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Fox And Universal Say Goodbye To Halo Movie
Master_of_Tumbleweeds writes "20th Century and Universal Pictures, the two studios that agreed to co-finance the film adaptation of Microsoft's Halo video game, have abruptly pulled out of the project. This leaves executive producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh without financing or distribution. A ballooning budget (rumored to have been closing in on the $200 Mil mark) and apparent lack of confidence in rookie feature film director Neill Blomkamp are being named the major culprits for Fox and Universal's decision."
Poorly edited article in general. Bungie is misspelled (they spelled it like the actual stretchy cord, not the way that the Bungie company spells it's name.
Also, from the last sentence, I'm sure people not familiar with Halo are wondering what the hell a "pace marine" is...
Peter Jackson isn't behind it, he's "co-executive producer" which pretty much means he was like "Wow, I like Halo...awesome, let me attach my name to this movie." It's not like he's directing it or had anything to do with the screenplay.
Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
I should point out that the $200m mark is a rumor and Kamins, the representative for Peter Jackson and Fran stated: "The only budget the filmmakers ever spoke about was $145 million less the 12.5% rebate that you get from shooting in New Zealand, which would put it at about $128 million. That was the only number that was ever discussed."
For more details I suggest heading to http://halomovie.trivialbeing.net/ where they have a video/news broadcast and some footage of Jackson's response.
As an aside, they quote: "Microsoft is already in talks with other distribution partners and preparation for the movie will continue. Most of this development is at Peter Jackson's Weta effects studios in New Zealand, so delays should be small."
Except we are talking Neil Blomkamp here.
He's not exactly what I would call an "untried director." His background is in high-profile commercials, particularly ones featuring photoreal mecha such as the dancing Citroen transformer. His showreel is very, very impressive (check out his documentary-style short film "Alive in Joburg".)
King Kong did not "barely break even", it's the 36th highest grossing film of all time with nearly $400m of profit to its name. The only way it could have been classed as break even is if you looked at US gross only without DVD sales.
Because by the time they budgeted X-Men 3, it was pretty well established it would be a success. The budget for X-Men 1 was $75 million. They are comparing Halo to Doom and Mortal Kombat. Following are worldwide gross amounts for a sample of comic and video game movies. Video game movies can be made to be profitable, but $200 million for a budget is very risky.
Spiderman gross: $821,706,375
Spiderman 2 gross: $783,924,485
X-Men gross: $295,999,717
X-Men 2 gross: $406,400,513
X-Men 3 gross: $455,360,014
Hulk gross: $225,600,000
Daredevil: $179,143,518
Doom gross: $54,612,337
Mortal Kombat: $122,133,227
Tomb Raider: $274,644,183
Tomb Raider 2: $156,453,758
FWIW, I actually thought Doom was the best video game movie ever made. I was especially impressed by the training they received to "look" like real soldiers.
That's just really, REALLY sad. Take it from a real soldier: they "looked" like a bunch of second-rate actors trying way too hard, and failing miserably. The special effects were the only cool thing about the whole movie, and the "kill mode" part (or whatever you want to call it) killed even that. I'm a huge fan of Halo, but seeing the fiasco that Doom got turned into actually makes me wish that they'd scrap the Halo movie. After playing the game and reading the books, I REALLY don't need to be traumatized by seeing it raped on the big-screen.
I realise you're probably joking, but FYI it's pronounced "Oo-vah".
qntm.org
I think you're the one dividing things. Parent was talking about the "GAMING DIVISION".
Which is a red herring, which is why I called him on it. As has been talked to death, here, it's the hardware sales piece of that division that's always in the red. They do great on the titles. Hell, Flight Simulator alone is a cash cow.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Also, the rules are different for TV vs. film. I've heard it said that film is a director's medium - what you see on screen is, for the most part, the director's vision. Television is a producer's medium - each episode is done by a different director, and the producer (not the director) is responsible for putting everything together after the footage has been shot.
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I don't know what you've been drinking, but i'm sure Microsoft hopes their shareholders are drinking the same thing.
"Fiscal '07 will be a loss. We think that turns to profit in 08," Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, said at Microsoft's annual analyst meeting (July 2006)
In July, Microsoft reported $414 million loss on revenue of $1.14 billion. In April, they reported a $388 million loss.
This same comment has been posted - see 10:38