Halo Movie Slated For 2007

Master Chief is slated to come to the silver screen...in 2007. Gamespot reports that Fox and Microsoft have come to an agreement. From the article: "However, negotiating a movie deal proved as challenging as taking down a Covenant dropship, as several studios surprisingly passed on producing a Halo movie. The reason: film studios may be used to kowtowing to A-list actors' demands, but don't typically cave in to requests from non-Hollywood players. Initial reports saw the software giant asking for $10 million against 15 percent of the gross (whichever is higher), a below-the-line budget of $75 million (budget before hiring actors and crew), near-immediate production of the movie, and a large say in the creative development of the movie." Update: 08/23 20:59 GMT by Z : Fixed time travel problem.

Comments

2003?

[andreMA]

Behind schedule already, I see.

Re:2003?

[iotashan]

It's no secret that Bungie has world-domination plans (check their website). Being "bought by Microsoft" was the first step... How better to begin the second phase of world-domination than to get access to a company who products are used world-wide?

I'm sure that time travel was involved, no doubt through an un-patched Windows exploit.

Halo Movie Slated For 2003

[Momoru]

Halo Movie Slated For 2003

Interesting typo....In other words, straight to video?

2003? Microsoft Time Travel Pictures Presents...

[Fred Or Alive]

Can someone inform me when Microsoft / Bungie are travelling back in time, so I know when to go to Blockbuster and borrow the DVD that'll be out by now in the new timeline. :-)

From the the title

[Prien715]

Halo Movie Slated For 2003

Gosh, I must've missed it!

From 2003

[mikeage]

That joke is pretty old, too... stop pointing it out.

typical Microsoft

[TomSawyer]

Damn it, M$ sucks. Why don't they call it Halo Whenever and get it over with.

In a few words...

[AzraelKans]

film studios may be used to kowtowing to A-list actors' demands, but don't typically cave in to requests from non-Hollywood players. Initial reports saw the software giant asking for $10 million against 15 percent of the gross (whichever is higher), a below-the-line budget of $75 million (budget before hiring actors and crew), near-immediate production of the movie, and a large say in the creative development of the movie."

In other words: It will feature a very low and poorly used budget and will be about Master chief fighting human "mutant /infected" covenant as a member of a space SWAT team in mars (although the entire movie will take place indoors and in sewers) the "covenant" will be grown men wearing rubber chicken suits.

In really few words: it will SUCK so much people will think it was made back in 2003.

Re:In a few words...

[ShawnDoc]

What makes you say that? The budget is actually pretty good. $75 million is pretty big, especially considering that doesn't include actor or crew pay. Once you add those in, it pushes the budget closer to $100 million. All video game adaptations so far have been done for movie to date. That's what the studio's were balking on. So if it all takes place in a sewer, it won't be due to budget constraints.

RVB

[Deanasc]

I'd rather see a feature length Red vs Blue movie. I thought Hollywood learned their lesson after Super Mario Brothers. But then they came out with Alien vs Preditor. Remeber back in the fall when they had trailers for that movie showing it coming to the theators. Then it ended up skipping the theators and even DVDs in favor of premiering on Showtime.

And am I the only person who sees the irony that Halo is basically the same as Marathon (famous for being Macintosh only) but running only on wintel hardware?

Re:RVB

[Golias]

I thought Hollywood learned their lesson after Super Mario Brothers. But then they came out with Alien vs Preditor.

Alien vs. Preditor was a comic book.

Your basic point, that all movies based on videogames suck, remains valid.

And am I the only person who sees the irony that Halo is basically the same as Marathon (famous for being Macintosh only) but running only on wintel hardware?

No, but that just means you're not the only person who's wrong.

1. Halo is a sequel to Matathon 2, not the same game as Marathon.

2. Marathon 2 ran on Windows PC's (although, bafflingly, it would not allow you play on a cross-platform LAN with Mac users.)

3. Halo is available for the Mac.

Re:RVB

[Fred Or Alive]

2. Marathon 2 ran on Windows PC's (although, bafflingly, it would not allow you play on a cross-platform LAN with Mac users.)

Wasn't Marathon before TCP/IP became pretty much universal though? I'd guess for a game of that era the Mac version probably uses AppleTalk, and the PC version IPX for networking. Although I don't have a copy to check.

Re:RVB

[Ford Prefect]

1. Halo is a sequel to Matathon 2, not the same game as Marathon.

So which one is Marathon Infinity a sequel to?

Re:RVB

[Deanasc]

There was also an Alien vs Preditor video game. Since I suspect the comic book was only found at the specialty comic and fantasy stores and the video game was available everywhere games were sold I stand by my statement. AvP was a video game.

I wasn't aware Halo is out for the Mac. Still I prefer to play my games on the PlayStation. I think my 36 inch TV is just better suited to games then my 12 inch PowerBook screen.

Re:RVB

[Dark_Lord_Prime]

AvP is/was a mainstream Darkhorse Comics property, usually sold in general-audience comic book stores.

The game(s) were based on the comics, as was the movie.

And it's "Predator". *sigh*

Re:RVB

[Deanasc]

Again, sold in Comic Book Stores. It was not to be found buried amongst the 6 month old Archie Comics at the local 7-11 so how mainstream could it be?

Re:RVB

[blincoln]

There was also an Alien vs Preditor video game. Since I suspect the comic book was only found at the specialty comic and fantasy stores and the video game was available everywhere games were sold I stand by my statement. AvP was a video game.

You would be incorrect in this case.

AvP was pitched as a film idea back in the early 90s, long before the AvP game. It took over a decade to actually make it because they needed to find a screenwriter to write a stupid script (see below), and a mediocre director with awesome visual style to make it look pretty (see previous efforts Soldier, Resident Evil, Event Horizon).

Amusingly enough, *none* of the different products bearing the AvP moniker relate to each other meaningfully:

- AvP the comic book features (IIRC) the space Marines joining forces with red Aliens to fight the black Aliens. I can't remember how the Predators fit in.
- AvP the original script was more or less a followup to Aliens, with a different colony on a more developed world, space Marines, etc. No red Aliens. I believe at least one Predator ends up fighting on the human side.
- AvP the videogame (the first one at least) is sort of a spiritual sequel to the unused original movie script, except all three races fight each other. I never played the sequel.
- AvP the film took place in the modern era and rewrote the history of the Alien films so that not only does it end stupidly with Resurrection, but begins that way as well.

I believe the original AvP concept came after people saw the Alien skull that the prop department put in the Predator ship in Predator 2.

The videogames came a decade or more after the comic books too.

Re:RVB

[drb_chimaera]

In the UK they were available in most major bookshops, as were the media novelisations of those comics. Its about as mainstream as any other media tie-in if you ask me.

Re:RVB

[KDR_11k]

Decathlon?

Re:RVB

[Pxtl]

AvP the comic book features (IIRC) the space Marines joining forces with red Aliens to fight the black Aliens. I can't remember how the Predators fit in.

You're confused, that's Aliens: Genocide. And they didn't join forces with the red aliens - they nuked them from orbit, allowing the black aliens to overrun the red aliens and leaving the black alien hive open for the marines to attack.

AvsP is a much better comic. No marines at all - similar to the plot of the movie, the Preds hunt aliens as a rite-of-passage hunting sport. However, in the comic, they do it on wild, pastoral worlds. The story took place on a planet called Ryushi, and what happened was an alien queen egg accidentally slipped through the screening process on the Predator breeding ship. This queen ended up infecting a herd of Rynth (farm animals) on Ryushi. Ryushi had a small human colony on it, so the alien hive ended up smack in the middle of it. The predators come, start slaughtering humans and aliens alike until their leader (seperated from his hunting party) figures out that the problem is out of hand and teams up with the humans to wipe out the aliens.

Much better comic than the "temple under the antarctic" story.

Re:RVB

[Golias]

So which one is Marathon Infinity a sequel to?

IIRC, Marathon Infitity was a bundle-pack of Marathon, Marathon 2, and some map expansions. It wasn't a new game.

Although, I couldn't say for sure. Once Quake arrived, my Mac's life as a game platform was over. I jumped on the Windows LAN gaming bandwagon, and my Macs remained in my home strictly for the limited purpose of doing actual work. That remained the case for almost a decade, when I closed my CoH account and took my last Windows PC off-line in favor of WoW on the Mac and all other gaming on consoles.

I still can't stand Halo with a console controller though. God meant for FPS games to be played with a mouse. I'm pretty sure that it's right there in the Bible... just under the stuff about not wearing white after Labor Day.

Re:RVB

[Golias]

Since I suspect the comic book was only found at the specialty comic and fantasy stores

Nope. It was a wide-release comic which could be found almost anywhere comics were sold. Dark Horse is a huge publisher of comics, and not only are their comics commonly seen in news stands, but the softcover book volumes of their comics can be found in any major-chain bookstore, such as B. Dalton's, Barnes & Noble, or Borders.

The movie was an adaptation of the comic, as was the game.

Re:RVB

[Golias]

how mainstream could it be?

Several Dark Horse comics have been made into movies, such as Mystery Men, Barb Wire, Hellboy, The Mask, and Frank Miller's Sin City.

Also, if you look at the credits, the movie Alien vs. Predator was released by... ta-da! Dark Horse Entertainment.

So, the comic book publisher actually produced the film of the same title. Still want to make the case that it was "based on a video game"?

Re:RVB

[Golias]

Both used TCP/IP... but the Windows port of the game was not compatable with the original Mac version on a binary level. A massively stupid move which guaranteed the failure of Marathon for PC in a very crowded market for FPS choices at the time.

"Hey, Marathon is out for the PC. I heard a Mac-using frind of mine raving for something like the last two years about how it's so much better than Doom. We should get this, and we can do the LAN party at his house sometime."

"Oh wait... It doesn't actually let you play against Mac users."

"Pfft. Screw that then. He'll just have to buy a PC like everybody else. Hey look! Duke 3D is out!"

Re:RVB

[Golias]

AvP issue #1: November 1, 1989

Re:RVB

[Prophet of Nixon]

Marathon Infinity was a new game, in the same manner that Doom 2 was a new game. It was a huge new campaign for Marathon 2, with some new weapons and enemies, and some engine tweaks to allow for some giant maps. It also came with some decent map and resource editing tools. If you go look around at www.bungie.org you can find all the Marathon games free, as well as an OpenGL-based engine to play them on PC. They are most excellent games, and I'm still disappointed that neither Halo has brought back the awesome Marathon 2 shotguns. Incidentally, Halo hasn't yet proven to be a sequel to Marathon in any way, though its definitely inspired by it and has some references to it.

Re:RVB

[Golias]

It's awesome that they are available for free, but at this point I'm about as likely to play Marathon again as I am to play... well.. Doom 2.

You figure they'd learn by now

[Iriel]

Honestly, if movie studios are making paltry sums compared to video games, one would think that producers would learn something. If they want to capitalize on the overwhelming success of a game that has brought countless numbers of otherwise gameless keg monkeys to their local EB, they need to learn to play by a new set of rules.

Re:You figure they'd learn by now

[nelsonal]

Studios make bank, just not where you expect. Since the rise of color TV theaters have been a good place to get buzz but not to make money. Home video, and TV licensing is where most of the profits are made. Oddly enough a decent portion of the value to be garnered through at home channels occurs at release. So studios shell out advertising for their box office releases. Even Lion's Gate (a fairly small studio) is bigger than most of the gaming companies (not EA). Warner, Sony, Disney, and Paramount all dwarf the game industry (not in box office revenues) but in total revenues and overall profitability.

Re:You figure they'd learn by now

[k_187]

right, while more people might spend more on games than they spend on movies in theaters, there's a lot more to the movie industry than simply what's in theaters.

Article on Bungie.net

[Fred Or Alive]

Linky, and cue Firefox users complaining about Gecko's abysmal performance with certain design elements (but it's open source, so people can fix the problems! That've been there for about five years! Go go open source!).

I suppose it's fairly informationless,[1] although there is a link to a page from the "Bible" Bungie have prepared, which is vaugely interesting for Halo nuts (like me).

[1] Condensed version: Hollywood types wanted to make a Halo movie. We held back, and were advised to write our own script, and not to sign all the rights away. We got Alex Garland. He's written some good books and movies, and like Halo. We say the scripts great. Fox and Universal are the studios producing it.

Re:Article on Bungie.net

[SonicRED]

This is impressive to me as it shows that they have a very specific idea in mind for the universe they progressively unveil with their games. Aggressive posturing by Microsoft aside this is clearly not a situation where it's all about the money. Had it been they would have signed on the dotted line a long time ago.

The site looks perfectly fine in Firefox BTW.

Re:Fire Zonk.

[JVert]

/signed.

Needs to be animated

[XenoRyet]

The only way I will accept a Halo based movie is if it's animated.

There are no actors out there that are capable of playing MC, and certainly none that would put up with having their face covered the whole movie, which needs to happen. There are also no actresses that would fit as Cortana. I also doubt the ability of live action SFX to create a believable Elite, or any of the Covenant for that matter.

The fact of the matter is, if this movie is going to be watchable, it cannot be live action.

Re:Needs to be animated

[Fred Or Alive]

If you want to go with that route, where you never seeing the Cheif's face, it's probably be better just to get a random bloke to wear the suit, and hire the same guy who does the voice in the games. Kinda like what George Lucas did with Darth Vader, James Earl Jones didn't go around in the suit, they got David Prowse to do that bit.

Cortana could be handled similarly, after all, she's a computer program, there's no reason why she couldn't be a CGI character.

Although I somehow think Hollywood types would probably want big names for the lead roles, rather than have them as both obscure voice actors / stand in combos. Personally I'm not too fussed, as long as it's a reasonable film.

If they have any of the Chief's early history, you'd have to see his face anyway, as he wasn't born in his Mjolinar armour (the Mister Chief is a different story of course).

I don't think special effects are going to be a problem, assuming they have a reasonably budget and a competant effects house, a horde of eight foot tall aliens are going to be easy.

Re:Needs to be animated

[Generalisimo Zang]

There are no actors out there that are capable of playing MC

Dude..... *I* played the Master Chief.

;)

Re:Needs to be animated

[Chosen Reject]

Personally, I'd like to see Jean Claude Van Damme or Steven Seagal. /ducks

Re:Needs to be animated

[XenoRyet]

That is a good point about Vader, I suppose anyone could wear the suit.

However, if you're going to have Cortana be CG, and the Elites would have to be mostly CG, which they would almost have to be, given their particular anatomy in the head and neck region, then I think they should just go the whole nine yards and make it a CG animation movie, like Final Fantasy.

I won't second guess Bungie on the script, but personaly, I hope they don't go too much into the backstory. The books already cover his origins quite well, and as interesting as that origin is, I think MC would lose some of his charicter somehow if you ever actualy saw him out of the armor.

Re:Needs to be animated

[PaganRitual]

Hey, guess what I'm doing right now? Only seeing the Halo movie with KIRK CAMERON.

OH MY GOD BRING IT ON.

Re:Needs to be animated

[Tibor the Hun]

Awesome choices.
I would also like to suggest Casper Van Dien, Harry Prince JR., or Tom Cruise or Jude Law, just for the good measure.
Let's not forget the unlimited talent that Keanou has as well.

Van Damme. Damn, that's a good one.

Seeing as I got off on an IMDB-like thread, I would also like to point out that all the critics are wrong, you all are idiots, and the only one that knows the real truth about any movie is Me. (And if there is any sort of a twist or a surprise ending to a movie, I have figured it out in the first five minutes.)

200_7_?

[centauri]

Excellen7.

Re:200_7_?

[CoffeeJedi]

OMGWTFBBQ A KLOO!!!!1
teh master chef si in a moooovie!!!!!!11one

hehehe, sorry man, i had too, i just had too
good call on the 7 though... those people do like seven-y things. ;)

Taking bets...

[vertinox]

I'd be a large sum of money that:

1. They don't use Halo like Armor even thought it readily available. Like this armor.

2. And either way they'll have the star take off the mask after the first 5 minutes of the movie to show the star's useless mugg.

You know what... I don't care who plays master Chef, but it would make me feel better if they kept his helmet on during the majority of the movie.

Re:Taking bets...

[PhoenixOne]

I'll take that bet on number 1, but if and only if they are making a film about Master Chef.

I don't see any reason why they wouldn't. They may drop some features (like shields) and change the color so it will stand out more, but it will be Halo like.

Depending on the plot, I don't care if they show his face or not. It is a FPS cliché to keep the face hidden so you can identify more with the main character. If you pay millions of dollars for a famous actor however, you are going to want to show his face.

What's suprising about that?

[Reapman]

as several studios surprisingly passed on producing a Halo movie

Right, because video games are a proven source of massive money and hi quality, why, just look at Mario, Double Dragon, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, that recent horror one (not Res Evil, that one's debatable if it's any good), etc etc etc.

I can actually see a Halo movie being plausable (even tho I consider the game massively overrated compared to anything on the PC) but it's far from a sure hit.

Re:Nah... I Know Who Would Be Perfect

[Chosen Reject]

Can't you just picture him as Halo's Master Chef?

Yes, yes I could. I would like him to make us all a nice quiche.

Oh joy!

[Guppy06]

Looking at what has happened with past video game movies, I fully expect the plot of this Halo movie to revolve around a space marine killing demons from hell on Mars.

Actually, This May Not Be A Bad Idea

[KrisW]

I've played both Halo games, and have never been a fan. However, I was way too into the whole I Love Bees thing. If the movie takes that route (or even the Red Vs. Blue route), it may not be that bad...

Re:Actually, This May Not Be A Bad Idea

[CoffeeJedi]

dude that would rock so hard, but we know its a pipe dream, never gonna happen. everyone would freak out due to a severe lack of Master Chief.

i could see Seth Green playing Jersey though :)

Re:Actually, This May Not Be A Bad Idea

[ashground]

No kidding. If it's a Halo movie that stars Durga, Jan, Rani, Kamal, and Jersey, I'll be there opening night.

Make a movie about Master Chief blowing up alien scum... *shrugs* why would I bother? I'd much rather hear about how our flawed heroes deal with the news of an impending alien invasion.

But I trust the fine folks at Bungie. They know what can be done with a good license in the right hands *hugs ilovebees DVD*

Well, MAYBE it won't suck...

[Randseed]

Well, I hold out some faith that maybe it won't suck, but that's entirely blind faith. I still have flashbacks of when someone conned me into watching "Wing Commander" to MiST3K the thing.

Re:Fire Zonk.

[Jarlsberg]

I wish I had mod points right now. Despite the language, the parent has a good point and should absolutely not have been modded off topic.

Oi oi

[Brantano]

Considering it isnt the directors or producers or 'hollywood' types that get to make script and actor (final) decisions, I believe that the movie might actually be good. Unlike Alone In The Dark (which...was butchered and wasnt even about the game). The movie will definatly be about the game, will have a storyline that goes along with the games (or even a remake), and just to mention again..when you have a company that MADE the game making the decisions, it'll be a good idea.

Don't worry...

[thundar2000]

...it will suck. Like, really bad.

And why, because the "story" of HALO sucks. Game is great, storyline? generic sci-fi dribble. nothing special. certainly nothing there to feed a movie well. feeds a game fine, because with a game, all you got to do is run around and shoot things, open some doors, see some pretty graphics you haven't seen before, and darn, ain't that fun. but as a movie? it will suck.

unless they hook up an xbox 2 and the future halo 3 to the projector and let you play on an IMAX screen. Now that would be worth the price of the ticket.

Objects I would rather eat than watch this movie

[elrous0]

And the winner is...used urinal cake!!!

-Eric

Quick!

[Traiklin]

Someone quick get the phone and let Uwe Bowel know there is a new video game movie for him to fuck up!