Peter Jackson To Direct Halo The Movie!

[Reuben]

Triple-Academy Award® winners Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh have been signed as executive producers of Halo®, the forthcoming feature film based on Microsoft’s hugely popular game for Xbox and Windows PC. The movie will be filmed in Wellington, with the pair providing creative counsel on all aspects of the film through WingNut Films. It will make use of the team’s award-winning production and post-production facilities, including Weta Digital Ltd, Weta Workshop Ltd, Stone Street Studios and Park Road Post, to create the mind-blowing creatures, miniatures and effects Jackson and Walsh are famous for.

Peter Jackson, a gaming fan, said: “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. I’m a huge fan of the game and look forward to helping it come alive on the cinema screen.”

Jackson’s involvement isn’t the only Kiwi connection to the game, however. One of Halo’s developers is Bungie Studios’ Chris Butcher, who grew up in Kakanui, a small town just outside of Oamaru.

Microsoft New Zealand product marketing manager Tom Hunt, said: “This is an incredible announcement, both for Xbox and for New Zealand. Halo is the most popular game on Xbox and has a massive local following, and the character Master Chief has become a cult figure.

“We can’t wait to see the game brought to life on the big screen, and we can’t imagine anyone better placed to do this than the legendary team of Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh.”

Pre-production on Halo will start immediately, with shooting due to begin in May 2006. The film is scheduled to be released by Universal Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox studios in mid-2007. Acclaimed UK novelist and screenwriter Alex Garland (The Beach, 28 Days Later) wrote the original feature film adaptation, and a director is to be announced shortly.

Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh are currently in post-production on Universal Pictures’ King Kong, to be released in December. The console game based on the movie, available on Xbox, is due to be released next month.

[Kitsadoodles]

dude i'd like to see that happen. halo is a freaking first person shooter! it will be really interesting to see them come up with a way to make a good movie for that game.

[Phantom_RAcast]

If experience has taught me anything, any movie based of a game = insta crap.

[Reuben]

Well, thats only the case for Doom the movie, that looks like crap. But come on guys, this is PETER JACKSON! Lord of the Rings, King Kong. Think about it, it's not gonna be like that at all, this is a big time director, Lord of the Rings got 9 emmy's...... Still reckon that Halo will be crap? Plus, he's born and raised in New Zealand, not America. America produces more crap than the whole of China, so don't diss the Halo movie, due for release mid 2007.

[Ashinator]

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy!!!! Halo Movie!!!!! Bring It On!!!

[Lee-yoshi]

*Moved to Films*

As good as Peter Jackson is, i'm not surprised the big money machine of Microsoft has brought him in to make the best of the situation. If anyone can make a great film it's him, but he's got a challenge this time. As far as i see it, if it isnt purely made from computer graphics, it's gonna be a guy in a really crappy plastic outfit running around like there's no tommorrow! XD

[Deathbringer]

I can see this being a good movie. I will going and see this and it should be good.

[TheUnnamedOne]

PETER JACKSON... oh my god, i hate him... now i aint even gonna watch the moive
they could have gotten someone decent like John woo... now that would have made HtM awesome!