Put aliens in a foreign world and a group of marine soldiers, what you have there is the greatest video game ever. The Bungie Video game, published by Microsoft Game Studios, has been anticipated to hit the screens since 2005. The release date is currently slated for 2012.
Peter Schlessel, the president of Columbia Pictures, began the process of taking the video game to screen in 2005. Alex Garland wrote the first adaptation script which Microsoft sold to Universal Studios and 20th Century Fox for 10 million dollars. There were a lot of talks about Guliermo Del Toro directing the movie, however he turned down the offer to direct Hell Boy II back in 2006. Ridley Scott, of the Blade Runner and Hannibal fame, was also rumored at some point to be the movie’s director. Peter Jackson came on board as an executive producer and for the longest time there was a lot of anticipation that he would be the one to direct the movie. However in August 2006 it was announced that Neill Blokamp would direct the movie. There was a lot of skepticism about the first time director taking on the task, but Peter Jackson stood by him throughout. Peter Jackson took on the role of executive director in Neill Blokamp’s District 9. The highly criticized movie went on to become a box office hot and was thought of as a preparation for the Halo venture by Neill and Jackson, however that was not the case since the two worked on the movie after Halo production was halted.
The script has gone though a number of re writes and amongst the scripts written for the movie is an adaptation by G.I Joe writer Steve Gerber. New writer DB Weiss has also penned down a script adaptation. Stuart Beattie wrote the movie’s spec script. The scripts are said to follow the movie’s story line with minor deviations. The budget of the movie has always been a bone of contention and had Universal and Fox pull out when the budget stood at 200 million dollars. Peter Jackson would not budge on the budget and the movie’s budget is currently known to be around 100 million dollars. Microsoft is said to be looking for a distribution company and there are rumors that Microsoft might just fund the film entirely. The movie’s cast still remains a mystery however initially Samuel L. Jackson was rumored to take on the role sergeant Johnson and Ed Harris to take on the role of either Master Chief or Captain Keyes. Later on Denzel Washington was rumored to take on the role of Master Chief.
In collaboration with Bungie Studios, Origami Digital and WETA Workshop, Neill has directed three Halo short movies which have been a hot with the Halo fans. The trailers are widely in circulation online and can be found on You Tube and sites such as Metacafe.com and halothemovie.org. Most of the movies are compiled by fans which is a reflection of the movie’s following even before its release. However there is currently no official Halo movie trailer out yet.
