Movie Chronicles » Halo Movie

Neill Blomkamp to Direct Halo Movie August 9th, 2006

The Halo motion pic­ture will be helmed by Neill Blomkamp, mak­ing his fea­ture film debut. Blomkamp is widely regarded as one of the most inno­v­a­tive and orig­i­nal artists cur­rently work­ing in short films and com­mer­cial adver­tis­ing.Xbox​.com

So who is this Neill Blomkamp I hear you say. Well his IMDB pro­file doesn’t reveal too much (IMDB). But given some fur­ther inspec­tion we can find some truly stun­ning pieces that he is respon­si­ble for:

A native of South Africa, Blomkamp directed the acclaimed 2005 short film, Alive in Joburg, that depicted a future in which extrater­res­tri­als have become refugees. Last year, Blomkamp also received three Clio Awards and a Visual Effects Soci­ety Award for his tele­vi­sion com­mer­cial Citroen-Alive with Tech­nol­ogy. See videos below

It is plain to see this man has an eye for orig­i­nal­ity and has almost per­fect exe­cu­tion. Now all he needs do is trans­fer his tal­ents to the world of motion pic­tures. My only con­cerns are his inex­pe­ri­ence in coax­ing and enthus­ing the best out of actors and a pos­si­ble lack of lead­er­ship skills that a make a good direc­tor leg­endary. Though I am sure he will do just fine and with Peter Jack­son and Weta behind him I can think of no one bet­ter to guide him through this tran­si­tion. If his early work is any­thing to go by the Halo movie WILL be per­fect. Let’s all cross our fin­gers; another great step has been taken.

His per­sonal biog­ra­phy can be found here:
http://​www​.spyen​ter​tain​ment​.com/​d​i​r​e​c​t​o​r​_​0​3​.​h​tml
A new breed of direc­tor, Neill Blomkamp has har­nessed the pow­ers of tech­nol­ogy, art and cre­ativ­ity to bring the world imagery never before pos­si­ble. Gar­ner­ing his excep­tional CG skills in an intel­li­gent and spe­cific man­ner, his forte is cre­at­ing pure photo-real visu­al­iza­tions of con­cepts that not only can’t be pho­tographed, but exists only in his imagination.

Rec­og­niz­ing that film­mak­ing is as organic as it is arti­fi­cial; Neill has merged the two seam­lessly, mak­ing a hybrid which feels unex­pect­edly authen­tic. He enjoys cre­at­ing atmos­phere in a spot where the con­cept is not only unique, but slightly bizarre.

From our forums:
I think choos­ing a direc­tor like Blomkamp is an excel­lent deci­sion which has given this film the best pos­si­ble chance of being the first truly worth­while video game adap­ta­tion. After watch­ing those shorts I’m very impressed with his nat­u­ral­is­tic direct­ing style, the way every­thing seems to give off the appear­ance on of an almost documentary-like raw­ness. This rough­ness and mix­ture of the real and the fan­tas­ti­cal I think is nec­es­sary to keep the Halo movie’s story from turn­ing into a bloated Star Wars-esque space opera, much like Halo 2’s did. What made the orig­i­nal Halo’s world so fas­ci­nat­ing to explore was the jux­ta­po­si­tion of the famil­iar within an alien envi­ron­ment, the way that the Halo both felt sim­i­lar to Earth and at the same time com­pletely for­eign, and I’m hop­ing Neill can recap­ture this atmos­phere. With him on board I’m now gen­uinely look­ing for­ward to watch­ing how this film devel­ops. — Legion

Alive in Joburg

An ear­lier piece of work that has made its way around the inter­net is this lit­tle gem:
Tetra Vaal

And for those won­der­ing what the Cit­roen ad looks like, it’s the one that makes us wish Trans­form­ers will be this good. We can only hope.

Cit­roen ad part 2:

Here is another short by him enti­tled “Yellow”.

Edit: Bobby also sends me this link to another of his movies, “Temp­bot”:
http://​www​.trans​bud​dha​.com/​m​e​d​i​a​H​o​l​d​e​r​.​p​h​p​?​i​d​=​1​301

EDIT: More Adverts for you:

Nike:

Gatorade:

Music Videos

Live on Release “Let’s Go” (accord­ing to IMDB, this song is shit)

Bif Naked “Tango Shoes” (this is like a poor tank girl rip off in a song about Tango Shoes)