Joe Staten talks up the Halo Movie - in 2005



Remember that Halo movie that was SOOOO close to being made? HBO higlighted a six year old article by one of Bungie's Hard Hitters (or is that Grizzled Ancient?) Joe Staten about how Bungie hooked up with Alex Garland to write the first Halo movie script...

"A few months back word got out that Alex Garland had written a Halo movie script, and that Universal and 20th Century Fox were interested in double-teaming it into a film. We didn't say anything at the time because the deal still needed massaging. But today I'm happy to announce that Microsoft and the studios have worked-out all the kinks, and we're ready to get cracking on the fun, creative part of the process.

You've undoubtedly got questions: "What's the plot? Is it the same as Halo1? Halo2?" "Who's gonna play the Chief? Scratch that – who's gonna play Cortana?" "I read somewhere that the script had ‘bad buzz'. Does that mean the movie's gonna suck?"

I can't respond to any "who, what, where" queries without ruining a bunch of cool surprises, (there will be Grunts - that I guarantee), but as far as the quality of the finished film goes…well, the only thing I can say is: so far so good.

Let me tell you a story…

About six months after Halo1 shipped we started getting calls from Hollywood. This was the summer of 2002 and we were just starting to crank on Halo 2, but Pete Parsons (Bungie's studio-manager) decided it was worth me spending a few days in LA to suss out our options.

While I knew that Halo1 had sold well, I didn't know just how far outside the hard-core the so-called "Halo Phenomenon" had spread. So it was pretty shocking to meet a bunch of film producers, writers, etc. who not only claimed to be "big, big fans" of the game, but were able to back-up their assertions with detailed descriptions of their favorite legendary co-op moments, vivid war-stories from recent LAN parties, etc.

Though, to be honest, when I say "shocking" I really mean alluring".

-

The full article is on Bungie here.

As everyone reading this probably knows, the movie when into production with New Zealand's favourite son Peter Jackson producing and wunderkind Neill Blomkamp directing but then the movie died and the two focused on District 9 which was a pretty bloody good Sci Fi movie. Like everyone, I've chipped in with my views on who should direct Halo before too....

No comments: