The Official Halo thread!

[Darth Elektra]

Halo

Release Date: Summer 2008
Studio: Universal Pictures
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Screenwriter: Alex Garland
Starring: Not available
Genre: Action, Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Plot Summary: Based on the popular Microsoft videogame. In the game, Master Chief, the last Spartan, and a brave band of human soldiers risk everything to halt the terrifying Covenant onslaught.


News Archive:
Halo script review!
http://www.latinoreview.com/scriptreviews/halo/review.html

A new Halo Screenwriter!:
http://comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=15431

Halo Director Announced!
http://comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=15944

Interview with Neill Blomkamp:
http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=24139

Halo Movie Loses Both Its Studios:
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=17091

Halo Movie Officially Halted:
http://comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=17271

Studios squabbling over who pays what:
http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/763/763105p1.html

 

[Darth Elektra]

Halo Director Announced!
Source: Universal Pictures August 9, 2006


Neill Blomkamp will direct the Halo motion picture, to be produced by Academy Award® winners Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh under their WingNut Films banner for Universal Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox.

Blomkamp is making his directorial debut on the film. He is widely regarded as one of the most innovative and original artists currently working in short films and commercial advertising. Halo will be distributed domestically by Universal and internationally by Fox. Visual effects, miniatures, and creature design and creation will all be handled by Jackson's award-winning Weta Digital Ltd. and Weta Workshop, Ltd., most recently known for their Oscar-worthy work on "The Lord of the Rings" films.

A native of South Africa, Blomkamp directed the acclaimed 2005 short film, Alive in Joburg, that depicted a future in which extraterrestrials have become refugees. Last year, Blomkamp also received three Clio Awards and a Visual Effects Society Award for his television commercial Citroen-Alive with Technology. In 2004, Blomkamp was recognized as "One of the Top Five Directors to Watch" at the First Boards Awards and was a featured artist at the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase at Cannes. He has also been nominated for an Emmy award for his work on an episode of James Cameron's "Dark Angel."

Mary Parent, Scott Stuber and Peter Schlessel will produce Halo. The film is currently targeted for a summer 2008 worldwide release. Halo will be shot in Wellington, New Zealand, and will make use of the full range of Jackson's state-of-the-art production and post-production facilities there, including Weta, Stone Street Studios, and Park Road Post.

"As a gaming fan, I'm excited to bring Halo's premise, action and settings to the screen with all the specificity and reality today's technology can provide," said Jackson. "Fran and I are intrigued by the unique challenges this project offers, and we're delighted to be working again with our friends at Universal, and with our new ones at Fox and Microsoft. With Neill on board, I'm even more excited by the potential of this project."

 

[boywonder13]

Finanly good job Darth Electra

start referrign people to discuss it here, I willl....

 

[Poetic Chaos]

I just watched Alive in Joburg and this guy is great with cgi in realistic environments. I'm all kinds of optomistic now.

 

[Edward Brock]

Yeah, his short movies are really good looking. But that does not make for good storytelling or a script...

 

[Poetic Chaos]

The lack of excitement is disturbing. WE HAVE A DIRECTOR!

 

[Tsunulia]

*still thinks they should've hired Roosterteeth to make an RvB movie*

 

[zer00]

I'm sure this guy will be good. I've heard alot about his short films.

I still don't like the comments the new writer has made. Should have kept Garland his script sounded about 98% faithful and fantastic.

 

[Darth Elektra]

The lack of excitement is disturbing. WE HAVE A DIRECTOR!

wow, only 7 post your right.

 

[Hunter Rider]

I'm gonna check out his short films but i doubt PJ or Universal/Fox hired him on a whim for a project this size

 

[Darth Elektra]

I'm gonna check out his short films but i doubt PJ or Universal/Fox hired him on a whim for a project this size

True... and I trust Peter Jackson.

Anyone know where his short films are availble?

 

[xwolverine2]

http://analogik.com/multimedia/video/tetra-vaal.mov

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Jmd8BDiB-qU

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4Zep9TlaPSo

these are his three incredible short films........

strange choice for halo...but he will do fine

 

["Iron Man"]

Halo is such a great franchise of games.


It's not even funny.


Halo will make a teriffic movie series.

 

[xwolverine2]

i never liked halo.... i played the game and it was an ok shooter.

the story was crappy imo

 

[terry78]

When they finally get a script released, will it be time for a Halo forum?

 

[ToddIsDead]

When they finally get a script released, will it be time for a Halo forum?

I'd say so. If James Bond can be considered a super hero, then so can the Master Chief.

 

[Mr. Credible]

those short films were alright... they definately show promise... but enough to warrant giving the guy Halo?

i don't know about that.

 

[HUMAN]

If I were this director I would be s**ting my pants right now. On one level, I would be excited as hell. On the other level, my first feature will be a adaptation of the most popular video game franchise! HOLY **** DO I HAVE A LOT TO LIVE UP TO ON MY FIRST MOVIE!!

 

[Darth Elektra]

If I were this director I would be s**ting my pants right now. On one level, I would be excited as hell. On the other level, my first feature will be a adaptation of the most popular video game franchise! HOLY **** DO I HAVE A LOT TO LIVE UP TO ON MY FIRST MOVIE!!

Yep... it feels good to know that you would have Peter right behind you. Peter has been under pressure since he got into the movie making business.

 

[FaT_tONle]

I never played Halo... can someone plz tell me briefly what it is all about?

 

[Majik1387]

I've played Halo and Halo 2 and I still don't know what it's about.

 

[HUMAN]

Halo

Spoiler

The titular Halo refers to an enormous (according to Bungie Studios, either 10,000 kilometers or 10,000 miles in diameter[8]) artificial space habitat which is discovered by the human warship Pillar of Autumn. The central character, the SPARTAN-II super-soldier Master Chief John-117, is aboard this vessel at the start of the game.

The game puts forth that humanity is locked in a bitter war with a conglomerate of alien races dubbed the Covenant. Following the annihilation of one of humanity's last remaining strongholds, Reach, the Pillar of Autumn survives the alien onslaught and initiates a random jump into slip-space, hoping to lead the enemy away from Earth.

The Pillar of Autumn exits slip-space near the gas giant Threshold, its satellite, Basis, and a mysterious ring-shaped space station that orbits Threshold at a Lagrange point between Threshold and Basis. The ring, called "Halo" by the Covenant, is artificial, though teeming with life. A Covenant fleet, however, is also present, and a subsequent battle heavily damages the Pillar of Autumn. Captain Keyes initiates The Cole Protocol —- all records of Earth's location are erased, and the Autumn crashlands onto Halo. The ship's AI construct, Cortana, leaves the Autumn with the Master Chief in an escape pod which also crash lands on Halo.

Game play begins in earnest with the Master Chief's escape from the Autumn, and continues upon crash landing on Halo. With the help of his fellow marines and the ship's artificial intelligence, Cortana, the Master Chief discovers the secrets of Halo while fighting off the Covenant.

The first levels of the game deal with gathering human survivors and an attempt to reach Halo's control center to uncover its purpose. While in Halo's control center, Cortana discovers something, and remains in the control center while she sends Master Chief to find Captain Keyes.

It is soon discovered that the Covenant had accidentally released the Flood, a parasitic race that gets its name from the way they overwhelm, infest, then spread, much like a flood of water. The Flood sweep across Halo and destroy human and Covenant forces present on it. The release of the Flood prompts 343 Guilty Spark, an eccentric - and possibly rampant - AI responsible for monitoring and maintaining the ring world's systems, to ask the Master Chief to activate Halo's defense system.

After enduring trials and tribulations to retrieve the Index, a key that would activate Halo, Cortana appears and warns the Master Chief not to continue with the activation. She has discovered that this defense system is in fact a pulse weapon that, when fired, would wipe out all life in the galaxy of sufficient biomass and brain capacity to be hosts for the Flood. When confronted with this information, Guilty Spark states that technically, this installation only has a maximum effective radius of 25,000 light years, but the pulse would trigger other similar installations as well, effectively killing most sentient life in the galaxy. This system is designed to stop the Flood from spreading through the universe, if they escape the confinement of Halo, by the only way possible: starving the Flood of any life source large enough to sustain them.

The final levels of the game revolve around the Master Chief's attempts to destroy Halo before it fires, while fighting off the Flood, the Covenant, and Guilty Spark's Sentinels. The game leaves the story open to further developments, with the revelation that there are most likely several Halo ring worlds in the galaxy, due to Halo being numbered Installation 04 by 343 Guilty Spark.

 

[ToddIsDead]

I never played Halo... can someone plz tell me briefly what it is all about?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_%28video_game_series%29

A general overview of the universe, but it's really a very deep universe thanks to not just the games, but the books, and the graphic novel, and eventually the movie.

 

[terry78]

^Must be the novel crib notes.

 

[HUMAN]

Halo 2

Spoiler

Halo 2 opens with Master Chief receiving an award aboard Cairo Station, a MAC gun platform orbiting Earth, alongside Miranda Keyes. Miranda is the daughter of Captain Keyes, who died during the course of Halo: Combat Evolved, and Miranda is accepting a posthumous award for her father's bravery. This ceremony is juxtaposed with the judgment and torture of the former Elite admiral of the Covenant fleet Particular Justice, who is being punished for his incompetence. Both events are in response to the destruction of Halo during the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. Master Chief is awarded for his bravery and sacrifice, and the unnamed Covenant admiral is being tortured for his inability to prevent the destruction of Halo. It is also revealed that the Covenant's interest in Halo lies in the belief that the activation of Halo would bring about the "Great Journey", which would cleanse the universe of lesser lifeforms (including the Flood) while providing salvation for the Covenant.

The action begins during the Master Chief's ceremony. A Covenant fleet jumps out of slipspace near Earth and sends boarding parties towards a battlecluster of stations. These boarding parties are secretly carrying explosives designed to take out the MAC (Magnetic Accelerator Cannon) guns. Master Chief finds and disarms a bomb located on Cairo Station with the help of Cortana, while the flagship of the Covenant fleet speeds past Earth's defenses and heads toward Earth itself. Master Chief and Cortana join the UNSC ship In Amber Clad, which is en route to New Mombasa to deal with the Covenant flagship. In Amber Clad is carrying Staff Sargeant Johnson, and is piloted by Miranda Keyes.

Before reaching New Mombasa, Cortana decodes transmissions revealing that the flagship carries the High Prophet of Regret. The UNSC successfully repels the Covenant invasion force with the help of Master Chief, and the Covenant ship begins preparations for a slipspace jump to an unknown destination. In Amber Clad follows, and discovers a second Halo installation dubbed "Delta Halo". The crew of In Amber Clad learn more about the Covenant's belief regarding the Halos, and Master Chief ultimately slays the High Prophet of Regret while attempting to prevent the activation of Delta Halo.

The action switches to the condemned Covenant fleet commander assuming the role of the Arbiter. His first mission is to silence a heretic who doubts the Prophets' teachings, in turn starting the Arbiter along a path which ultimately results in Arbiter doubting his own beliefs. Seeds of discord are further sown within the Covenant when the Prophets decide to grant the Brutes control of the military instead of the traditionally favored Elites. During his missions, The Arbiter realizes the danger that the rings represent: they are weapons designed to destroy most of the life in the galaxy, not the religious artifacts the Covenant believes them to be.

The Master Chief and the Arbiter meet upon the release of the Flood from Delta Halo. A mysterious Flood creature called the Gravemind sends the Arbiter and Master Chief in separate directions to prevent The High Prophets from activating Delta Halo. Master Chief finds himself aboard the Covenant Holy City High Charity, a gargantuan space station, and pursues the remaining Prophets. During Chief's mission, he finds himself in the middle of an erupting Covenant civil war between Brutes and Elites. After capturing the In Amber Clad, the Flood, led by the Gravemind, arrive at the city and begin to consume and infect the populace. The only remaining High Prophet, Truth, escapes on a Forerunner vessel hidden in the core of High Charity. The Master Chief manages to stow away on board while Cortana stays behind in order to detonate the In Amber Clad's engine reactors to destroy Delta Halo and High Charity, stopping Tartarus from activating Halo.

The game comes to a close with The Arbiter's missions as he is aided by a group of Elites as well as surviving members of In Amber Clad's crew. Together, they pursue and kill Tartarus and his Brutes on Delta Halo. Tartarus, however, has already succeeded in inserting the Index, making Delta Halo fully operational. Miranda Keyes manages to snatch the Index out of Delta Halo's control panel, thus halting the firing sequence. Despite this success, Delta Halo's deactivation sends a signal out to the other Halos, sending them all into a "standby" mode so they can be remotely detonated from the Ark. Meanwhile, the Forerunner ship that Master Chief has stowed away on approaches Earth. One of Earth's remaining orbital forces contacts him and asks what he is doing aboard the Forerunner ship. He replies, "Sir, finishing this fight," ending the game on an abrupt cliffhanger, and setting the tone for Halo 3.

After the game credits finish rolling, a scene appears in which Cortana and Gravemind are conversing. This is meant as a further teaser for Halo 3.