Beattie on Halo

Latino Review had a great story this week about white hit screenwriter Stuart Beattie, who is fresh off G.I. Joe, and how he has written, in his spare time mind you, a spec script for Halo. Yes Halo. His script, which as a spec script, no one actually asked him to write, is full entitled Halo: Fall of Reach. It's based on one of those Halo expanded universe books, and sounds like it just might work!

Wow, what an out of the blue development for Halo. I mean, Since proposed director Neill Blomkamp left the film and everything fell apart with the financing last fall, its just been one long holding pattern for the Halo film. And with the rumor that its been Microsoft behind the lack of development, this could be exactly what's needed. A cheaper, smarter Halo film.

According to Latino Review the film "is 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. The script then takes us through the horrific first contact with the Covenant hordes on the doomed colony world of Harvest, and then climaxes with the spectacular fall of the UNSC forward base on Reach, during which every other Spartan is slaughtered. The script also gives detailed outlines for the second movie, Halo: Rise of the Flood, which takes place entirely on the Halo ringworld, and the third and final movie, Halo: Battle for Earth, which roughly follows the events of Halo 3.

Sounds great! And I don't even play the Halo games. The article goes on to say "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."

very nice. I sure hope this can get made. It sounds like Beattie wrote it with the intent of writing something a bit cheaper to make than the last version of the film. That's fine by me too, I mean if its as great as it sounds like it could be then we can just spend a ton on the second and third ones...

Definitely looking to see if Microsoft takes this opportunity. Beattie has a great track record over the past few years. And the guy has just dumped what could amount to a ton of money in your hands. Don't fuck this up again Microsoft. The fans deserve this film.
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Blomkamp on District 9

Well, with the Halo movie, mostly sorta, not exactly dead right now it looks like there is time for Peter Jackson's good buddy, and proposed Halo director Neill Blomkamp to fit in another project, in fact his feature film directorial debut. Variety announced that Peter Jackson will produce the original sci fi screenplay called District 9, to be directed by Blomkamp. It's based on a script Blomkamp wrote with his partner Teri Tatchell. He will shoot in his native South Africa and the effects will of course be done by Weta.

While there isn't any specific indication as to what District 9 is actually about AICN is speculating that it might be an extension, or feature film adaptation of his previous short film Alive in Joburg. If this is the case, then truly this is awesome news. Alive in Joburg is fantastic. Its like everything I ever wanted to direct myself. I really REALLY think you should just go watch it right now.

Anyhow, let's hope that either this is the film getting made, or it's another equally as cool story.

Oh, and as for Halo, apparently it's really not dead. With the recent release of Halo 3, and the absurd amount of money it made, rumor has it that Microsoft are putting themselves together for another round of attempted financing. Only time will tell if their unheard of demands are the same as before, and can actually be met.

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Halo no more

So according to an official statement by Peter Jackson, and Microsoft's Wingnut Films (correction Wingnut Interactive), Halo is officially on hold. Pre-production has been halted and while everyone still hopes it'll happen one day, they aren't in a position where they can go forward with it at this time. This is sad news, if you've been keeping up with recent developments, you'll know that a few weeks ago Fox and Universal (who we're co-financing the picture) pulled out financially. And although it looked like PJ and director Neill Blomkamp might be able to pull it off and find some other backers that has unfortunately not materialized.

I hope this does come together maybe in a year or so, but you never really know. Hollywood is very fickle. Although I think we can definitely say this: as long as Microsoft is making such ridiculous amounts of money off this property, I'm sure they will try to get a film made. So I think there's still reason to hope.

Read more about this over at Dark Horizons.

Dance your cares away...from Halo

The Fraggles are coming. hooray! Recently I picked up Fraggle Rock season 1 on dvd, and have been really loving it. The Fraggles we're always my favorite muppets for some reason. Anyways, as I mentioned in an earlier post there have been some rumblings about a Fraggle Rock film in the works. Well, it looks like things are actually progressing well on the Fraggle movie. They've got a writer on it now, and you'll never guess who it is.... Ahamet Zappa. Yup, according to AICN, Frank Zappa's son is writing/developing the film for the Henson company. He's only written one other film which has yet to get made but has a great title, The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless. While I have no clue about Ahmet's writing ability, I do know that the Fraggles are pretty tripped out as a concept, and if the Zappa family is anything its weird, so the combo could be a good match. I'm sure the Henson family knows what they're doing giving it to him too, hopefully this thing comes together, I know I for one would love it if there was a Fraggle resurgence.

In more troubling film news today Variety is reporting that Fox and Universal, who we're set to co-finance the film, has pulled out of the Halo film over financial disputes. While the studios are claiming that they've pulled their support because the budget looks to potentially be ballooning from $135 mil to upwards of $200 mil, the word on the street is that the move has more to do with Microsoft's $5 mil upfront payday, and their 10% cut of the gross. Basically this sucks. I really want this film to get made. Hell, I think everyone wants this film to get made. And with Peter Jackson producing I honestly think it will make bank. So why are the film studios being such idiots?! They need to get over themselves. Even if Halo did as well as King Kong it would still be worthwhile, especially when you factor in the tie in video game MS is developing. Granted I'm not sure why you need that big a budget, but as I don't know all of the particulars of the story having not played the games, I would leave it up to Jackson and co to make that call. Apparently Weta, Jackson, and director Blomkamp are all still involved, and hopefully we'll get some word on another studio stepping up to the plate soon. It would be really sad to see this project die.

In somewhat more immediate film news, the animated Hellboy movie Sword of Storms is going to be airing on Cartoon Network, on their Toonami programming block, on October 28th, so don't forget to set your Tivos; should be great.

gotta fly, later all.

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.