ROTTEN TOMATOES: Halo's Master Chief Invades Hollywood Studios

Halo's Master Chief Invades Hollywood Studios

by Scott Weinberg | June 07, 2005

Variety reports on a rather unique series of script deliveries that occured out in Tinseltown yesterday. Microsoft had several delivery guys dressed up in full "battle chief" armor to deliver their proposed screenplay for a "Halo" movie. The screenplay, written by Alex Garland ("28 Days Later"), is apparently up to the highest bidder -- although New Line, DreamWorks, and Sony have already passed on the project.

The "Halo" honchos are asking $10 million for the rights to make the film, and whichever studio snatches the project will remain beholden to approval from the "Halo" creators: "Winning studio would have to follow a "bible" created by game developers to make sure any changes to the script don't alter the universe established in the first two "Halo" games that will continue in future sequels for the Xbox."

The "master chief" delivery soldiers were ordered to remain in their respective lobbies, unable to return to Home Base without the sceenplay safely in hand. Needless to say, this is a massive property, given that the two "Halo"games have grossed over $600 million in sales.

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(1-20 of 27 posts) | Reply

speelbergo writes:
on Jun 07 2005 08:58 AM

[b]first super mario bros, then this[/b]
street fighter, mortal kombat, double dragon, dungeons and dragons, has there ever been a good video game movie?????????????

(Reply to this)

Tai writes:
on Jun 07 2005 09:48 AM

In reply to this comment (#822833)
Well, technically, Dungeon and Dragons isn't a video game movie.

And Tomb Raider wasn't awful. Nor was the first Mortal Kombat movie.

(Reply to this)

ThE_oZz41 writes:
on Jun 07 2005 10:48 AM

Considering all the Halo fanboys im sure this movie would make quite a bit even if it sucked. That asshat venom from the video game fourms would prolly see it 12 times.

(Reply to this)

Yrk writes:
on Jun 07 2005 12:43 PM

halo does not interest me, so count me out.

(Reply to this)

new_school_critic writes:
on Jun 07 2005 01:34 PM

[b]Video game movies up until this point[/b]
have sucked, all of them, I'll give you that Speebergo. And no, I don't think there has ever has been a good video game movie, in my opinion. The movies that I used to think where good (Mortal Kombat, Dungeons and Drgaons, and Streetfighter), I used to think where cool because I was a kid. And that's really my point, I would make a guess that most people on this site are in the age group of 18-25, making most of us on this site "kids" when these movies came out, and maybe that is why those three movies get so much praise on this messageboard, but really guys, the movies are awful.

Moving on, I think it's 30/70 chance that Halo will suck. Halo has the potential to be good, the screenwriter is good, the story is cool, and apparantly the creators are going to be highly involved which is always good. But most movies in Hollywood have the potential to be good and only a very few are.

(Reply to this)

Biggestgeekever writes:
on Jun 07 2005 03:02 PM

[b]Thank God[/b]
At least Uwe Boll won't touch this now.

(Reply to this)

Mainevent writes:
on Jun 07 2005 03:35 PM

As long as Bungie has control it should be good. They have a lot of different ways to approach the story, and if done right, it could be a great movie instead of just a good video game movie.

(Reply to this)

r_curl04 writes:
on Jun 07 2005 04:15 PM

In reply to this comment (#822838)
lol.. i totally agree.... that man is absolutely horrible...

i think this movie actually has a chance of being pretty darn good... im sure my thoughts will come crashing down when it probably turns out bad... but i can always hope...

(Reply to this)

arpeggio191 writes:
on Jun 07 2005 04:45 PM

[b]i don't know...[/b]
While i think that HALO (halo 2 to be more precise), is the only video game worth playing... i can see this turning out to be like Street Fighter. I don't have high hopes for this at all... but then again, i could be wrong. Please, oh please, let me be wrong!!!

(Reply to this)

mr_movie_maniac writes:
on Jun 07 2005 06:16 PM

I knew it. But I don't know how they plan to make it work. I mean, where's the story? The game is tactical, and unless they focus on that area, I'm sorry to say, it's a hopeless cause.

(Reply to this)

Biggestgeekever writes:
on Jun 07 2005 07:22 PM

In reply to this comment (#822839)
I completely agree.

(Reply to this)

Mainevent writes:
on Jun 07 2005 08:16 PM

There are three books that go along with it, and if they did any of Tall of Reach (hopefully a trilogy) they could definitely pull it off. The books dive a lot more into the story and background of the situation.

(Reply to this)

mr_movie_maniac writes:
on Jun 07 2005 08:31 PM

Wait a second....is Alex Garland a British Director? If so, I sure hope they don't have british actors.....please no!!!

(Reply to this)

Mainevent writes:
on Jun 07 2005 09:01 PM

He's not a director. He's a screenwriter.

(Reply to this)

arpeggio191 writes:
on Jun 07 2005 09:23 PM

there's no way this can be good. I love the video game. But the movie might be one of the lamest ideas ever thought of. this has zero hope of being anything worth while. Sadly, i must admit, i'll probably see it and when it's all over, hate myself for it.

(Reply to this)

dylan21484nj writes:
on Jun 07 2005 10:05 PM

[b]at least they're taking it seriously...[/b]
i mean, look what happened to the Resident Evil movies. they turned great, scary horror games into Matrix rip-off action movies that deviated greatly from the games' storylines. and considering that Resident Evil is one of the better video game movies, that says a lot. Street Fighter, Super Mario Brothers, Wing Commander, anything directed by Uwe "Smoking A" Boll...proof that Hollywood has NO IDEA what they're doing. they should just do with video game movies what they're FINALLY figuring out about comic book movies - DON'T F UCK WITH THE STORYLINE!!

and if the game doesn't have a good story to tell, DON'T MAKE A CRAPPY MOVIE OUT OF IT. Super Mario Brothers? plumbers trying to rescue a princess from a giant lizard does not make for a good movie. Street Fighter had no story either, the game was just about a bunch of colorful characters fighting for apparently no reason, so there's nothing there worth making a serious film about. at least Mortal Kombat made an decent attempt of writing a serious story for the film (despite the fact that it was made by Paul "I F ucked Milla Jovovich" Anderson), whereas the game really had no story at all, just a paragraph's worth of each character's motivation to fight.

(Reply to this)

Mainevent writes:
on Jun 07 2005 10:09 PM

In reply to this comment (#822848)
Well, this movie has a lot of potential if they cover their bases. The children's kidnappings, their training, their first missions, meeting the Covenant, losing a lot of space battles, landing on halo, finding the flood, getting off halo, blowing up the Covenant space station...and that's everything before the second game.

As long as they take it seriously and leave the storyline alone it'll be great.

(Reply to this)

Roadhg67 writes:
on Jun 08 2005 01:18 AM

I think the only thing that differentiates this from other game-to-movie series is that first off, bungie has major control over it, and second, I think the whole set up of Halo always had a movie feel to it, and would translate to the cinema much more accurately than those previous

(Reply to this)

mr_movie_maniac writes:
on Jun 08 2005 05:07 AM

In reply to this comment (#822846)
And you knew this before you read it? Well, obviously, I didn't read the entire article. Whatever the case, all I'm saying is that if they Britainize it, it's screwed.

(Reply to this)

Caps Lock writes:
on Jun 08 2005 07:25 AM

In reply to this comment (#822851)
You know, we useally say the same thing about Americanised movies adapted from a British source.

(Reply to this)

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