Once upon a time, Microsoft had plans to bring the Halo franchise to the big screen. Peter Jackson had been tapped to produce, and District 9 director Neill Blomkamp would helm the adaptation. In fact, a series of short films based on the franchise were created as a means to generate hype for the next video game release, and they looked pretty great.
Unfortunately, the project fell apart over a money dispute between Fox and Universal, who had intended to co-finance the production, and Microsoft, who insisted on retaining a massive portion of the box office proceeds despite putting very little of their own money toward the film’s development. Blompkamp and Jackson exited the project, and it seemed like the Halo franchise would never make the jump to the big screen.
Last year, however, Microsoft announced plans for a Halo series, produced by Steven Spielberg, which would air exclusively on Xbox Live. With the successful launch of their newest console, the Xbox One, Microsoft appears poised to move forward, and a new report from Latino Review suggest that Blomkamp will be brought back into the fold to direct the pilot episode.
While Blomkamp hasn’t been shy about expressing his disappointment with the Halo project over the years, a smaller commitment and an opportunity to work with Spielberg might be the perfect recipe to get him back onboard. This is still unconfirmed, of course, but as a fan of Blompkamp’s work, I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed.
halo microsoft neill blomkamp steven spielberg