“[Steven Spielberg is] currently in active negotiations to develop the feature film adaptation”

The story is hyped up with details of Spielberg’s video game hobbies and suggested fascination of the latest Stuart Beattie “Fall of reach” script, aka a Master Chief back story originally written in 2001 by Erik Nylund. We’re taking this one with a grain of salt. BUT, it is good to see the Halo movie back in the limelight — one day, maybe, it will hit the big screens.

IESB has learned exclusively (believe me this is solid and I’ve confirmed it three times over with studio executives and our close ties to CAA) that one of the biggest producers in Hollywood history is currently in active negotiations to develop the feature film adaptation and no it’s not Jerry Bruckheimer or Peter Jackson. It’s the man behind Jaws, E.T., Indiana Jones and Transformers, Mr. Steven Spielberg.

Spielberg is blown away by writer Stuart Beattie’s take on the game in his script entitled HALO THE FALL OF REACH. This coupled with the fact that his Dreamworks umbrella is looking for a big tent pole to help launch their newly independant studio with distribution over at Walt Disney Pictures after losing Transformers to Paramount in the separation, it’s the perfect combination.

Bettie beleives the old style Halo movie incaration is dead and is ready to release his vision, Halo: The Fall of Reach, a prequel to the first game.  John Gaudiosi finds out what this vision is, in his interview for game daily.  See the full transcript below.

And thanks to Blair Allan for sending us this news.

GameDaily BIZ: One of the big riffs about Halo early on from Hollywood producers I’ve spoken with was that the movie borrowed too much from Aliens…

BIZ: Why do you think Microsoft wasn’t able to get this movie off the ground with Peter Jackson attached and 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures on board?

SB: I wasn’t involved so I don’t know specifically why it fell apart, but I do know Hollywood is a numbers game. There’s certainly going to be an interest in a huge IP like Halo, but there’s going to be a point where the numbers just don’t add up any more. From what I had read, the budget kept going higher and higher and all of the back-ends were going to everyone but the people who were putting up the money to make the movie. And it just got to the breaking point because it was no longer fiscally responsible to make. These movies are a business.

BIZ: Where does your Halo movie fit in with everything?

SB: The Halo movie in its initial incarnation is dead. No one is pursuing it any more. When the writers guild strike hit last year I suddenly had three months to write a Halo script. I always had this vision of doing Halo: The Fall of Reach, which is a prequel to the first game. It sets up a world 500 years in the future and we have colonies, there’s the UNSC, there’s the secret Spartan training program. And you see this six-year-old kid kidnapped in the middle of the night.

BIZ: And where does Master Chief fit into all of this?

SB: The character doesn’t start off as Master Chief. He starts off as John, who’s the kid that’s kidnapped and told he’s going to be a soldier. Anyone can connect with a kid kidnapped from his own home. You’re along for that journey. The Covenant comes along halfway through that movie. That gives you half the movie to really get to know everyone and care about everyone. And then when the Covenant come along, it’s the first time John sees a grunt or a jackal or an elite. The audience is trying to figure out everything at the same time as the characters are. What are these aliens? Why are they killing us? What did we do? And realizing it’s all about this Halo ring. And then ending the movie where the first game begins.

BIZ: What do you think gamers, who’ve been waiting a long time for a Halo movie, will get from your adaptation?

SB: I’ve been waiting a long time, too, as a fan. For fans, it will give a whole new perspective that they’ve never had before. And for non-fans it will introduce a whole new world, a time and a place with interesting characters. They can get into that and then they can go play the games because they know the whole backstory.

BIZ: You’ve talked about John getting kidnapped as a kid and a lot of peaceful time before the attacks. How much action is in your story?

SB: As a Halo fan what I want to see in a Halo movie is Master Chief kicking alien butt and we have plenty of that. But we’ve also got this great story that goes along with it. I always thought that was the way a Halo story should be so when I got time during the strike I decided to put my money where my mouth was. I did a bunch of concept art and boards and animatics. I did a presentation package and contacted Microsoft and Bungie. Joe Statton at Bungie (director of cinematics and writer of the three games) read it and loved it. I wasn’t part of the previous incarnation so I don’t know what they did with that script. But the book they commissioned, Halo: The Fall of Reach by Eric Nyland was a fantastic book.

BIZ: What’s the next step, now that you have a completed script?

SB: We’re now in discussions with Microsoft to see if we can get this made. I’m just a fan and I desperately want to see a Halo movie out there.

BIZ: Are you a go-to guy now in Hollywood for game adaptations?

SB: I get sent a lot of games. I’ve been sent games before that I don’t like and that I’ve turned down because I’m not the right guy for that job. That’s not going to be a good adaptation. You need to love the game. If I haven’t played the game, I say, “Can you give me a year?” I can’t just adapt a game for a film unless I’ve played it and liked it.

BIZ: And you obviously have that passion for the Halo games, right?

SB: At the end of the day you have to really be inspired. It can’t just be a story from the game. Once you go and make the movie that’s two years of your life and you have to be invested in the story. You gotta know you have the right story. I suspect (with the original Halo movie) they didn’t fully have the right story. They had three or four writers on it and that’s usually a sign that they didn’t have a story and they kept going around in circles.

BIZ: Thanks for your time. We hope your film gets made.

Two more to go!

(View the first concept image)

Latino Review have the exclusive on some concept are released to coincide with Stuart Beattie’s Halo: Fall of Reach treatment which acts as a prequel to the Halo video game series. The image is by conceptual artist Kasra Farahani (previous work includes Spider-man 3 and Hancock) and is part of a larger presentation to Microsoft.

According to Latino writer El Mayimbe, there are some big time Hollywood professionals that are also major Halo fans that want to see this movie made — let’s not give up hope yet.

Neill Blomkamp’s first big screen work has also started a viral stir at SDCC, District 9 which looks very interesting. “For Humans Only”. Due for release next August, if this film can deliver the goods then the old Jackson/Blomkamp partnership may get its financial backing after all.

We can also look forward to five more concept images being released over the next few weeks, stay tuned.

We continue to be in discussions with various potential partners. We’re so excited about the idea. We don’t have anything specific to announce but I can tell you that their continues to be tremendous interest. We wanna make sure, whenever we translate it to the big screen that its going to be a movie worthy of the IP. So we’re going to be very careful about how we proceed there.

“A Peter Jackson-helmed Halo project was announced at X06 in Barcelona,” said a Microsoft spokesperson. “Since then, Microsoft Game Studios has been hard at work collaborating with Peter Jackson and Bungie on the development of that project. At this time, it’s necessary to grow the internal team to keep pace with development. Bungie will continue to remain involved in multiple aspects of the Halo Universe with MGS.”

In an effort to get the ball rolling again, I just learned that big time G.I. JOE screenwriter STUART BEATTIE has written a spec screenplay called HALO: FALL OF REACH, and it’s based on the best selling novel of the same name by Eric Nylund.

HALO: FALL OF REACH is a labor of love by Beattie in the hopes of finally getting the movie made.

The Premise of the script:

The script is, first and foremost, a character-driven story about a soldier named John who was kidnapped or “conscripted” by the UNSC when he was just six years old, and then brutally trained to become an elite Spartan warrior known as Master Chief 117.

One cool advantage of this first script is that (like the shark in JAWS) you don’t even see the Covenant until halfway through the movie. And because all the creatures are CGI creations, this cuts the budget down dramatically and makes a first Halo movie that much more viable. For Halo fans, it’s like the prequel that provides all the answers to questions they’ve thought about for years. For non Halo fans, it’s an exciting action movie that provides a clear, concise introduction to a world five hundred years in the future with relatable characters and a terrifying alien menace.