Halo film in trouble


Missy

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From SciFi.com

STUDIOS PULL OUT OF JACKSON HALO MOVIE

In a surprise move, both Universal and Fox have pulled out of their agreement to co-finance a movie version of Microsoft's Halo SF video game, Variety reported. Rumors had circulated that the studios were concerned over a budget that was rising above the original projected $135 million pricetag. But the filmmakers said the double defection came after Universal and Fox played hardball and unsuccessfully tried to get the filmmakers and Microsoft to reduce their profit participation, the trade paper reported.

The studios made the pay cut demand as an Oct. 15 deadline approached. On that day Microsoft was to have received the bulk of a promised $5 million upfront payday. The software giant also stood to receive 10 percent of gross revenues for rights to the game and a script by Alex Garland, the trade paper reported.

Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh were on board as executive producers. They denied through representatives rumors that the budget had ballooned to around $200 million, Variety reported. Mary Parent, Scott Stuber and Peter Schlessel are producers.

Microsoft is already in talks with other distribution partners. Prep work on the film continues. Most of the preproduction is being done at Jackson and Walsh's visual-effects studios in New Zealand, Weta Digital and Weta Workshop.

As word of the Universal and Fox exit spread, speculation centered around the inexperience of Halo director Neill Blomkamp, a 27-year-old first-time feature director.

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Microsoft Corp. plans to finance a movie based on its popular video game "Halo" after Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox backed out of the project.

It's not so much in trouble, as too expensive for Universal and Fox. Microsoft is now paying for it to be made. They have a deal with Peter Jackson to make video games(they started a video game company together), package King Kong with the new HD-DVD drive, and of course make the Halo movie. I think it is all part of the same deal and they need Halo to be made even if they pay the bills themselves.

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Microsoft Corp. plans to finance a movie based on its popular video game "Halo" after Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox backed out of the project.

It's not so much in trouble, as too expensive for Universal and Fox. Microsoft is now paying for it to be made. They have a deal with Peter Jackson to make video games(they started a video game company together), package King Kong with the new HD-DVD drive, and of course make the Halo movie. I think it is all part of the same deal and they need Halo to be made even if they pay the bills themselves.

Basically Jackson is just executive producing the film because Weta is doing the digital effects for the film. They have already signed a director (Neill Blomkamp) so I don't think Jackson cares one way or the other if Halo gets made, he got his end of the deal (the game company). What the real problem is that Microsoft and Bungie wanted so much control and money (only a reported 40% of the profit would have gone to Universal and Fox) and the the budget was getting out of control (reportedly up around $200 million) that Universal and Fox felt the need to bail. The only way Microsoft is going to get this made is to either, 1) do it themselves or 2) give the movie studios a better deal.

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Well, it's official now. They couldn't find another studio that would take it.

As was previously confirmed, we deeply regret that both Universal and Fox did not choose to move forward with financing the Halo film under the original terms of the agreement. At this time Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, along with their partner, Microsoft, have mutually agreed to postpone making a feature film based on the Halo video game universe until we can fulfill the promise we made to millions of Halo fans throughout the world that we would settle for no less than bringing a first class film to the big screen. We are fully supportive of Director Neill Blomkamp's vision of the film. Neill is a tremendously gifted filmmaker and his preliminary work on Halo is truly awe-inspiring. While it will undoubtedly take a little longer for Halo to reach the big screen, we are confident that the final feature film will be well worth the wait.

My question is why did they sign on in the first place if it was such a bad deal? These studio guys aren't morons.

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FROM AICN:

Bad News. HALO a No-Go... aka Why are the studios retarded?

Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. This sucks. I'll tell you why I think so in a minute. Here's the depressing press release from Wingnut Films, mere minutes old:

As was previously confirmed, we deeply regret that both Universal and Fox did not choose to move forward with financing the Halo film under the original terms of the agreement. At this time Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, along with their partner, Microsoft, have mutually agreed to postpone making a feature film based on the Halo video game universe until we can fulfill the promise we made to millions of Halo fans throughout the world that we would settle for no less than bringing a first class film to the big screen. We are fully supportive of Director Neill Blomkamp's vision of the film. Neill is a tremendously gifted filmmaker and his preliminary work on Halo is truly awe-inspiring. While it will undoubtedly take a little longer for Halo to reach the big screen, we are confident that the final feature film will be well worth the wait.

This really depresses me. When I was in New Zealand I spent some time looking at Weta's artwork and maquette work for HALO. At the time the work was varied, going from completely slavish to the game to completely different. This was before Neill Blomkamp was hired and the word I heard was his work brought the design team back to translating as closely as possible the designs of the game. The Flood stuff was scary, Carpenter-esque, the Halo world was gorgeous, the Covenant elegant, but completely different than anything I've ever seen pulled off in a film...

After seeing the Weta work, Blomkamp's short film ALIVE IN JOBURG and talking to Peter about his hands on involvement in the process, I had no doubt that HALO was going to be an amazing sci-fi action flick the likes of which we haven't seen since the '80s.

I'm depressed that the film is halted, but at the same time I'd rather see it die a quiet death now then be made into yet another shitty video game movie after tons of compromise. I was hoping we'd see someone like Paramount/Dreamworks step up and claim their next franchise because that's what Universal and 20th Century Fox gave up. HALO as a video game has out-performed most films in sales, the series is still going strong, still at the height of its popularity. I can't help but think that the best version of HALO that will ever be made is being dropped right now, missing the best possible time to release the film...

So, sad day for us HALO fans. Oh, and Happy Birthday, Peter.

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