I’ve never played Halo, or owned an X-Box, so the hype surrounding the upcoming movie apdaptation completely passes me by. In fact, it sounds like a big old overblown and overcooked mess, but not in a cool way like, say, Dune. More like that snausage Jordan par-boiled on the beach in Portstewart.
But news that 20th Century Fox and Universal have backed out of financing HALO, rumoured to be down to having to pony up $5 mil up front money to Microsoft for the rights, goes to show the downright stupidity of the pair.
It’s to be directed by Peter “licence to print money” Jackson! Based on one of the biggest games ever whose sequel sold out in 0.223431 millseconds! Even if it’s a load of shit (like the Tomb Raider or Resident Evil films) and not great (like the Street Fighter film), millions upon millions of teenaged fans will go see it again and again, buy the t-shirts, toys, soundtracks, limited edition Hunky Doreys and ‘Haloburgers’, and it’ll probably spawn at least another two sequels.
But then again, both studios have greenlit such ‘gems’ as Aliens vs Predator and Electra. Go figure. Time for another studio to step up and make a few billion…