April 8th, 2010 -- Written by Rodney
While the big mess that buried the Halo film is long behind us, people are getting used to the idea that there likely will never be a Halo feature film.
But it seems the big pants behind Halo haven’t forgotten and it looks like there will be a Halo film. Just not yet.
IGN quotes Frank O’Connor
“We’re going to make a movie when the time is right,” he said. “We own the IP. If we want to make a movie, the scale of all the other stuff that we do changes dramatically. We make tens and tens of millions of dollars on ancillary stuff, toys, apparel, music and publishing. If we do a movie all of that will grow exponentially. We have some numbers if we do a movie, but it changes everything. It also changes our target and age demographic.”
So like everyone else suspected, a Halo Movie is just too big of an opportunity to make money to pass on it.
So why haven’t they? Well when Peter Jackson first proposed the film he insisted on a budget too big (studio opinion), and then demanded that his protege direct it. Now I am sure PJ and Blomkamp are doing their own little I-Toldya-So dance, but that doesn’t change the fact that at the time Blomkamp was a guy who hadn’t so much as served coffee on a feature film set before. I wouldn’t have trusted a massive franchise like this to him either. Would I now? Maybe, but I would like to see that he wasn’t some one-hit-wonder with District 9 first to hedge my bet.
Either way, PJ and Blomkamp will likely never touch this again because of all the bad press, but that doesn’t mean it wont happen. PJ doesn’t own the property or rights.
So yes, it is about money. All film is. The last time out, they just wanted too much of it, and the calculation against risk just didn’t pan out. Wasn’t worth the money they were asking for the risk on the franchise.
Knowing they could make it on the cheap now and still spit out a decent film, Halo will get made, when they are ready to.
And likely it will strategically be when Halo starts to falter and needs a publicity boost to spark interest again. Right now they dont need that. When other wells are starting to look shallow, they will just refill those wells with this PR boost.
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I say bring Blomkamp back in. District 9 showed that he knows what he’s doing, and has a lot of skill.
He doesn’t want to do Halo anymore he said. He’d rather stick to smaller budget projects and do them his way, rather then a huge studio breathing down his neck about how they want him to handle their 100 million dollar or more films.
“it is about money. All film is.”
not true
Yes, yes it is. All films are made so the studio can get money, but some films aren’t made JUST for the money.
Any theatrical released film is created for the purpose of making money.
There may be OTHER motivations as well, but all movies are made to make money.
Especially Halo.
theatrical released film. there we go. i knew what you meant. i just felt like attacking the word “all”. not sure what came over me.
The entire article was based on the viability of Halo as a feature film. That was the context of what I was talking about, and how I referenced all films.
And even art films or works of passion that are made just to be made wouldn’t turn down money if it was offered. Its in the motivation there somewhere. Always is.
I know it is too much to dream…but I would love to see a Halo film on the scale of Avatar and done in 3D (which I happen to love!) There is so much story that could be used for this movie even if we already saw it in the video games…alot of that story I have always dreamed of seeing on the big screen. It has enough to be a multi film deal. I know someone is going to say that every film has that potential…but Halo has depth that can be fully utilized for an engrossing (and yes, big time money making) film. I know my wish of J Cameron doing is way overboard but I hope they let someone helm it with the kind of vision and no holds barred type of film making that PJ and James C. have.
I’ll believe this movie is happening when I see it. I’m not saying I don’t think it will happen. I just know that I heard they were going to do this film before.
I’ve said this before and I’ll annoy you with it all again. I’m Glad that 343 industries is manning up and saying that there will be a halo movie but only when the time is right! I just hope they completely ignore the Flood! They are the gayest thing to come out of halo! (in my opinion)
Story-wise I hope they tell the story of the Fall of Reach, in a grander scale than Halo:Reach the game. Or maybe before all that!!! like what Halo Legends did, go back and tell the story of how the Spartans where created. I’m just spilling out ideas!!!!
Blomkamp proved himself with Distric 9, no question. but what a lot of people don’t know is that he made a short film of his version of Halo, and it ROCKED!! It’s still on youtube i think. check it out, it’s about 6 minutes and well worth a second look for those who doubt a halo movie would do well.
but i’ll have to disagree with MichoPower, 3D was the only thing that saved Avitar. That movie was just OK. 3D won’t uld ruin a Halo movie. It just wouldn’t work
Never really cared for this property, then again I’ve never played it (Hate 1st person shooters!)
That said, There is a huge demand for this stuff, but what would set this apart from any other video game re-make?
a bunch of guys in what looks like the G.I. jOE combat suits shooting, and shooting….then they shoot some more.
not being cute, just sayin’
I should be excited. I should be thrilled.
Why aren’t I?
Because they still may or may not make the movie. And if they do make it, they probably wont even start on it for another 5-10 years. AND, that’s not to say the movie will even be worth watching and it will most likely have a “just good enough” budget.
They better make a Halo movie. I love the books. Read all of them. Now I’m reading the latest book. The Short stories book. Very nice. Can’t wait till the trilagy book comes out of the Forrunners. But it needs to be done right. Not some cheap ass shit.
As long as it’s done better then half of Halo 2’s story line and ALL of Halo 3’s, I’ll be happy. >_<
Halo 2 was by far the worst game in the trilogy. Halo 1 was much better, and Halo 3 was just shy of being as good as Halo 1.
Well, whatever. I’m not holding my breath. There hasn’t been a movie based off of a video game that has really been critically successful yet. Just out of curiosity, but whatever happened to the rumor that Steven Spielberg was up to taking the project? I remember that a rumor that Spielberg, a closet gamer, was interested in possibly producing Halo under the DreamWorks banner, ever since DreamWorks and Paramount split and DreamWorks lost Transformers to Paramount. Whatever happened to that?
You didn’t believe in Blomkamp, Rodney. You hated him from the start. And now his first feature film got nominated Best Picture. Time to eat your words.
I dont hate him and never have. There are no words to be eaten.
Right from the start we repeatedly said on this site that Blomkamp was an inexperienced director who never directed a feature film before and that he should cut his teeth on smaller budget films to prove himself before being handed a massive property like Halo.
I completely understood the Studio’s reluctance to hand over the keys to a $300m budget film to an effects artist who did some short films (that didn’t impress me) and some commercials.
What happened was exactly as I said, and he is proving himself with smaller budget films.
What if his next film is a total flop? What if he does turn out to be a one hit wonder? Then will all the blind followers have to eat their words?
I am looking forward to what he does next.
Oh, and also forgot Joseph Kosinski!
Face it, these days it’s possible for extremely talented commercial directors to become big-budget directors overnight if their CG visual style is distinct enough. Zack Snyder led the way. Peter Jackson’s trust in Blomkamp was based on something. Yes, perhaps the studio suits didn’t see that in him, but that was no reason to insult the man just because the Halo project died.
Never insulted him. I called him exactly what he was.
PJ’s Protege, and a complete unknown with no feature film experience.
Was I wrong? No.