Halo – The Movie
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Joystiq were at the Halo 3 public beta event in New York this week and they had the opportunity to interview Frank O’Connor, Bungie’s writing lead — you probably all know him from the regular Friday updates he posts.
Here’s what he had to say about the on-hiatus Halo film that we haven’t heard much about in the past few weeks:
How about the movie? What’s happening there? I imagine that in your position that you’re also responsible for the writing on that.
Well, we certainly work with them on the story bible, but they have Hollywood script writers. They’re not just gonna let me sit and write a movie. But the movie’s on hiatus right now. They need to sort out the finances, the politics of it. It’s really common in the movie industry for would-be competitors to coöperate on products, and you add a studio and a big corporation like Microsoft in the mix and it’s really complicated. I personally wish that we kept up the momentum with the movie so that I could see it next year. That’s not going to happen. But technically the movie is still a work in progress that will happen one day so we’re just waiting until everything’s right and all our ducks are in a row to make it happen properly.
Are Microsoft, and Peter Jackson as producer, still wedded to Neil Blomkamp as director? That was one of the problems that the financiers had.
That was one of the rumors. It’s a lot more complicated than that. But Neil Blomkamp is still working really closely with Peter Jackson. Honestly, I’d be really curious to see what Neil Blomkamp — if you’ve seen any of his shorts — what he could do with the physicality of the Master Chief. Seeing the Master Chief in video games Videogame-Simulator-Job 
is one thing; he’s running around with guns and rocket launchers. I’d like to see him taking out some trucks bare-handed, clambering across rooftops, leaping from building to building, in a way that you can only really do in a movie. You can take such artistic liberties with the gameplay elements, that I think Neil Blomkamp would be able to do something fantastic but I literally don’t know if he would be the director who made the movie eventually. I have no idea.
He’s certainly an interesting choice, a unique choice.
As a director, he certainly speaks to the militaristic, realistic sort of anachronistic almost, human element that we have in the game. If you look at Halo, you’ll see that human technology in the 26th century is barely changed from the 21st. I think he’d be able to do some really interesting things with atmosphere as well as with action.
So it looks like things are still going to head forward sometime in the future, just the nitty gritty business deals and funding to get sorted, as per usual. Also… bring on the Halo 3 beta (did you all get your Halo 3 beta invite?), I think we’re all looking forward to it.
Full interview at Joystiq, read on for info about Halo 3 multiplayer, story lines and Peter Jackson’s episodic content.
Despite the Halo Movie’s apparent pause, Neill Blomkamp and Peter Jackson continue to work together. The recently surfaced “Crossing the Line” clip using the high tech Red 4k has been written and directed by the pair. Check it out at the Red user forums, download links at the bottom.
Also, looking forward to the Halo 3 public beta?
We’re getting reports of all sorts of video game to movie adaptations, they seem to be springing up left, right and centre. But nothing new on the Halo movie front — it seems like the production is still in its deadly limbo mode. All we can do is hope for some big announcement in the near future and keep our fingers crossed.
In the meantime however I will bring up a couple of little treats I have come across.
Firstly, there’s an article looking at the recent spate of video game adaptations here which goes into some details about the Halo project, here are some quotes from Peter Jackson and Microsoft representatives that are in the article:
“My goal is not just to make ‘Halo the Movie’ a great film adaptation of a great game,” he says. “I really want it to be a great science-fiction action film. I want it to be a great movie in its own right.” […] “We realize there’s not a great track record there,” he says. “That’s why it was so important to partner with somebody like Peter Jackson. It’s about as close to a guarantee as we could get that this is going to be a high-quality movie with high-production values and good storytelling.” […] “For me, the Master Chief is like the Clint Eastwood — Dirty Harry — was for us when we were growing up,” Lee says. “He could potentially be that for the kids growing up today.”
Rumours do continue to fly, but a nice one is the possibility of some Halo Movie content appearing as a bonus with Halo 3 (in the legendary pack maybe?). Maybe some conceptual artwork; with production on hold we shouldn’t really hope for much more. Many sites are claiming teaster trailers et al, but I think that’s a bit much to expect. People have also reported to me rumours of Microsoft waiting for Marvel to develop their own film studio as they have tie ins with the Halo graphic novel. However I think this is just speculation and such a wait would impose significant delays.
Finally, here is a very nicely FAN made trailer that pulls together a lot of Halo 3, Halo Wars, Halo 2 and random tid-bits to create an interesting picture of what the Halo Movie could achieve.
Deadline Hollywood Daily reports that Fox and Universal are fighting over the $12m Halo movie pre-production costs, the slew of the problems come as Fox refuse to pay for the split costs 50–50, claiming that Universal studios should have asked permission to split these costs beforehand. In response, Universal are threatening to sue Fox to force them to pay what they believe they rightfully should.
It’s all quite funny.
I have just finished watching Ingmar Bergman’s “The Silence” and it seems like an apt title for the proceedings of the Halo Movie. Since the announcement that this Halo adaptation was going on hold we have heard nigh pip nor squeak, except maybe a solitary article entitled “The 5 things you didn’t know about the Halo movie” which covers everything we already know and nothing more.
The hopeful announcement amidst the Wii and PS3 releases was that of a Halo 3 public beta and a now aired Halo 3 commercial:
Well, amidst this desert of media activity I bid you Happy Christmas, “for one and all”.
Peter Moore has spoken out about the Halo Movie adaptation in an MTV interview. He states that since the project was placed on official hiatus there have been a number of visits to Weta’s studios in New Zealand by interested parties to check out the preliminary development of the movie. In his own words, he continues:
“While we have no deals to announce, everyone in Hollywood is looking at it. For the magnitude of what the script is — I’ve read the screenplay — and what we need to do to uphold the ‘Halo’ universe for its legion of fans in the way they want to see a movie being made, no, it won’t be next year.”
Full Article at MTV.com
Well, given the previous statements concerning the movie’s continued progress this is most definitely a shot to the gut. The official statement via Peter Jackson and Microsoft’s WingNut Films goes like this:
As was previously confirmed, we deeply regret that both Universal and Fox did not choose to move forward with financing the Halo film under the original terms of the agreement. At this time Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, along with their partner, Microsoft, have mutually agreed to postpone making a feature film based on the Halo video game universe until we can fulfill the promise we made to millions of Halo fans throughout the world that we would settle for no less than bringing a first class film to the big screen. We are fully supportive of Director Neill Blomkamp’s vision of the film. Neill is a tremendously gifted filmmaker Academy-Awards and his preliminary work on Halo is truly awe-inspiring. While it will undoubtedly take a little longer for Halo to reach the big screen, we are confident that the final feature film will be well worth the wait.
Please note POSTPONED does NOT mean canceled. So many news articles claimed Game Over for the Halo movie, it’s not over, it’s an unfortunate set back.
AintitCool’s Quint also has a commentary on this predicament.
ComingSoon — Further coverage.
Rumors are abound with reports that a third screenwriter is being called upon to look over and modify the existing Halo screenplay. Variety reports that “A History of Violence” writer Josh Olson is in the mix.
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