Ultramarines : The Movie

I was at Games Day back in September when they were handing out these innocuous postcards.. I grabbed one in passing and stuffed it into my bag without paying much attention to it. About an hour later, while sitting having my 8th cup of coffee for the morning, I fished it out and looked at what it said- Ultramarines - A Warhammer 40,000 Movie.

I decorated the table with cheap coffee when it registered. A proper 40K movie has to be one of the most longed for events for any fan -the powerful imagery and rich mythos of the 40K universe has been crying out for someone to do it justice for years.

Just look at youtube for an easy example - a quick search for '40K' clocks up over 18,000 hits- a lot of them Frankensteined from old games intros, trailers and in-game cut scenes.

On Wednesday Codex Pictures announced the director and screenwriter for the movie:

"The director is Martyn Pick, whose credits include the 2009 film The Age of Stupid, on which he was animation director; London 2012, the promotional film commissioned by Film London and the London Development Agency which was premiered at the Beijing Olympics; the 2001 US Budweiser NBA commercial; and the celebrated BBC promotional trailers for the Euro 2004 soccer tournament. Martyn was chosen to direct Ultramarines for his renowned and highly distinctive ability to fuse live action and animation and the fluid, rich painterly style of his film-making.

The screenplay has been written by someone who needs no introduction to Warhammer 40,000 fans – best-selling author Dan Abnett. Dan has penned more than 25 books for Games Workshop’s Black Library, with total sales in excess of 1.2 million copies. He also works regularly for 2000 AD, Marvel Comics and DC Comics and has recently seen publication of the first of three novels for HarperCollins' new sci-fi, fantasy and horror imprint, Angry Robot."

There's an interview with Dan regarding the movie too:

You can sign up for updates here.

It's all pretty damned exciting and it's good to know that, unlike some other spin-offs, the script has been in good hands.

Now gives us some footage!