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Why the Halo Movie Failed to Launch
Posted: 2012-05-02 10:43am
by Collossus
The Master Chiefs left the offices of Creative Artists Agency around midday on June 6, 2005 in a fleet of limo vans. In their green, red and blue Spartan armour the cybernetically-enhanced super soldiers made quite a spectacle. Each stood six-foot-three tall, visored helmets obscuring their faces. Each carried a red bound document folder stamped with the CAA logo that contained two things: a copy of the Halo screenplay commissioned by Microsoft and written by Alex Garland and a terms sheet. None of them spoke a word.
The security guards on the gates of the major motion picture studios are used to seeing many things. Still, a hulking soldier from the future striding towards them and demanding access to the studio’s top brass was inevitably going to end in some kind of shooting incident — whether involving a United Nations Space Command BR55 Battle Rifle or a security guard’s arguably more deadly .38 revolver.
Fortunately Larry Shapiro’s team at CAA had called ahead and warned the studios’ security heads what was going on. The Master Chiefs were allowed onto the lots at Universal, Fox, New Line, DreamWorks and others without firing a single shot. If this was the videogame industry literally invading Hollywood, it was remarkably bloodless. They delivered their scripts and waited outside the meetings rooms in silent character, flicking through the pages of Variety. Everyone knew the clock was ticking: Studio executives only had a couple of hours to read the Halo screenplay and decide whether or not to make an offer before the Master Chiefs returned to CAA with the screenplay. It was the deal of the century, and a fantastic piece of showmanship.
The Master Chief suits were Shapiro’s idea and they ensured that the Halo deal made headlines even before the trade papers learned how rich the demands were. It was a spectacular attempt to turn Microsoft’s first foray into Hollywood filmmaking into a theatrical event and it very almost worked. Master Chief, the hero of Microsoft and Bungie’s bestselling Halo games, made his debut in Hollywood. Sadly, though, his Tinsel Town ascension was short-lived
Its a long story, but as someone who was following this subject back in the day like a rabid wolf I can say it was fascinating to me, of course this all happend before halo/cod was born so there was a lot a reverence back then.
the rest can be found here.
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/04/h ... tion-xbox/
Re: Why the Halo Movie Failed to Launch
Posted: 2012-05-02 11:10am
by CaptHawkeye
I think it's funny that Microsoft came into Hollywood panels expecting it to be the same kind of power-struggling, politically macho bullshit that dominates the software industry. I think it just highlights how bizarre an enviornment the video game industry is compared to other media industries. In Hollywood rival studios call each other up and still come to agreements quickly. That sort of thing is unheard of between major game publishers, they'd rather beat each other senseless for a deal then talk about it. (Remember the fallout with Infinity Ward after MW2?)
The studios with the biggest throw weight, like Microsoft, win that kind of struggle all the time and are used to getting what they want that way. In Hollywood the name of the game is diplomacy and Microsoft is North Korea. Getting nowhere with flashy media events (like E3) and making vague threats to everyone. (We'll take our deal to your rival! "Well we talked to our rival and they're going to offer the same thing we are sooooo...")
Funny how the Geeks ended up being the real bullies in the long run.
Re: Why the Halo Movie Failed to Launch
Posted: 2012-05-02 05:50pm
by Aaron MkII
It would make a shitty movie anyways. Master Chief literally has no character.
Re: Why the Halo Movie Failed to Launch
Posted: 2012-05-02 06:08pm
by CaptHawkeye
You bet it would. From the perspective of a studio though i'm sure the artistic quality of the film wouldn't even be a factor though. Just by slapping the name "Halo" on a poster you're entitled to millions of dollars off the bat. Niel Blomkamp implied the movie the studios were planning probably would have been nothing like the games. I'm sure if it had been made it would have been a disposable, 98% CGI special effects monstrosity relying on a recycled plot and confused, disjointed action sequences. Because really what else is there to work with? It's not like the Halo games are bursting at the seems with quality characters and writing.
Hell with Blomkamp, if I was the studio i'd ask for Michael Bay. At least he's totally shameless about that kind of stuff.
Re: Why the Halo Movie Failed to Launch
Posted: 2012-05-02 06:22pm
by Mr Bean
There is nothing wrong with a popcorn movie and yes it would have made millions. The Chief has no character is however a very valid point as what he comes from as a kidnapped child put into a super soldier program from the age of (six?) who's been doing nothing but training to fight or fighting since then. But if you embrace that fact you could make a quality movie out of it just like you could make a quality Hulk movie if we never saw Banner. If Master-chief was the unstoppable force that came through the story while the "normal" soldiers provided us with character it could work fine just like any war movie can work well.
Take Transformers as an example, this was the method Bay was using to contrast giant stompy robots with very human... humans, the problem is all of Bay's humans were fucking annoying and we spent roughly 75% of the movie with the annoying humans and only 25% with the giant robots. Keep Master-chief the faceless "Demon" the Covys fear and it works even better. Besides it makes for an instant great intro with our band of pov soldiers getting pinned down and losing one man for every three grunts but losing two men for every elite in exchange and then in slams the Chief riding into battle on something(I'm thinking something that explodes) and kills the entire room in one twenty second murder scene it drives home how far beyond the pale the Chief is from mortal men just the same as when Hulk starts using tanks as melee weapons.
Re: Why the Halo Movie Failed to Launch
Posted: 2012-05-02 07:00pm
by Moby Halcyon
Didn't Jackson help Blomkamp fund District 9 with some of the leftover money from Halo movie anyway? Judging by the Landfall trailer and D9 itself it's pretty obvious that whatever, Blomkamp did, it wouldn't focus on the Chief. Hell, it'd probably be more along the lines of the masturbatory Halo 3 ad campaign, weaving everything around the Chief as if it were some sort of mythos deal. Whether or not that'd be better than a straight explosion fest is entirely subjective.
Both versions would probably suck, but at least a D9-style Halo movie would be a couple steps up the interesting ladder than whatever else. I mean, we can get into the fundamental deficiencies of Halo until we're blue in the face, but it's not like it hasn't been said before.
Re: Why the Halo Movie Failed to Launch
Posted: 2012-05-03 01:00am
by Sea Skimmer
The reports of a budget as high as 300 million strongly support the idea of two and a half hours of CGI alien killing interspaced with a few macho speeches between that black sergeant character and the chief. Who needs characters? If 300 million won't fill the time with dead aliens they could easily throw in a super weapon or some space travel. If Halo 4 prints enough money to make a Halo 5, I wouldn't be surprised if a 3D movie gets back on the table. Hollywood is proving almost totally incapable of executing new ideas or willing to take any risks, and a Halo being a proven, if not on the big screen, piece of IP still has to be attractive.
On a related note, has a Gears of War movie ever been pushed? Its not a rabid popular as Halo, but it's still made over a billion dollars and it'd allow a similar kind of random kill spree setting but with slightly more plot and characters with names nobody cares about. The only tricky part would be the CGI for chainsawing people apart all the time.
Re: Why the Halo Movie Failed to Launch
Posted: 2012-05-03 01:07am
by Losonti Tokash
Yeah, there was one planned. It also died a quiet death.
Re: Why the Halo Movie Failed to Launch
Posted: 2012-05-03 02:35am
by DPDarkPrimus
Moby Halcyon wrote:Didn't Jackson help Blomkamp fund District 9 with some of the leftover money from Halo movie anyway? Judging by the Landfall trailer and D9 itself it's pretty obvious that whatever, Blomkamp did, it wouldn't focus on the Chief. Hell, it'd probably be more along the lines of the masturbatory Halo 3 ad campaign, weaving everything around the Chief as if it were some sort of mythos deal. Whether or not that'd be better than a straight explosion fest is entirely subjective.
Blomkammp said as much in interviews, that it'd be more about the regular soldiers on the ground, and glimpses of the Chief as a kind of god of war.
Re: Why the Halo Movie Failed to Launch
Posted: 2012-05-03 02:52am
by Stark
Since Karen Travis took the buzz for Gears from amazing to zero in the space of maybe two weeks, a movie seems like a foolish idea.
Until 2023 when they can make a satirical pastiche, anyway.
Re OP Halo property mismanaged and people are surprised for some reason? Lol.
Re: Why the Halo Movie Failed to Launch
Posted: 2012-05-03 10:47am
by Guardsman Bass
DPDarkPrimus wrote:Blomkammp said as much in interviews, that it'd be more about the regular soldiers on the ground, and glimpses of the Chief as a kind of god of war.
The easiest way to do that would be to keep a few regular soldiers around the Chief, plus Cortana. You could even milk their deaths for drama, and use it to emphasize how different the Chief actually is from your average human soldiers. Interspace that with some decent dialogue and lots of expensive CGI combat with aliens, and you've got a movie. Whether or not it's an enjoyable movie depends on who they get to play the grunts (and the Sergeant Guy), and how well the whole thing is edited to be fast-paced*.
* Sort of like how
Star Trek 2009 is full of plot holes, but the pace and fun lets you ignore that as long as you don't think about it.
Re: Why the Halo Movie Failed to Launch
Posted: 2012-05-03 06:40pm
by Skgoa
Yeah, just do it like in Cloverfield: make the movie about relatively insiginificant/mundane people and have the Master Chief do his thing mostly off-screen. You could still have it be StarshipTroopers-esque mass slaughter of aliens by human infantry.
Re: Why the Halo Movie Failed to Launch
Posted: 2012-05-03 07:54pm
by Tasoth
It sounds like the Halo movie would be Soldier with less exploration of humanity triumphant in the end and two and a half hours of the intro montage.
Re: Why the Halo Movie Failed to Launch
Posted: 2012-05-03 08:12pm
by Stark
Don't interrupt they're busy missing the point.