The idea of a big-screen Halo was first floated around in Hollywood some time after the release of the first game, but development didn't get hot and heavy until after the release of Halo 2. That's when rumors surfaced that producers had been talking with Ridley Scott, the man behind such highly-respected genre fare as Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator, about directing the project. Sounds cool, but for some reason Mr. Scott didn't seem to think so. Word is that he turned it down because he "didn't see a world for a story." Bummer!
The first real movement on the film came in early 2005 when Microsoft, game creator Bungie's corporate overlord, initialized a rather unorthodox development approach. They opted to hire an in-house writer, 28 Days Later scribe Alex Garland, to pen the screenplay. The plan was to offer Garland's finished draft to studios as a complete script and rights package.
The screenplay for the sci-fi actioner was completed by June and Microsoft, in a highly-publicized stunt, had copies hand-delivered to studio suitors via messengers decked-out in full Master Chief garb. Naturally, this grabbed headlines, but would studios spark to Microsoft's turnkey approach? There were strict creative guidelines set by the developers to ensure that the movie stayed true to the game series, and the software giant was also asking for $10 million up front and a percentage of the movie's gross. Given the spotty history of videogames on the big screen, that deal was just too much for any Hollywood studio to stomach.
Microsoft reduced their initial monetary demands to $5 million and a lesser percentage of the gross which paved the way for a deal brokered between 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures who agreed to split the production costs and divide the distribution rights for Halo. Universal would release the movie in North America and Fox would handle overseas distribution. The studios were set to start quickly on the project with a 2007 release date in mind -- hoping to coincide with the release of Halo 3.
All was well for the adaptation, and things took an even more exciting turn when Lord of the Rings filmmaker Peter Jackson was announced as the project's executive producer. Bungie announced in October 2005 that Jackson would shepherd the highly-anticipated film as well as offer the services of WETA, his Oscar-winning digital effects house and workshop, to the likely effects-heavy production. It seemed like a movie/gamer geek's dream come true. But a nightmare of complications soon began to cause the project to unravel.
A number of reports surfaced that never came to pass: Guillermo Del Toro was in talks to direct the project, but he opted to make Hellboy 2 instead. And Denzel Washington was rumored to be up for the role of Master Chief -- we still don't know if this was legit or not.
The trail abruptly went cold for the once-hot project and the next peep out of the production came in July 2006. There was trouble. Garland's much-hyped script was deep-sixed for unknown reasons, and screenwriter D.B. Weiss (Ender's Game) was brought on to pen a new draft.
At the time Weiss warned hardcore Halo fans that the on-screen action would be a slight departure from the game. "There will be the 5% on the fringe of any hardcore fanbase that get angry about any change you make to the source material. The truth is that novels, games, comics, and what-have-you are not usually ready to be slapped up on screen as-is. If you did do a 100% faithful version, 999 times out of 1000 it would be a mess," he said in an interview with the GameSetWatch website.
Weiss' comments polarized the Halo fan community, as did the announcement, in August 2006, of Neill Blomkamp as director. Blomkamp was personally sought out by Jackson for the gig. But the award-winning commercial and TV director would be making his feature film directing debut with the project -- a huge undertaking for a newbie helmer.
"As a gaming fan, I'm excited to bring Halo's premise, action and settings to the screen with all the specificity and reality today's technology can provide," Jackson said in the announcement. "Fran [Walsh, Jackson's partner in WingNut Films] and I are intrigued by the unique challenges this project offers, and we're delighted to be working again with our friends at Universal, and with our new ones at Fox and Microsoft. With Neill on board, I'm even more excited by the potential of this project." But did this new guy have the chops? There was no way to be sure.
Along with the Blomkamp announcement came news that the Halo film would not meet its initially projected release date and would instead be bumped to summer 2008. But a longer wait would turn out to be the least of worries for fans anticipating Master Chief's movie debut.
Continue on to the next page for the rest of the Halo story...In October 2006, exactly one year after Jackson came on board the project, the filmmaker dropped a bomb on fans. He revealed that both Universal and Fox had attempted to punk out on a monetary commitment and that Jackson, Microsoft and their producing partners called the studios on it, pulling the plug on the deal.
In a statement to industry insider mag Variety, Jackson rep Ken Kamins said, "What happened was this: Universal, on behalf of both studios, asked for a meeting with the filmmakers just prior to the due date of a significant payment. Basically, they said that in order to move forward with the film, the filmmakers had to significantly reduce their deals. They waited until the last minute to have this conversation. Peter and Fran, after speaking with their producing partners and with Microsoft and Bungie, respectfully declined."
Microsoft would have received the majority of a $5 million upfront payday on October 15th, in addition to later profit participation of 10%. What would make the studios want bail on their agreement at the last minute? There were rumors of the budget skyrocketing to around $200 million, but Kamins insisted those were unfounded. "$145 million less the 12.5% rebate that you get from shooting in New Zealand, which would put it at about $128 million," he said.
Kamins was also adamant that the problem had nothing to do with the film's freshie helmer. "Part of what excited Peter and Fran was Neill's vision. We're very confident this film will move forward with the creative partners intact, who will take the film to production," he told Variety.
"Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and the rest of the creative team are dedicated to ensuring the Halo movie becomes a reality," Microsoft said in a statement intended to reassure fans that the film would still move ahead. "We are already in discussions with potential partners who recognize the value of the Halo brand and its appeal to consumers worldwide," they added. Unfortunately, this was the equivalent of a pilot telling his passengers that everything's going to be alright just before the plane goes into a tailspin.
Microsoft commissioned yet another rewrite of the screenplay by A History of Violence scribe Josh Olsen -- they might've been trying to bring costs down. But overtures made to Warner Bros. and Paramount never developed into serious talks. Days later, Jackson's WingNut Films put out a press release that broke the bad news to fans.
"As was previously confirmed, we deeply regret that both Universal and Fox did not choose to move forward with financing the Halo film under the original terms of the agreement," the statement read. "At this time Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, along with their partner, Microsoft, have mutually agreed to postpone making a feature film based on the Halo video game universe until we can fulfill the promise we made to millions of Halo fans throughout the world that we would settle for no less than bringing a first class film to the big screen. We are fully supportive of Director Neill Blomkamp's vision of the film. Neill is a tremendously gifted filmmaker and his preliminary work on Halo is truly awe-inspiring. While it will undoubtedly take a little longer for Halo to reach the big screen, we are confident that the final feature film will be well worth the wait."
We're still waiting, so we hope it's worth it! There's been virtually no movement on the project since, but it has spawned a cool series of live-action short films directed by Blomkamp promoting the release of Halo 3. IGN recently went behind the scenes of the series for a look at the creation of the special effects action. We captured our visit and you won't want to miss it... primarily because it features an IGN editor in a skin-tight motion-capture bodysuit. Who wouldn't want to watch that!?
Should we expect the Halo film to get off the ground again soon? Peter Jackson has gone on record saying he thinks the release of Halo 3 might cause the studios to reconsider their position and finally make the movie. We hope he's right, and we'll be tracking developments right here on IGN Movies.