Halo Movie: 2008
This exciting project, which will be produced by Academy Award® winners Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh under their WingNut Films banner for Universal Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox, has finally announced a director.
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. Halo will be distributed domestically by Universal and internationally by Fox. Visual effects, miniatures, and creature design and creation will all be handled by Jackson’s award-winning Weta Digital Ltd. and Weta Workshop, Ltd., most recently known for their Oscar-worthy work on The Lord of the Rings films.
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. In 2004, Blomkamp was recognized as “One of the Top Five Directors to Watch” at the First Boards Awards and was a featured artist at the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase at Cannes. He has also been nominated for an Emmy award for his work on an episode of James Cameron’s Dark Angel.
Mary Parent, Scott Stuber and Peter Schlessel will produce Halo. The film is currently targeted for a Summer 2008 worldwide release. Halo will be shot in Wellington, New Zealand, and will make use of the full range of Jackson’s state-of-the-art production and post-production facilities there, including Weta, Stone Street Studios, and Park Road Post.
“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,” said Jackson. “Fran 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.”
To see Neill’s 2005 short film, “Alive in Joburg” to see what he can do, click here.
Bungie
Bungie Studios, a development team within Microsoft Game Studios, created the critically-acclaimed blockbuster videogame Halo in 2001 for the Xbox®, and the resulting franchise is supported by a rabid fanbase around the globe. Halo and its 2004 follow-up Halo 2 have sold a combined 14.5 million copies worldwide and grossed more than $650 million (U.S.). On November 2004, Halo 2 shattered records with $125 million in first-day sales.
August 9th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
The only problem I see with this decision is that the virutally unknown director may have problems getting A-list stars to join the project. Peter Jackson’s involvement may solve that though. Another problem may arise when the director wants to make a name for himself and decides to go against the mythology of the Halo universe by making Master Chief a woman or something similar. Lets just hope that Bungie and Jackson keep this guy on track and 2008 should be a great year cinema-wise…
August 9th, 2006 at 5:32 pm
Yea But For Me If I Was Directing The Halo Film I Wouldnt Get An A Star Person To Play The Master Chief, Me I Would Get A, Not An Unkown Just Some One That Isnt Very Well Known To Play The Master Chief.
August 9th, 2006 at 7:52 pm
I think they should just cast the actor who plays MC in the games. Then they can worry about casting Cortana, Sergeant Johnson, and the Prophets…
August 9th, 2006 at 8:20 pm
I’ve got some hope for the director. I watched the short film and for a low budget, essentially independent film, it was really well done and directed. It was only about 6.5 minutes long, but it was able to do so much in that time and communicate the entire premise and much of the story that many feature films take hours to do. As long as Peter Jackson gets the “universe” correct, I have faith in this guy.
August 10th, 2006 at 9:30 am
Recently I had had bad feelings that they were going to do something dumb with the movie and make it a joke, but with this director, I believe it’ll have the epic & non-goofy tone that Halo should have. Whoever plays Master Chief should just be some stunt guy who can move well in the suit with a little help from CGI. If anyone but Steve Downes, the voice from the game, does the voice, then the movie will be a botch. You cannot change the voice of a character between the movie & a game like this, especially one that you never “see”.
I have faith that they will not show MC’s face, and that they will not do anything to desecrate the Halo franchise, which is very relieving.