Slashdot Mirror
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."
Did I read that right? Did the movie studios just make a good decision?
I find laziness to be an excellent motivator.
This movie was DOOMed from the begining!
We've already got lots of little Halo movies which, I suspect, are far better than anything Hollywood could do with it.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
To put this into perspective:
- Batman Begins was estimated at $150,000,000
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was estimated at $93,000,000
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was estimated at $94,000,000
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was estimated at $94,000,000
- King Kong was estimated at $207,000,000
- Star Wars Episode III was estimated at $113,000,000
- X-Men 3 was estimated at $210,000,000
Long story short, Jackson would have to prove that a video game movie would appeal to a wide enough audience to justify comparing it to King Kong and X-Men 3. Considering that video game movies always do poorly, I can see why the studios don't believe him.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
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."
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
What you can see here is that Big Boobs Works(TM)
Menzoberranzan Networks
Yeah, and it's not like Teens go to the movie theaters or anything. Or buy merchandise. In fact, that's why no company anywhere gears their advertising towards teens. It would make no sense, since they don't have any money!
The problem is that NOT all video games have such a rich history. Games like Mario Bros and Doom in their infancy had a vague Shadow of a plot that was little more then a sorry excuse for why the pixels on the screen were dancing the way there were. Sure newer games have more of a script and are becoming more cinematic but even still the history isn't there, You might get 1 or 2 so-so game scripts to base your movie off of and that's if you're lucky. The rest of the movie's script and character design has to be invented by the writers, and to make it good enough to REALLY capture the feel of the game the writer has to do a whole lot more work to make it worth while for the audience.
Halo is a little different though, not only doe it have 2 games with very SOLID scripts (and a 3rd with the script already written I'm sure) it also has a series of very well written novels as well as a comic book, all based in the same world. In addition it has a loyal fan base that keeps tabs on all the little nuances of the franchise, similar to what you find in other sci-fi fan bases the likes of Star Wars, Star Trek, or Battlestar Galactica.
Halo has more then enough there to write a good movie script that will make a movie people want to watch. It's not the only game like this either, both Tomb Raider and Silent Hill have more backstory and well written game scripts then most games (though not nearly as good as what is available for Halo) and those were clearly far and wide better received films then other video game adaptations of games with little to no plot.
Collector's Edition
Space Invaders-
Plot- Orderly flying aliens destroy New York City, floor by floor.
Stars- Jackie Chan, Shaquille O'Neal and love interest Paris Hilton.
Scene Take-
Shaq: Jackie, [mumble] aliens [mumble] have to [mumble] Wall Street.
(Jackie Chan begins climbing UN Building, swinging from flag to flag.)
Paris: I think the aliens are hot.
Breakout-
Plot- After construction fraud results in shoddy construction at a maximum security prison, a pair of wrongly convicted prisoners plot their escape on the handball court.
Stars- The Rock, Nicholas Cage, Dave Chapelle (who dies during the escape) and Bill Mahr as the bumbling warden.
Scene Take-
Chapelle: Are you two stupid? You don't think anyone's going to notice you knocking the damn back wall down? Forget this! I'm gonna go see if the warden needs any more weed.
The Rock: I don't want to do this, but the Warden's left me no other choice.
Nicholas Cage stares out window intently.
(Meanwhile in the Warden's office)
Mahr (on phone): New Rule! If the prisoners have multiple life terms, they must attend the buddhist prayer services, so they will come back here in their next life too!
Asteroids-
Plot: A giant asteroid is heading towards Earth and the only hope is a crack team of oil drillers.
Stars: Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck and love interest Liv Tyler with Steve Buschemi as the lovable freak.
Scene- Oh wait, never mind....
"Don't you know you're going to shock the monkey?"- Peter Gabriel
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.
* Duke Nukem: The Movie (TBA)
Ha! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!
Man, I'm gonna start announcing Duke Nukem products that I have no serious intent or means to bring to market. Duke Nukem airlines, anyone? How about Duke Nukem cola?
ZuluPad, the wiki notepad on crack