Halo Tagged Articles at Cinematical

After a preview screening of District 9 -- by the way, make plans to go see that, right now. Seriously, stop what you're doing and clear your calendar on August 14 when the film opens -- we spent a couple of hours sitting down with Peter Jackson to talk about District 9, Halo The Hobbit, The Lovely Bones, and pretty much everything else he's working on. Plus, you won't believe what he does in his spare time. Suffice it to say, he's not cruising a luxury yacht around the world and eating caviar all day.

Read on beyond the jump for the full writeup of the event (which we were sadly not allowed to videotape), and to get all the goods. He also showed us four and a half minutes of footage from The Lovely Bones, which looks incredible. The trailer for that will be on iTunes on August 6th, and then will be playing in theaters in front of Julie & Julia. Jump through for all things Peter Jackson, including an update on all of his projects, and a rundown of his hobbies.

Last night Comic-Con was put on pause while we attended a screening of the Peter Jackson-produced District 9. We were prepared for massive amounts of CGI, but we were definitely not prepared for the huge amounts of awesome that were dumped into our eyes and brains. Honestly, I haven't been this moved by a film or a performance in quite some time. Lead actor (and relative unknown) Sharlto Copley brings such a dynamic human performance to the role while going through an extremely satisfying character arc. And in a sci-fi movie to boot.

This movie has flown under the radar for a lot of people, and Jackson himself said that no one contacted them during filming to try and get interviews and set visits, so they just quietly worked on churning out a movie that you'll definitely want to see when it opens on August 14.

Read the rest at SciFi Squad

As is often the case with the translation of any geek property to the screen, this Friday's release of Max Payne seems to elicit just as many hopes and doubts as one would expect from a big-screen adaptation of a popular video game (well, one not directed by Uwe Boll, that is). So, coming from a position of relative ignorance when it comes to most titles (trust me, my PS2 gathers more dust than yours does), what's the current reading from fans on a film proudly rated PG-13, although based on a series of M-rated games?

And for which upcoming projects are you most hopeful: Halo -- that is, with or without Peter Jackson? Gore Verbinski's BioShock? Jerry Bruckheimer's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time? (And just when is The Rock's Spy Hunter coming out anyway? Do you care?) (Should I?)

As for my fellow ignorati: does this look to you like an appealing action movie regardless? Which video-game movies worked best despite your lack of familiarity with the source material? My vote goes to the first Resident Evil, with some moderate supporting love going to Silent Hill and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within -- no great blasphemy intended.

Oh, and just to keep things jumping, any thoughts on the following titles, or any left out, are more than welcome: DOA: Dead or Alive, Doom, Double Dragon, Hitman, the Mortal Kombat films, Street Fighter, Super Mario Brothers, the Tomb Raider franchise, Wing Commander.

While all folks involved are still working on getting a live-action Halo flick off the ground, that film's producer, Peter Jackson, and director, Neill Blomkamp, have settled on something different to mark Blomkamp's feature directorial debut. Variety tells us that both men will move forward with a live-action, sci-fi flick called District 9, which Jackson will produce through his Wingnut Films. Blomkamp also wrote the script, along with Teri Tatchell, and production is set to begin this spring in South Africa, where Blomkamp is from.

Unfortunately, there are no story details at this time, but based on that "live-action, sci-fi" description, it would appear that District 9 will serve as another calling card for Jackson and Blomkamp to use to convince studios that Blomkamp is the right man for the Halo job. We already know that pre-production continues on Halo in New Zealand, and right now it's all about finding a studio (or studios) willing to eat up some of that high budget and take a chance on the young filmmaker. In addition to his very cool short film, Alive in Joburg, Blomkamp also recently directed three live-action short films promoting the Halo 3 video game. Though there's no word on plot for District 9, I wonder if it will have anything to do with Blomkamp's Joburg. That short told the story of a group of aliens who become refugees in South Africa. It was live action, had sci-fi elements and was shot in South Africa. Could it be a feature-length version? Who knows, but after watching it several times, I'm convinced Blomkamp has one helluva future ahead of him.

In my opinion Halo is to video games what American Idol is to television, and yet both 20th Century Fox and Universal decided a Halo movie (with newbie director Neill Blomkamp directing) just wasn't going to happen. But that was then, and this is now -- with Halo 3 getting set to demolish the gaming world, Peter Jackson told OnFilm magazine that he expects the project to lift itself out of development hell once Fox and Universal catch a glimpse of the Halo hype first hand. As far as Blomkamp goes; Jackson notes: "We wouldn't want to do it with anyone else. It's Neill's call." But that's not all the man has on his plate; apart from directing The Lovely Bones, Jackson is producing a remake of 1954's The Dam Busters; a project he's kept quiet about for quite some time.

Now, however, there's a director (Christian Rivers) and a writer (Stephen Fry) for Dambusters (or is it Dam Busters?), and Jackson said the project is a lot further along than you would think. Apart from saying that some major announcements about the film would be made in the next few months, Jackson said that Weta Digital is already hard at work creating "computer-generated image tests of Lancasters in flight and attacking dams. Not only that, but they're halfway through building a "full-size replica of a Lancaster bomber." Jackson adds, "It's been full on, but we've been keeping under the radar somewhat. It's one of those projects that requires a lot of prep – you can't sprint out of the gate when you've got to figure out how to build a bunch of Lancasters and do vast amounts of research."

One thing is for sure, if they make a big screen version of Gears of War, the trailer is going to have a hell of a time topping the commercial for the video game. Variety reported that New Line had bought the rights to the best-selling XBox 360 game. The Microsoft title was a huge seller (4th highest selling game in the US in 2006) and is one of the most played games on XBox Live. There isn't much of a story, just a loose setting of a world struggling in the aftermath of an invasion by an alien force known as the Locust. Since this is a video game after all, there is a small group of elite soldiers (including the typical anti-hero that has been freshly let out of prison) out to save humanity. I wish I had more gaming info to impart, but I've always been more of a Grand Theft Auto girl myself.

There is no word on who New Line is looking at to direct (but I guess there is one director we can take off the list), and the last time they were going to make a popular video game into a big budget Hollywood production it didn't exactly work out. Rumors of the studio balking at Halo's heavy price tag isn't a good sign because Gears doesn't exactly look like a low budget production either. This time, I hope New Line is bringing their checkbook.

It's practically impossible for me to sit here and list the top ten short films from 2006. Not only are there thousands of shorts to sift through, but the majority of them are not available online. So, how does Erik go about putting together a list of the best short films from 2006? Will he randomly spew out names and titles for films you'll never be able to see unless you just happen to show up at a specific festival on a specific day at a specific time?

Of course not. What I've actually done is comb through all the previous Eat My Shorts and chosen my ten favorite short films that I've written about this year. Most (if not all) of them are not from 2006, but they are available online and all of them are wonderful, fantastic and definitely deserve your attention. This has been an amazing year for short films, and I like to think (in my own bizarre fantasy world) that Eat My Shorts truly helped spread the word -- that it helped bring more attention to an art form that desperately needs to be back in front of a mass audience. Oh, and thanks to you for being a part of the revolution. Viva la Shorts!

As Kevin previously reported, both Universal Studios and 20th Century Fox recently pulled out of their commitment to co-finance the big-screen adaptation of the hugely popular Halo video game, citing concerns over a rising budget and novice director Neil Boekamp. Even though both studios dropped out, Halo developer Microsoft and Executive Producer Peter Jackson, through a statement made by his agent, expressed optimism that the film would eventually find new backers and still be made. Because of this, pre-production work on the film would continue until those backers were secured and the film could move forward with its new financing.

Apparently, their patience with the "looking for new backers" process was short-lived because according to a joint statement made today by Peter Jackson's Wingnut Films and Microsoft, pre-production on Halo is being officially and immediately halted. According to the statement:

"As was previously confirmed, we deeply regret that both Universal and Fox did not choose to move forward with financing the Halo film under the original terms of the agreement. At this time Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, along with their partner, Microsoft, have mutually agreed to postpone making a feature film based on the Halo video game universe until we can fulfill the promise we made to millions of Halo fans throughout the world that we would settle for no less than bringing a first class film to the big screen. We are fully supportive of Director Neill Blomkamp's vision of the film. Neill is a tremendously gifted filmmaker and his preliminary work on Halo is truly awe-inspiring. While it will undoubtedly take a little longer for Halo to reach the big screen, we are confident that the final feature film will be well worth the wait."

That's a nice thought and I'm glad they're so confident. But now that two studios have pulled out and production has been officially halted, it seems like it will take even more effort to get things going again -- even if they do eventually secure financing. I trust Peter Jackson and if he says the Halo movie will eventually happen, then I guess it might.

Still, with all the trouble the Halo movie has had before it ever really got going, maybe its time to put the project to rest for good. After all, movies adapted from video games seldom perform very well at the box office (or in the minds of critics) and more than likely Halo would face the same fate. Like it or not, its hard to live up to so much hype; as much as fans might want the movie to happen, it would still be a huge gamble for any backer choosing to finance the film at this point. Besides, sometimes it's just better to cut your losses and move on.

What say you? Should the Halo movie live or die?

Welcome to yet another edition of Cinematical's podcast, Coming Distractions. As ever, I'm your host, Cinematical editor-in-chief James Rocchi, and this week's guest co-host is Lisa Rosman of Flavorpill. Lisa and I talk about a whole lot of everything this week -- from Marie Antoinette to Halo, The Departed to The Road to Guantanamo -- as well as longing for the old-school B-movie, watching movies during wartime and much more. Also, this edition comes with free stuff -- be one of the first five people to mail james.rocchi AT cinematical.com with the answer to our trivia question, and you'll win a Cinematical t-shirt. All you have to do is answer this question: Name the director Lisa Rosman mistakenly thinks directed King of New York. That's all you have to know; the answer's within the podcast -- and you'll get one of our lovely orange Cinematical T-shirts. You can download the whole podcast right here, and, as ever, let us know what you'd like more of -- or anything you think we should be talking about!

(Music: "Overdose," Dumb.)

Personally, I don't blame Fox and Universal one bit for pulling out on the Halo flick. Seriously now, a $200 million budget for a video game adaptation in the hands of a first-time director? They don't need a psychic on the payroll in order to see that those two ingredients alone make up the perfect box office suicide mission. Hmm, I wonder how many times the name Doom came up in conversation. Heh, probably in more ways than one.

Look, no one is arguing the fact that Halo is one very successful video game. That's obvious. But why on earth would you pour that much money into a film that's geared toward a certain type of audience, mainly people who play the game? Furthermore, would those same people actually spend the time and money to actually step away from the game to see the movie? I think part of the problem with video game adaptations is that fans like to feel as if they're in control of these worlds, not Hollywood. And so more often than not, the movie takes a little something away from the gaming experience. Especially if it sucks. Heck, you can throw Peter Jackson's name around more times than a dollar bill at an exotic dancers convention -- fact is, he's not directing the flick. Also, where's the female audience here? Oh, that's right -- there is none.

Will Halo: The Movie become a reality? Microsoft is doing all they can to not scare away every single potential distributor, but unless they get this budget down to around $100 million (and chances are they won't even make that back at the box office), then you can kiss this sucker goodbye.

So, I ask you: Will the film make it to theaters? And, for you hardcore fans, do you even care if a Halo movie exists at all?