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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."
At .2 billion, I can't blame them.
We've already got lots of little Halo movies which, I suspect, are far better than anything Hollywood could do with it.
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The budget is pretty much petty cash for MS. And entering the entertainment business means they can influence the business even more, towards MS online distribution (less iTunes, more M(S)P3s Online), and compete even more with Sony to push them out of the console market, to help the XBox360.
I would imagine the whole "partnering" with Microsoft thing to be a factor, too.
Why do you imagine that? Because Microsoft can't make, supply, or be shrewdly involved in entertainment-related material like Halo? Or because you don't like MS, and it feels good to say that? What's your actual thinking, and why is this +1 "informative" anyway?
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Peter Jackson's track record as a director is firmly established. However, as the submission said, he's not the director here. Slide Peter into the director's chair, and yes the equation does change.
:) If it did come out bad, I'd rather it be axed now then damage his reputation later.
You have to understand, Hollywood's track record with movies based on game adaptations is not good. So when you say "I'm going to make a movie based on a game" you are already starting in a hole. To dig out of the hole, you have to get a great script, a strong proven director, and reasonably good cast.
Then real hard part begins. You have to make sure the movie itself provides enough material to entertain fans of the game, stick to the over all idea of the original story, and then include enough quality to stand on a movie on it's own to draw in nonfans to make money. This is the hard part because while games don't typically require the same capital investment as movies (big name stars, directors, creative crew require much larger sums of money than your top notch game programmers).
I'm not saying Neil is bad, but he's not got Peter's reputation. Writing a script that can do all this is hard, and the IMDB link says they've changed scriptwriters at least once. They haven't dug out of the hole, and Fox looks like it's not going to take the risk.
If Peter looked like he had the same level of involvment in this project like he did in LotR, then this would be a great movie. It doesn't look like he does, and well he can't be perfect in all of his releases
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Ok, so I know he isn't published in the USA, but Halo was at least partly inspired (http://marathon.bungie.org/Story/halo_culture.htm l) by an Iain M Banks book, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Consider-Phlebas-Iain-Bank s/dp/1857231384). I think this means that comparison's with films like DOOM is kind of unfair.
Btw, Iain M Banks is one of the best sci fi authors alive. If you don't believe me, read it. An awesome book.
Steve Crawford
todo - The developer's equivalent of confession: "Forgive me Father, for I have sinned..."
"Wow, I like money...awesome, let me attach my name to this movie."
Fixed that for you.
Considering Halo (and the whole XBox, really) was designed to appeal to people who had never played games before (as Penny Arcade put it once, the "drunken frat fuck"), and therefore thought things that had appeared in other games years before were suddenly "innovative", I don't think it would work out as a movie, since I think the market of "people who have never seen movies before" is rather limited.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
If producers had nothing to do with the end product, though, mentioning the names Berman and Braga to trekkies would be inconsequential rather than invoke frothing at the mouth.
Let's use some crazy gorilla math. Alive in Joburg is about 6 minutes long. Make it 90 or 120 minutes long, and you've got twenty times the budget. (Mind you, I'm using crazy gorilla math). I don't think that short film cost $10 million. Hell, I doubt it even cost $200,000. I think if they worked on a budget first (say, $75 million), and then worked backwards from there, they can still have a great product.
Now, a budget of $200 million is a lot for any movie. Jackson's King Kong barely broke even, so he doesn't exactly have a perfect track record.
Was I the only one who was thoroughly impressed with Mr. Blomkamp's short film Alive in Joburg ? I thought it was a nice mix of sci-fi and realism and would love to see more movies blending that style.
Please don't make the movie three hours long. I wouldn't be able to take it all in, HEH!
You're forgetting the part where the Halo games actually had a worthwhile plot, in addition to a substantial amout of backstory and a series of execlently written books and graphic novels. you can't say that about Doom, Mario Bros, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, or RE2.
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The problem isn't that games lack intricate plot. The fact of the matter is that interesting story developments come unexpectedly, and unexpected behaviors have a habit of making games unpredictable and therefore unplayable. Likewise, the most gripping of plot elements revolve around tortured interpersonal decision making. Unfortunatley, not only can you not enforce those decisions on the player, most of those decisions are completely impossible to simulate on a d-pad.
When working with games, you have to work within the medium. You wouldn't go to a stage production and complain that the special effects are weak.
That having been said, it is possible to translate a property from one medium to the other. They may not have enough plot right out of the box, but that's why you pay writers. Halo is essentially an amalgomation of Ridley Scott and Paul Verhoeven movies: Aliens, Starship Troopers, a little Robocop. They took what would work in the medium, stripped out the rest, filled in all of the holes with gameplay goodness, and polished, polished, polished. Just make Master Chief some sort of tortured semi robotic slave hero, out to save the universe because he's being forced to. Throw in a bunch of conflicted compatriots, a callously killing race of aliens which they're in some strange way saving from The Flood (which, in turn, is being saved from the Halo destruction of all things), and you have the basis for a plot.
So far most game movies have been turds. But considering the plot they had decided to shoot, and the skill with which they were shot, I'd be surprised if any of those directors could create something that wasn't terrible.
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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. If it hadn't pumped up the expectations for extreme violence so much, it probably would have done even better.
Let's be honest, though. Tomb Raider sold heavily on sex appeal rather than story line. The movie itself was less than spectacular.
If we ignore that and take the profits at face value, then we're still nowhere near close enough to make a $200,000,000 movie. The total return on Tomb Raider was less than it would cost to finance a $200,000,000 movie, much less make a profit on it.
I agree completely. The story is key to making a good movie. Traditionally, Comic Book movies only did so-so themselves. That is, until some real talent started stepping up to the plate and adding incredible storytelling behind them. However, comic books have incredible amounts of storyline to pick and chose from. Video Games do not have that luxury, and may even be unsuitable for live-action. (Witness: Super Mario Bros.) In addition, many comic books are culturally iconic, allowing them to reach an audience far beyond the actual readership. This is something that video games rarely share.
Actually, that double-green bubble means that I'm a friend of a friend. You never actually marked me as such. But thank you for your kind words. I'd try to keep my comment quality high.
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Microsoft isn't exactly known for turning a profit with it's gaming division
I think you're confusing hardware with software. This movie is not hardware.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Argh, why not StarCraft?? So much material there to make a movie from!
Hahaha. You're funny.
If you think Halo has a good story, it must be the only game you have ever played. Hell, the GTA games had better stories than Halo.