Master Chief might fight on the big screen after all.
According to Vulture, the years-long quest to turn Halo into a feature film is rages on as DreamWorks Pictures is trying to obtain the rights to revive the project, which was halted in 2006 for being a huge, giant money pit. Reports estimate that Universal dropped nearly $12 million into the project before it stopped production.
But, alas! Halo: Reach released last month to the tune of $200 million in first day sales. So, yeah, it's pretty obvious why Halo is a hot topic again.
And to avoid any legal problems, DreamWorks is being clever with their production. In order to make the movie, they're basing their films on Halo: The Fall of Reach -- a.k.a. the book series based on the video game. Sneaky! And Stuart Beattie (Collateral) already wrote a script based on the first novel and sent it to Microsoft, so we'll see where that goes.
Regardless, it seems like movie studios will continue to go around in circles to make this film. Vulture quotes a source who doesn't believe it will ever happen -- not because of Hollywood politics, but because of Microsoft.
"It's a gigantic waste of time, because [Microsoft] doesn’t want anything to happen in any other media that could screw up a multi-billion dollar franchise. Somebody has to be in control of a movie; it’s a director’s medium. But they’re completely averse to that. Because if Steven Spielberg fucks it up, what’s your recourse? So the rule is: "First, do no harm,'" they said.
And although we have no idea who this quoted dude is, he makes a really good point. Halo is a near-perfect franchise, so why risk messing it all up with a potentially bad movie? Yeah, it could be a pretty sweet action flick, but is there much of a story there? Personally, I'd rather just play video game than watch a movie that makes me want to play a video game. But, if they have to make it, I guess they could cast a really good lookin' fella as Master Chief and I'd be able to convince my girlfriend that Halo is, in fact, cool.
Source: Vulture
