For years now there has been talk about a film adaptation of Xbox's "Halo" game franchise. "Halo" is not only the most profitable franchise for the Xbox, but also one of the most well known games to come around in the last decade, having cemented itself a spot in pop culture with a broad fan base.
It was unavoidable that talk of a movie would pop up. Whenever something as popular as "Halo" comes around, you cash in wherever you can. There have been comics, a line of action figures, novels, and an anime. While a "Halo" movie always seemed a likely possibility, it became a reality, or so it seemed, when Neil Blomkamp (the director of District 9) came on-board as director, with the backing of fantasy film icon Peter Jackson. This seemed like a perfect pairing and it seemed as if nothing could go wrong.
But then you get the inevitable struggle of wills that comes along with all movies, and this one seems to be more pronounced than most. Creative Artists Agency's Larry Shapiro, who was handling the deal on behalf of Microsoft, says "Microsoft's unwillingness to reduce their deal killed the deal. Their unwillingness to reduce their gross in the deal meant it got too top-heavy. That movie could have been Avatar."
The article goes on to detail that Microsoft was simply a fish out of water, making unrealistic demands that essentially ensured the movie wouldn't get made. The video game world is quite different than making films, and Microsoft's lack of knowledge about that arena hindered things to the point of stopping the film altogether. For instance, Microsoft hoped to pit Universal and Fox against one another to get the best deal. However, things didn't quite go as planned.
“What happened was Universal called Fox and asked them what they were going to offer,” Shapiro said, who watched events unfold close-up. “They decided to partner on it. ‘Let’s offer the same deal and offer to partner’. So now we lost our leverage.” Universal agreed to take U.S. domestic, Fox would take foreign.
It was a good deal for the studios, but it was signal for the souring of the relationship. And then add in an increasingly unhappy director and the closer this film gets to getting made, the farther it seems to get.
For his part, Blomkamp had the following to say in regards to the dissolution of the film: "When you have a corporation [Microsoft] that potent and that large taking a percentage of the profits, then you've got Peter Jackson taking a percentage of the profits and you start adding all of that stuff up, mixed with the fact that you have two studios sharing the profits, suddenly the return on the investment starts to decline so that it becomes not worth making. Ultimately, that's essentially what killed the film."
At the end of the day it looks like there were just too many hands (and too many egos) in the "Halo" pot for this film to get made. It is a shame, as "District 9" was great, so I can only imagine what I guy with the talent of Blomkamp could have done. What do you think though, are you disappointed that a "Halo" movie won't be getting made anytime soon? Sound off below!