Speculation! Dontcha just love it??
No rumours here. Just aforementioned speculation.
See, Warcraft is getting a movie (though to be honest, it's looking a bit ropey SFX wide). Marvel and DC are taking the box office.
And we're seeing GW branching out into more general merchandising - making the most of their IP through various leases and that - not least of which are their Video Games.
Seems to me that the lure of a movie franchise deal can't be far off. Depending entirely on the deal they can get, there's an absolute poo-load of money in even a half decent movie adaptation.
Now, popular rumour has it that GW have had film companies sniffing around in the past. From a producers stand point, any background setting as rich as 40k's has a fair chunk of your work done for you. It's fully formed, well known, and well loved. Yet the stumbling point in the past is, allegedly that GW want to retain all merchandising rights - and they're not keen on stuff like a McHorus Burger with Emperor Fries etc.
Given how financially important merchandise sales are to the overall profitability of a movie, that's a really big stumbling block to get such things made.
As I pointed out earlier though, GW's attitude to licensing appears to softening - potentially to the point where they've got a more realistic appetite for such things. And, with a successful movie.....there really is an awful lot of cash up for grabs.
Example? LotR. GW did exceptionally well out that trilogy. (Rumour has it they projected to recoup their outlay by the launch of Return of The King, but it actually happened half way through Fellowship). So a good movie can get people playing the game. Flip side of course would be The Hobbit trilogy....films were by no means a flop, but they didn't have the same success for GW's game.
So it's far from a risk free thing - but is it a risk worth taking?