wish they’d brought in a seasoned screenwriter to co-write with Abnet. One thing is for sure: good or bad, they’ll be Space Marines.
I’m finally stoked for this. You?
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm
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From 90's issues of JLA?
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...First!
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Shouldn't that be Professor Broom, or am I missing something?
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No shit.
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One must remember that Uwe Broll often had decent talent in his abominations.
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http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/ktla-corey-haim-obit,0,1628364.story
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"I warned him."
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Mar 10, 2010 8:13:27 AM CST
Corey Haim died of an apparent drug overdose. Im up 20$
by thedannerdaliel
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40K has so much potential to be the ultimate badass movie. Any word on the rating? It better be R. But nc17 would be perfect.
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This is almost as good as INGLOURIUS BASTERD BABYZ http://tinyurl.com/yztnbwh
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I know for certain that the animation is not motion capture, though the face acting is. It was done with image metrics technology.
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"world Eater" preferably
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there's always one "i hope it's nc17" guy.
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Wow, this news IS truly great news for a huge Warhammer40k fan like myself! I have been on a Warhammer40k and Horus Heresy reading binge of late...in fact...with the exception of ONE novel (Fallen Angels in the Horus Heresy series) there hasn't been one book or story I haven't enjoyed reading! It's just such an amazing dark and twisted series in a very cool setting of hard science fiction, fantasy and (a little) horror mixed in too :)
I have often wondered while reading the Novels..."Hey, this would be really incredible IF Hollywood was able to bring to life the characters, background and seetings to the big screen" that is if they didn't fuck it all up (Can you imagine someone like Wes Anderson or Uwe Boll getting their grubby horrible movie making abilities on a cool Warhammer40k script? I shudder to think of what would happen!!)
Just like with the old Battlemech RPG of yore...I saw so many Movies and TV shows rip off the ideas of Battle Robots and People-crewed Battle Robots that just made me ill and rant about how if done properly a "Battletech/Battlemech" movie would have been awesome!
So, with all of THAT said...I am really hoping that something great comes out of this proposed "Ultramarine" movie that has been discussed here...I am intrigued and like the idea that Dan Abnett (He is one of the Authors who really puts out some terrific WH40k Novels) wrote a script and that a pretty good cast is being assembled so far.
I just hope and "pray" to the RPG Gods ;) (LOL) that doesn't turn into a wretched and unwatchable piece of direct to DVD crap that disappoints all the fans of the Warhammer40k 'verse (RPG and Novel fans alike) -
...but i have always been curious why the things even bother with armor. Look at that clip, it looks easy as all hell to kill each other.
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Admit it. It's true.
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Purge the alien.
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FYI Dan has written lots of comics for Marvel so I think he will have enough experience with plot & pacing that he will do a good job. I look forward to it.
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You were right on target - to most of us this is foreign and well, wake me when the movie gets here.
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To blckmgk13, The armor looks weak because you are seeing the elite warriors of two super technoligical races clash. There are still trillions of other beings in the warhammer 40k universe who wouldnt cut through a space marines armor so easily.
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Yeah, Abnett has been writing comics for a LONG time and has even written some of my favorites, like DC's Resurrection Man and the Legionnaires comic as well as Marvel's cosmic stuff for the last few years. He created Sinister Dexter in 2000 AD and even wrote some audio plays for Doctor Who and Torchwood. I think he is more than qualified to pen a movie script. Take a look at the wikipedia entry for his work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Dan_Abnett
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Would have loved to see Knight and Squire.
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How can you not be pleased with that appointment?! You don't think he's bright enough to realise the differences between script writing and novels? The guys a 40k God...On a personal note, i would KILL to watch the horus heresy in movie form!
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The Inquisitor novels (Eisenhorn and Ravenor) are FUCKING BADASS.
All the other Black Library writers are GARBAGE. -
I met the director and producer of this last year, as they're doing all the preproduction in Wales. They were utterly paranoid about details getting out but said it'll be like'Alien' in tone. Lots of gothic cathedral like interiors for spacecraft, etc.
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as a kid and loved it. I'm surprised its taken this long to get a movie made. I'm actually pretty intrigued by this.
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Take a look at this for more info on the movie.
http://www.youtube.com/user/UltramarinesTheMovie
You can also look at this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFHKIFDjk9I -
Read the Heresy series and Mechanicum and tell me again you think all the other BL writers are crap!I hadn't even heard of this and have thought since first starting the Heresy series that it would make for superbly kick ass sci-fi/war movies!Massa or any other 40k fans...any word on the 40k mmo in development? Warhammer was quite good and showed the promise of a 40k mmo...not sure how it would work with such regimented roles but that's where creativity comes in! Off to check mmorpg.com....
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