The Halo Movie

There hasn't been any news on the Halo movie recently, but for those of you who don't know much about it here's a rundown. Feel free to use this, as long as you credit me.

On November 9th , 2004, Halo 2 shattered records with 125 million in sales the day it was released. Now it has grossed 600 650 million—in the United States alone. Together, throughout the world, the massively popular games Halo and Halo 2 have sold 13.8 14.5 million copies. On Xbox Live, 324, 362, 454 Halo 2 matches have been played. In each of those matches, there are many people competing, for a total of 2, 189, 713, 986 experiences. Those aren’t individual people, because on person can (and does) play many matches, but that’s still a whole lot of people. There have been 184, 137, 245 hours accumulated in matchmade games. That’s 21,006 years, and not including setup time, just actual game time. Not to mention people who don’t play on Xbox Live, and the many hours of campaign racked up.
With all this, a movie is a must. And in the summer of 2002, 6 months after the release of the first Halo game, the creators of the game, Bungie, started receiving calls from Hollywood. The movie companies wanted the license to the entire Halo universe, with no help from Bungie in the process of making the movie. But Bungie wanted to be part of making their vision into a movie, and wasn’t willing to just cash in, then be pushed aside. Plus, Halo 2 was in the works, and they wanted their full attention on that.
But that was years ago. Now, the Halo movie is becoming a reality. It is set for a release less than two years from now, in mid 2007 in summer of 2008. Twentieth Century Fox and Universal have partnered to create it, and the group who will bring it to the big screen is getting bigger, and more importantly better, as time goes by. Alex Garland, author of the book The Beach and the script for 28 Days Later has been paid 1 million dollars to pen the script. According to Bungie, so far it is looking great.
On the Bungie website, Joseph Staten explained they were searching for “Someone who's as committed to the Halo universe – it's characters and their stories – as Mr. Jackson was to Tolkien's Middle-Earth. The same goes for actors, production designers, you name it.” Well, they seem to have found the perfect person to fill the job—Peter Jackson. The winner of various awards for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jackson will be the Executive Producer. “As a gaming fan, I’m excited to bring Halo's premise, action and settings to the screen with all the specificity and reality today’s technology can provide,” said Jackson. “Fran and I are intrigued by the unique challenges this project offers, and we’re delighted to be working again with our friends at Universal, and with our new ones at Fox and Microsoft. I’m a huge fan of the game and look forward to helping it come alive on the cinema screen.” Just the fact that such a renowned person will oversee the project is almost a guarantee it will be great. But, there’s more. WETA digital, the people responsible for the amazing effects accomplished in Lord of the Rings and King Kong, will be on for the ride. They will bring the Halo universe to life, from the aliens to the Halo itself. With all this, the Halo movie is sure to be awesome.


For more information go to Bungie.net and read The Great Hollywood Journey Parts I, II, and III, and Halo: By the Numbers.

The director for the Halo movie has been chosen. Click here to read more