Exactly, the hook in the warhammer 40K universe is the Imperial Guard. Normal men given a shitty flak vest & lasgun and then dropped into a giant confusing and terrifying shitstorm of aliens, demons, traitors, allies who care as much about your life as they do about the enemies and giant war machines that could crush you and not even realise it.
As much as I love the Space Marines, they're not the best source for storytelling because they've had so many of the flaws engineered out. About the only really compelling story that could star marines would be a retelling of the Horus Heresy and if hollywood was involved, the majority of the seduction to chaos would be slaanesh showing up with a squad of hot daemonettes who snog everyone till they agree to go & kill the emperor. Space Marines would function better as a catalyst for action, antagonist and object of awe simply becuse so few people could identify with a Marine. Books about the Marines work well becuase they have enough room to tell a more complex story and anyone reading the books can be safely assumed to be vaguely familiar with the universe already whereas movies have to be made for the uninitiated
A 40K movie would really have to be a high class full CG job I think, something like a cross between the new star wars clone wars cartoon and the intros to Dawn Of War 1 & 2

Well. I don't know about that. Something in the vein of Gaunt's Ghosts (not them, by any means. That would necessitate an insane series of stuff to encompass even one book) with a CG space marine or two scattered through-out.
I really like what Blur has done with the Starcraft 2 look for Marines (Even if they are just stolen Space Marines) and I think Blur could do an amazing job of it.
But I agree that Imperial Guard/Inquisition books are quite more interesting. I started with Space Marine books like Spacewolves and Ultramarines, but I find them really. . .dull now, to be honest. I prefer things like Eisenhorn, Gaunt's Ghosts and things of that nature.

I would third that the 40K movie would need to focus on the Imperial Guard, and not because I am a IG player. It'll be because they are just humans and the audience can relate to them. Although, I would think and love to see them do an Horus Heresy film due to the fact it's the best fluff of the series to me.

I know, I thought the first 2 were better. Peter Jackson is not my favorite person right now. Halo my ass.

The good thing with the Horus Heresy as a story is that the marines are more relateable, they weren't as heavily engineered then, they had more struggles than "why wont that bloody eldar stay still" and they have the primarchs & the emperor to be compared to and next to them they're not that godly

I never really cared about the imperial guard at all... space marines were always much more interesting and cooler.
I always thought a Horus Heresy trilogy would rock. It could start with the Emp and Horus being all pally... and end with their final battle. Plus it could have demons, terminators and frickin titans!
The Primarchs all seemed pretty human and emotional back then.. hardly like vulcans.
I think i started writing a horus heresy script about 15-20 years ago when i used to be into 40k... not that i can write at all.
(though the scripts i wrote for the star wars prequels on a bus across the states were far better than the real ones turned out to be ;-) )

I tried to get into Warhammer: 40k at my local gaming area but the lack of figures and players who were at my level made playing almost impossible. Still, I had fun with my brothers painting them and making really fun scenarios. Favorite was the Tyranids.

Supposedly that's exactly what he did to get the car into The Quick and the Dead (Old West film, a car would be pretty anachronistic in that too).