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

I've got a good title...

[catdevnull]

How about "Red vs Blue"? ...oh, wait...

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.

Yaup

[GoMMiX]

Halo is the perfect example of how Microsoft can buy a great product and put it's name on it like they had crap to do with the development.

Re:Yaup

[Surt]

Same thing with bungie though, bungie just paid some programmers and artists to make the game, and then slapped their name on it.

Re:Yaup

[ScentCone]

Halo is the perfect example of how Microsoft can buy a great product and put it's name on it like they had crap to do with the development.

Or, like Disney with a Pixar film. Or American Airlines with a Boeing aircraft. People who put a product out in front of that product's consumers/users generally have their name associated with it. But I suppose you're the sort that never reads the credits, and assumes that no one else does, either. Do you really think that MS's cash, audience, game platform, etc., has nothing to do with the success of the game? I think Pixar's work is fantastic... but I know that the success of say, the Toy Story franchise, is at least partly owed to Disney's professional marketing teams - even though they didn't color a single pixel. Don't pretend that marketing isn't important. Great games with no marketing frequently fail. Mediocre games with lots of marketing often get results. But great games with great marketing really attract an audience, and that's why it's done. Disney coughed up a lot of money into marketing and distribution in its partnership with Pixar, just like MS does with the games they front. Of course, things with Pixar/Disney have gotten a little rough lately. That will definitely be too bad for Disney, since only Pixar can do what Pixar does.

Come on, admit it. You're worried that Jackson will make a very cool (or at least, successful) movie, and that MS will get a little street cred buff as a result of having been involved with the product's successfully large audience.

Re:Yaup

[hambonewilkins]

Um, considering Halo 2 sold $125 mil. in its first day I would have to say NO.

Re:Yaup

[CardiganKiller]

Add the so many million that Microsft lost on the X-Box, I know I cost Microsoft a cool $76 by only purchasing Halo 2 and a $10 copy of GTAIII with my X-Box.

Profit loss per XBox: $100 per $199 console.
Units sold since 2001: Approx 15M.

Let's say the loss of $1.5B is wildly exaggerated because Microsoft began selling their unit for $150 at some point in time (I don't remember when). Well consoles bought at $150 lose $50, assuming their manufacturing process didn't get any cheaper. If all 15M consoles were bought at 15M, then that would make a loss of $750M.

Now, I've also heard that buying more than 10 games for your XBox will profit MS from the royalties or whatever such fees exist for developing on their platform. According to this survey, Only 50% of XBox unit owners purchased more than 10 games. Let's be statistically illogical and say this cuts their losses in half, now we're still at $375M.

This magically makes the profit of the XBox and Halo2 combined come out to -$125M. Now we have a reasonable profit goal for Peter Jackson to achieve with this movie. He can probably take a bigger nap than he did making King Kong. I actually saw the whole video documentary of Bryan Singer having to come in and direct for Peter Jackson 'cause he was napping on the couch. It was superb.

That works out well

[katana]

By the time he's done with Halo, it should be just about time to start filming Duke Nukem Forever.

That scream you just heard...

[Verteiron]

... was Larry Niven, who would probably give his left nut to get someone like Jackson to do Ringworld.

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?

[Mr Guy]

For the exact reason it got posted here. The Exec. Producer's entire job is to raise money and hype. Often, they do that with their name alone.

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.

And Spielburg to Direct...

[Anonymous Coward]

Pong.
The touching movie about two lines and the square ball they share.

Has Hollywood run out of ideas?

willie

Re:And Spielburg to Direct...

[Aeron65432]

What are you talking about?

Spielberg already directed a World Famous Movie of Pong!

Re:And Spielburg to Direct...

[Have Blue]

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

Re:And Spielburg to Direct...

[Savatte]

If Speilberg directed Pong, the two paddles would be parents and the square would br more drawn to the mother paddle, because the father would be emotionally distant. In the end, the little square breaks free of the smothering of its parents and learns to live & love again.

Seems only appropriate to mention Doom

[apankrat]

http://www.doommovie.com/

Went to see Serenity this weekend and they showed Doom trailer that
featured nice shots of something being poked at with a chainsaw :)

The story line seemed to be unintrusively good too - "Mars. Horrible
disaster. If it breathes, shoot it."

Opens in late October 2005.

Re:Seems only appropriate to mention Doom

[Wiwi Jumbo]

Let me stand up for the beating I so richly deserve.

I will submit that there has been one good Video Game movie. And that movie is:

(deep breath)

Mortal Kombat.

Think about it, every charater is introduced in like the first 15 min's with a nice clipped explination of who they are and why they're there. The story fills you in on everything you need to know as to what is actually going on. And it's fun. :) Plus, there is *one* drop of blood in a movie based off of Mortal Kombat! That's pretty funny.

The fights are energetic and the "super moves" aren't stupid.

It's simply the high water mark in VG movies. Tho' I can't say it doesn't need to be surpassed. ;)

I also could have given the first Resident Evil movie, but I never played the game so I don't know just how faithful it stays.

Now, if you excuse me, I'm just going to curl up in the fetal posistion over here and await my abuse... :)

Re:Seems only appropriate to mention Doom

[robertjw]

I wish Jackson luck but there has never been a good movie based on a game

Wrong, there have been PLENTY of good movies made from video games:

• Super Mario Brothers
• Wing Commander
• Mortal Kombat
• Street Fighter
• Double Dragon

Re:At least it won't matter if he changes the plot

[mysqlrocks]

Well, if he had not changed anything the movies would have been about 100 hours long.

Typical Microsoft Film . . .

[EraserMouseMan]

Will they be using open standards? I want to be able to play this thing on my own custom hardware.
Are they going to provide the raw editable video source for free download? Heck, if I don't like something in the storyline I want to be able to edit it and recomplie my own version. Or if there's a glitch in the playback I can debug it myself.
It's a movie about Microsoft software!!! I'm going to boycott this evil movie.

Re:bad experince

[BigZaphod]

That's true. I feared the worst for King Kong until I realized it wasn't based on Donkey Kong...

Why movies are going down the tubes...

[argent]

This is why the movie industry is going down the tubes. They're making a movie about a bloody video game, one that's basically a bug-shoot from start to end. If this is the kind of thing that gets the big bucks for movie rights, then the industry's loss of imagination has doomed them.

Re:Why movies are going down the tubes...

[RoboRay]

"Doomed" them, eh? No pun intended?

Good Precendent

[Puhase]

Remember an article awhile back that described the difficulties Bungi was having in finding a studio to pick up the movie rights because of all the creative control they wanted? This is the direct result. Tried and true performance being signed on. If only all studios would take such care with their properties to demand that they have a say in its adaptation then we might not have the likes of Uwe Boll at all (Or the Super Mario movie *shudder*). I personally applaud Bungi for actually caring about their game and characters and pushing a studio to do the right thing, instead of the cheap action flop-o-rama on a somewhat shoestring budget. But of course, this is all just the optimist in my talking. And to the above person who quoted the definition of the "producer"; do you really think Peter Jackson is going to involve himself with a movie and take the hands off approach? His track record to this date would say no.

Re:3 Hours?

[Jambon]

Yes, but my question is this: Will the movie be 3+ hours long?

Yes, and it will start out with a view of Halo, and a deep dark voice saying:

"One ring to rule them all....."

reality check

[circletimessquare]

studio exec: "hey jackson, can we use weta to make a movie out of a video game?"

jackson: "yeah, sure, why not, there's some free time on the servers between king kong wrapping up and us putting 'the hobbit' into preproduction"

studio exec: "ok thanks"

newslines scream: peter jackson, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER OF HALO THE MOVIE

but the above exchange is about the sum total of his involvement in the movie folks, sorry

the title "executive producer" is like getting the key to the city from the mayor: that key opens about as many real doors as the executive producer is involved in any real movie making work

Re:At least it won't matter if he changes the plot

[Golias]

Master Chief will be written out to make way for a Tom Bombadil character, in order to finally quell all those whining LOTR poetry nerds. (That's right, all six of them.)

Re: Hell Froze Over

[OctoberSky]

Actually, accoding the the Inquirer and Amazon.com its actually going to come out in December. I suck at HTML Link

Thats the game, not the movie. Surprised Slashdot didn't link this, but its understandable since it's vaporware.

It hasn't even been 10 years...

[Lester67]

...do we need a remake of Starship Troopers already?

Come on, noone cares about Peter Jackson

[FluffyWithTeeth]

I will fail to be interested by the Halo movie until they announce Samuel L. Jackson as the Sergeant

Come on, if he'll do Snakes On A Plane, he'll do this...

Re:And Peter Jackson wouldn't want to ruin his nam

[Mr Guy]

Yeah, and Spielberg "produced" over 100 movies in under thiry years by caring deeply about the artistic integrity of each one.

I wouldn't quite call it selling out yet, but it's how the Hollywood game is played.

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.

One simple request

[novakane007]

Please for the love of god, don't have the chief take his helmet off. You could save a lot of money by not showing his face. This is IMHO a large part of his character. His voice can be powerful and not show his face. Much the same they did with Darth Vader.

Re:One simple request

[Xyrus]

Judge Dredd.

*ducks*

~X~

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.

I'm still waiting for Tetris: The Movie

[SamSim]

Starring Al Pacino as "L"

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 ...

Don't You Mean....

[Doc Squidly]

...Duke Nuken Waiting Forever.

Re:Yet Another Video Game Movie That Will Suck

[geekoid]

No plot is done to death.
A new take, new technology, good writing can make a good movie.

by good, I mean enjoyable.

Of course

[Impeesa]

Sure, and a good one at that. According to Wikipedia, which I searched for the character names I remembered, it "tells the story of the Red Team and the Blue Team, ten soldiers belonging to two opposing armies, who occupy two small bases in a box canyon known as Blood Gulch. While both teams generally dislike the other and have standing orders to defeat the other team and capture their flag, neither team's soldiers are very motivated to fight each other. To varying degrees, most members of both teams are lazy, incompetent, or just plain deranged, and teammates often create more problems for each other than for their enemies. According to the story, each team built its base because the other team was building a base."

whoosh!

[cassidyc]

hear that?

Thats the joke going over your head.

CJC

If he bases it on my usual game of Halo

[bitflip]

It'll be a really boring movie, with the hero dying in the first ten minutes, reviving, dying, reviving, dying...with the climax being a controller thrown accompanied by a lot of cursing.

Maybe the music will be better.

How does that change you

[Man in Spandex]

What do you care what? they use to make the movie? You must be like the uber linux/oss zealot.

All I ask from Hollywood is movies worth paying for and lately, in general, they are failing. I don't give a shit what equipment or software they use whether its OSS or Microsoft products. I just want to get out from the movie theatre and say to myself "Now that was a good movie!". I haven't had one of those in a long time.

Kevin Bacon

[nzgeek]

I feel it is my solemn duty to inform you that my sister has had dinner with PJ, making you, the humble Slashdot comment reader, merely four degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon. To illustrate:

• You read my comment
• My sister had dinner with Peter Jackson
• PJ directed LotR, starring Sean Astin
• Sean Astin starred in White Water Summer with Kevin Bacon