Halo - the film

Man, there is so much information on Halo on the internet that I don't even know where to begin, and frankly I'm not even sure I should. I don't own an XBOX, always been a PlayStation guy. I know that I've missed out on more than one cool game that was exclusive to XBOX, but honestly the way my life is I just don't have time to play many games. So I'm not too worried, normally. But Halo, ahh Halo... this was really the one game I felt cheated out of never playing, I can live without some of the other games I've missed, like World of Warcraft, And I can live without really ever playing the later Final Fantasy games, or Grand Theft Auto, but Halo looked really really cool to me. And considering I'm such a sci fi nerd, right up my alley.

That said, while I know I will never play the game (or never at least for the forseeable future) I am very excited to see that the game is coming to the big screen in movie form. Now this has been in the works for a few years, but didn't really pick up steam until Peter Jackson got involved maybe 6 months ago. He got everyone excited. I mean hell this wasn't going to be another Doom; it wasn't going to be another Uwe Ball fuckup, this was going to be amazing. The kind of film Halo should be. Eventually though it came out that PJ would in fact not be directing the film himself but would be executive producing it, and would be hand picking the director, and (obviously) using his fantastic effects house WETA.

The story for the three of you who like me, may not know it is as follows. BTW this is from the Halo film WIKI:

The basic premise of the original Halo video game plot involves Master Chief (the protagonist) and his AI companion Cortana as the two traverse the galaxy trying to save humanity from alien forces. Master Chief and Cortana work together to fend off the religiously zealous but ultimately misled races of The Covenant, only to discover and even greater threat - the parasitic Flood. The release of the Flood triggers the main function of the massive, artificial ringworlds known as Halos - a weapon capable of destroying all life in the galaxy - which also happens to be the only known way to defeat the Flood. This introduces a further element of conflict, as the firing of the Halos must be stopped, even while the battles against (and among) the Covenant and Flood continue. Along the way, Master Chief and Cortana try to uncover a series of mysteries surrounding the ancient but now extinct Forerunner race that built the Halos, in a desperate attempt to discover a way to eliminate the Flood, stop the Covenant onslaught, and save humanity.

Simple right? right... ;) Well anyhow, today (ok maybe yesterday really) Microsoft announced the director for the film (READ). Neill Blomkamp.... exactly what i said... neill who??? Well he's not really a new director, but this would be his first feature film. He's done a number of shorts and a bunch of pretty acclaimed FX animation work. I myself was a bit concerned at this news but then I spent some time checking some of his shorts online and I have to say, this guy is really good. Here's his WIKI.

Firstly if you know him for anything it will probably be from the transformers-esque dancing car commercial he did for Citreon. Check that out HERE.

Other shorts, check out this 90 second robocop style industrial video for a new robot compnay. The short is called Tetra Vaal.

He did two slightly longer shorts that are interesting but unless you're really into this don't bother watching them int heir entirety. The Blade runner homage that was made with Adidas is called Yellow, and the other sad, and funny 15 minute film that uses the same robot from Tetra Vaal is called Tempbot.

If there's one short of this Blomkamp guy that I really recommend you watch its the really amazing one called Alive in Joburg. This film is great, and I mean great. It reminds me of something out of a dream I have sometimes. Very fucked up, and pretty scary. I'd really recommend you check it out.

Ain't it Cool News scored an interview with Blomkamp which you can read HERE.

My info was garnered from AICN, IMDB, and THIS news article on Gamespot.

I'd definitely say that Halo is worth keeping an eye on. With a script by Alex Garland, (rewrite by the awesome Lucky Wander Boy scribe D.B. Weiss) I'm interested to see where this film goes. It's scheduled at least for now to be released sometime in the summer of 2008.