Peter Jackson to Produce 'Halo' Movie

By Nate Mook | Published October 4, 2005, 3:00 PM

Microsoft has tapped the team behind the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy to help bring its popular "Halo" Xbox game to the big screen. LOTR Peter Jackson will join his wife Fran Walsh as executive producers of the film, which will utilize Jackson's production facilities in New Zealand.

Universal Studios, Fox and Microsoft's Bungie game subsidiary that created Halo will aid Jackson in the process. The Halo screenplay -- about futuristic soldier "Master Chief" battling aliens -- was written by novelist Alex Garland. A director is expected to be named in the coming weeks, although the cast has yet to be announced.

Comments

View comments by with a score of at least

Halo garnered so much attention because it had a great backstory to motivate the action. That is exactly what the movie will need. The movie's success is by no means certain...
MC's in-game presence will be difficult to put onto the movie screen in a way that non-players of Halo will understand. There is also the very real danger that, after the movie, the game graphics will look comparatively poor, even on xbox360.
I do not want to see another Judge Dred flop, and nor do I want to sit through an intelligence-insulting movie designed to entertain school kids. The Halo story has plenty of material to provide us with a great action movie, backed up with seminal questions and a decent moral backstory, but we will probably get an SFX-fest and no plot at all.

Score: 0

|

Hmm so far I have yet to see a game to movie conversion that I would consider to be good. Let's hope that this one is the first.

Score: 0

|

One word people, PETER JACKSON. This movie is gonna rock. Say what you will but microsoft isn't fooling around with this thing. They haved taped the best in the business so far. I can wait to hear about the cast. And video game turned movies only sucked cause of the lack of effort put forth. It sure doesnt look like there is a lack of effort here.

Score: 0

|

That's two words. lol. But yeah, I hope you're right.

Score: 0

|

A good director is a major influence, yes, but it's not what makes the movie a great one. It'll take more than a fantastic director to make a good videogame-based movie.

Score: 0

|

Man... I really need to play that game some time...

Score: 0

|

In my experience media best travels from Book -> Movie -> Video Game. Any time it moves the opposite direction, it tends to suck....

But I'll hope for the best.

Score: 0

|

Lol. Agreed.

I'm not sure what's going on with the whole "let's make a movie out of a game" trend recently...

Score: 0

|

oh, i so hope he does it the 'Bad Taste' way, instead of LOTR :o)

Score: 0

|

i can just imagine in my mind:

The master chief fighting off orcs

Score: 0

|

Holy crap I hope this movie isn't the suxxor.

Now who would play MC?

Score: 0

|

I bet Halo won't be better than Street Fighter the movie. That movie rocked!

NOTE: All statements made above are to be interpreted as sarcasm.

Score: 0

|

Was that the one with Kylie Minogue? :)

Score: 0

|

PWNZORED! This movie may very well be the first video-game movie that DOSN'T suck!

Score: 0

|

Then again... maybe it'll follow all game-to-movie conversions and be really really bad.

Score: 0

|

There is one movie that originated from a game that in my opinion did alright.

Resident Evil

Score: 0

|

Now that is HUGE. I wonder if PJ will take over the helm as Director as well. If anyone can make a great game to movie adaptation i think it would be Peter Jackson.

I just hope the keep the Halo theme song for the movie. That song is just awesome.

Score: 0

|

Bing gets geekier with new Wolfram Alpha integration

Microsoft's Bing is now teamed up with Wolfram Alpha for computational search results.

HP to acquire 3Com for $2.7 B in cash, focus on China

A long and uncertain comeback trail comes to an end for the one-time network equipment giant.

Universities reject Kindle DX as a textbook replacement

Two universities running Kindle DX pilot programs have rejected the device.

Snow Leopard and Windows 7 still can't crack the netbook problem

Apple has killed Atom support in OS X 10.6.2 and Windows 7 Starter Edition is stripped of "basic" functionality.

Facebook for iPhone developer goes from Apple supporter to 'I quit!' in 3 months

Fed up with Apple's App Store policies, the developer of Facebook for iPhone has bailed on the iPhone.

Bing vs. Google rematch on video search

After Microsoft folds some old MSN Video features back into Bing, do they add to the search engine's functionality or take away?

New EU telecoms framework mandates user consent before getting cookies

Do you want a cookie? No. Do you want a cookie? No. Do you want a cookie? No. Do you want...Are you annoyed yet? That's a preview of 2011.

The Samsung Intrepid: A nice phone, if you can accept Windows Mobile

Samsung appears to have built solid enough hardware, but it's the software that seems uncomfortable and unintuitive.

A real beta process at work: Mozilla fires up Firefox 3.6 Beta 2

In the clearest sign yet that public input really does help the development process, a flurry of bug detections provoked Mozilla to release Beta 2 of the next Firefox.

Kindle for PC opens in beta, underwhelms

Amazon has opened the beta of Kindle for PC, a companion to the Kindle, but little else.

European ministers approve watered-down 'neutral net' language

The latest provision in the EU's telecoms regulatory framework would let businesses cancel individuals' Internet access, if they go to court first.