Vari­ety is report­ing that both Uni­ver­sal and Fox have pulled out of the Halo project, cit­ing high and ris­ing costs as their pri­mary rea­son for their actions whilst the rel­a­tive inex­pe­ri­ence of announced direc­tor Neill Blomkamp is another spec­u­la­tive cause.The two com­pa­nies were set to co-finance the live action adap­ta­tion of the game series and had agreed a deal worth $135 mil­lion. The abrupt with­drawal of the finance came when the stu­dios attempted to reduce the “profit par­tic­i­pa­tion” of Microsoft, Bungie and the film­mak­ers, Vari­ety dubs this a hard­ball tac­tic. In order to con­tinue with the film this demand had to be met, (a demand that was made at the very last moment before an agreed upon dead­line). Peter and Fran, after liais­ing with Microsoft and Bungie, declined the pro­posal. And so the com­pa­nies parted ways.

Rumors of the bud­get increas­ing to more than $200 mil­lion have been cir­cu­lat­ing also, although film­mak­ers state that they have been work­ing towards and within the orig­i­nally announced budget:

“The only bud­get the film­mak­ers ever spoke about was $145 mil­lion less the 12.5% rebate that you get from shoot­ing in New Zealand, which would put it at about $128 mil­lion,” Kamins said. “That was the only num­ber that was ever discussed.

Microsoft is already in talks with other dis­tri­b­u­tion part­ners and prepa­ra­tion for the movie will con­tinue. Most of this devel­op­ment is at Peter Jackson’s Weta effects stu­dios in New Zealand, so delays should be small.

Is the dream of a per­fect adap­ta­tion over? Kamins states that they expect the movie to con­tinue into pro­duc­tion with all “cre­ative part­ners intact”.

New Zealand News Broad­cast with com­ments by Peter Jack­son:

The old agree­ment:
Fund­ing and the com­pa­nies involved: Towards the end of August ’05 the pre­cise deal Microsoft and the pro­duc­tion stu­dios had agreed to was announced. Many stu­dios turned down Microsoft’s A-list offer, this was due to hefty require­ments set by the soft­ware king: “$10 mil­lion against 15 per­cent of the gross (whichever is higher), a below-the-line bud­get of $75 mil­lion (bud­get before hir­ing actors and crew), near-immediate pro­duc­tion ofand a large say in the cre­ative devel­op­ment of the movie.” Fox and Uni­ver­sal stu­dios agreed to co-operatively take on the project pay­ing Microsoft $5 mil­lion against 10 per­cent of the gross. Uni­ver­sal will con­trol the pro­duc­tion and Amer­i­can dis­tri­b­u­tion whilst Fox will over­see all inter­na­tional distribution.

Other news resources:
Voodoo Extreme: http://​ve3d​.ign​.com/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​s​/​7​4​0​/​7​4​0​6​7​2​p​1​.​h​tml
Aint it Cool News: http://​www​.ain​tit​cool​.com/​n​o​d​e​/​3​0​460
Cin­emaBlend: http://​www​.cin​emablend​.com/​n​e​w​/​H​a​l​o​-​I​s​-​M​o​s​t​l​y​-​D​e​a​d​-​3​6​7​5​.​h​tml
Can­Mag: http://​www​.can​mag​.com/​n​e​w​s​/​4​/​3​/​5​472
Joys­tiq: http://​www​.joys​tiq​.com/​2​0​0​6​/​1​0​/​2​0​/​g​a​m​e​-​o​v​e​r​-​f​o​r​-​h​a​l​o​-​m​o​v​ie/