Peter Jackson to Executive Produce Halo Movie

e03179 writes "According to Reuters, 'the Oscar-winning creative team behind the The Lord of the Rings films, including director Peter Jackson, has been named to run the production of the upcoming film based on Microsoft Corp.'s blockbuster Halo video game, the company said on Tuesday.' The film will be shot in New Zealand and Jackson's production and post-production studios will be used. World-wide release is set for mid-2007 by Fox and Universal. The then rumor was started by Gamespot two weeks ago and was previously covered by Slashdot." Okay, *now* I'm interested. More details available on the Bungie site.

Comments

So?

[Musteval]

From Wikipedia:
An executive producer of a motion picture is typically a producer who is not necessarily involved in any creative or technical aspects of production. They generally handle business issues, and may be a financier of a movie. Some executive producers act as representatives of the studio or production company that is releasing or producing a film, occasionally being credited as Executive in charge of production.

So, um, why does it matter that he's doing this?

Re:So?

[Pluvius]

Producers handle the overarching direction of a project, while directors are the ones who handle the direction of elements within a project. Since movies very rarely have much of an overarching direction (since that would require planned sequels), movie directors are far more important than movie producers as far as creative control goes. The opposite is true with TV shows, as they have many episodes a year (making the producer more important) and each episode tends to be much shorter than a movie (making the director less important).

Film producers did once have more creative control, but that was because of the studio system, where there were no independent films on the radar and the people working under the producers had to grit their teeth and bear it. Now-a-days "the man with the money" really doesn't mean much to the movie itself; the executive producer basically exerts his creative control by trying to keep the movie on budget and giving it the final OK. Now making a movie financially successful, on the other hand...

Rob

Re:So?

[nine-times]

I'll let you in on a little secret: "Producer" credits have no set meaning. It doesn't necessarily mean you're involved creatively, but it doesn't mean you're not. It doesn't mean you've put up your own money and handled business issues yourself, but it doesn't mean you didn't.

This gets particularly hairy when you hear titles like "Executive Producer" or "Co-Producer". These can be almost honorary titles. However, in a movie, when you have a creative type who's listed as "executive producer", there's a good chance he's running the show, but has chosen not to direct the thing himself (i.e. Lucas and Star Wars).

Due to his success with the LoTR movies, I'm guessing he's not hurting for work/money, and therefore, if he's getting involved with Halo, it's probably because he's interested in it. Meaning he probably won't be creatively detached. Meaning, if you're a Peter Jackson fan, it's good news for Halo.

Re:I've got a good title...

[nmb3000]

Uh, I think you missed the point.

Red vs Blue is a machinima series done by some fans of Halo. Been going on for several years, won some awards, and become the defacto standard to compare new machinima series to.

It's actually got some very funny parts, especially if you're familiar with Halo.

Executive Producer doesn't matter; Director does.

[Anonymous Coward]

Movie                 Star Wars I-III    Indiana Jones I-III   LOTR I-III
Executive Producer    George Lucas       George Lucas          Studio Suits
Director              George Lucas       Steven Spielberg      Peter Jackson

The Director is far more important than the Executive Producer.  Anybody with money can executive produce; just drop $20 million for the credit.  The Director is actually responsible for what goes on the screen, whereas the Executive Producer is only responsible for getting everything funded.  Peter Jackson as Executive Producer for Halo does not impess me at all.  I mean, George Lucas was Executive Producer for the classic Indiana Jones movies.  He was also Executive Producer for the "classic" Star Wars Episodes I through III movies.  The difference?  Steven Spielberg directed Indian Jones and George Lucas directed Star Wars.

Peter Jackson WILL be involved

[hognutz]

From the official press release: "Jackson and Walsh will provide creative counsel on all aspects of the film via their WingNut Films banner, and Jackson's award-winning companies Weta Digital Ltd. and Weta Workshop Ltd. will provide creatures, miniatures and visual effects for the production."

I don't think he'll just be writing checks.

Re:And Spielburg to Direct...

[Have Blue]

You may have thought you were joking, but this won an Oscar.

Re:What about HALO 2 for the PC?

[Osty]

Is Microsoft delaying HALO 2 for the PC until it can put out this movie or is it just not planned? ... I've been waiting for quite a while to play HALO 2.

Halo only made it to the PC because it had a legacy (first Mac, then PC, then Xbox) of promises and Bungie felt they should follow through on at least one of them (sorry, no Mac version). Halo 2 from the very start was designed as Xbox-exclusive. Neither Microsoft nor Bungie have ever even hinted at a PC release, and in fact have denied it on several occasions. But if you want to keep holding out hope for a PC release that's never been promised and has actively been denied, I can't stop you. You could at least wait in line for Star Wars 7 at the same time and kill two birds with one stone. In the meantime, you could just pick it up for Xbox ...

Re:What I want to know

[Anonymous Coward]

It was done starting with rh7.3 and then later on rh9. The next films will be done on suse or centos depending on what we decide for the next build we make here (I work for Weta Digital). Debian would be nicer but it's hard getting big corporations to offer support for it.