MTV have pointed out Microsoft’s quietly added new job listings for the Jackson helmed, highly secretive Halo project:
“A Peter Jackson-helmed Halo project was announced at X06 in Barcelona,” said a Microsoft spokesperson. “Since then, Microsoft Game Studios has been hard at work collaborating with Peter Jackson and Bungie on the development of that project. At this time, it’s necessary to grow the internal team to keep pace with development. Bungie will continue to remain involved in multiple aspects of the Halo Universe with MGS.”
Latino Review got the scoop on this little gem — all news is good news for the Halo Movie, which is currently on hiatus. This has been announced on April fool’s day — so be wary. Though they do boldly say “this is not an April fool’s”:
In an effort to get the ball rolling again, I just learned that big time G.I. JOE screenwriter STUART BEATTIE has written a spec screenplay called HALO: FALL OF REACH, and it’s based on the best selling novel of the same name by Eric Nylund.
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A spec screenplay is when you write a script on your own without being paid a dime for it in the hopes that it could sell
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Stuart was commissioned to write SPY HUNTER, SPLINTER CELL, and GEARS OF WAR for various studios. His G.I. JOE script is the one that got Paramount to greenlight the $170 million dollar movie which is shooting now.
HALO: FALL OF REACH is a labor of love by Beattie in the hopes of finally getting the movie made.
The Premise of the script:
The script is, first and foremost, 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 élite 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, the game.
One cool advantage of this first script is that (like the shark in JAWS) you don’t even see the Covenant until halfway through the movie. And because all the creatures are CGI creations, this cuts the budget down dramatically and makes a first Halo movie that much more viable. 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.
eta have been kind enough to send Bungie some of their real life Halo movie props. In this week’s update Bungie decided to share some pictures with us…
Who honestly knows what is going on with the Halo Movie adaptation at the moment? Last week Neill Blomkamp came out and stated that the movie in its current form was dead and that we shouldn’t look forward to a Halo Movie any time soon.
I’d seen stories like this before so I was a little reluctant to post the news article, that and it would mean the end of this blog, which isn’t something I look forward to. So I held on with what little hope I had left.
Seems like my hope wasn’t entirely in vain. This week Peter Jackson’s representative, Ken Kamins spoke to Computer and Video games. It first outlines the dastardly ways that Fox and Universal attempted to force the film makers to a less than opportune deal. Most importantly however, he states that everybody is supremely confident in Neill and that production is still underway and that give Halo 3’s $300 million in sales a number of movie studios have renewed interest.
Halo 3 let’s you drive a warthog, but not like this. Here is the Bungie team trying out a real life Warthog. If only they created some of those Covenant vehicles, maybe we’ll get to see some if the movie ever pulls itself into gear.
Doesn’t this just make you crave for a Halo Live Action movie? Neill Blomkamp really is something special, and imagine that combined with the mastery of Peter Jackson. Why isn’t this being made faster?
RUMOR has it that Alex Garland’s treatment of the Halo subject has been leaked onto the internet, via BitTorrent in a PDF format. At least this is the case made by 1Up. They claim that the script itself, found via one of their forum members, shows a number of parallels with the Latino Script review from December 2005 (back when the movie was in development).
1Up have pasted some pages from the script showing the introduction and intended finale and setup for a sequel. Warning, SPOILERS herein.
This version has since been abandoned, production instead opting for a rewrite by D.B.Weiss.
