HALO

By: Karl Schneider
Date: Monday, July 17, 2006

Last Updated: September 15, 2006

Genre: Action, Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Production Company: 20th Century Fox, Microsoft, Bungie Software, WingNut Films, Universal Pictures, Weta Workshop Ltd.
Distributors: Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox
Project Phase: Pre-Production
Budget: 75,000,000 [IMDB]
Who's In It: NA
Who's Making It: Alex Garland (Screenplay), D.B. Weiss (Screenplay), Peter Jackson (Executive Producer), Fran Walsh (Executive Producer), Mary Parent (Producer), Peter Schlessel (Producer), Scott Stuber (Producer), Martin O'Donnell (Music)
Release Date: 2008
Premise: After they crash-land on an artificial ring-world called "Halo", a marine captain, his surviving marines, and a genetically-and-surgically-enhanced supersoldier called "Master Chief" must find out what the Covenant, the genocidal alien race they are at war with, are looking for on the ring. However, Halo holds more secrets than either side imagined.
Comments: Peter Jacksons is attached, Weta is handling all special effects, I'll give it the a chance for now.
Updates:

September 15, 2006 - In an interview with AICN, Peter Jackson discussed two of his upcoming projects: TEMERAIRE and HALO.

Regarding HALO Jackson said:

"We certainly didn't set out with HALO to find a first time filmmaker to do HALO. We wanted somebody on HALO that would have 3 qualities. One, a very important one, is that they wanted to do it really badly. They had to be absolute HALO fans. That was important because there are a lot of people who would be happy to do HALO for the paycheck, there's a lot of people who would be happy to do it for the publicity they're going to get from it and the kick it'll give to their career and all that and all of that sort of stuff. There's lots of reasons to do HALO that would be attractive if you're not a HALO fan, but we didn't want any of those people, we wanted somebody who was a real HALO fan."

You can read the full interview here.

July 12, 2006 - IGN and Dark Horizons have reported a rumor floating around regarding the possibility of Denzel Washington playing Master Chief in the upcoming film HALO.

According to the rumor, Washington is apparently the favorite for the part, no official word has been given.


The AP reported earlier this month that Washington had met with Peter Jackson in New Zealand to discuss working on an undisclosed film. Jackson is serving as executive producer on the upcoming HALO film.

March 19, 2006 - The Hollywood Reporter let it slip that Guillermo Del Toro was attached to HALO as well as various other films. No official word has came yet about Del Toro and the possibility of directing HALO, most other reports suggest he is just a possibility at this point and not officially attached.

October 5, 2005 Universal Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox have signed Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, his wife, to executive produce the upcoming film HALO, based on Microsoft's videogame. Jackson said, "I'm a huge fan of the game and look forward to helping it come alive on the cinema screen. [Reuters]

February 4, 2005 Microsoft has hired Alex Garland to adapt their highly successful videogame into script. Once the screenplay is done it will be shopped to studios as an all in one package: script & rights. Peter Schlessel will serve as a producer on the project.