There was almost a "Halo" movie. Then it went kablooey.
Directors Neil Blomkamp and Peter Jackson teamed up several years ago to turn the blockbuster franchise into a film. It didn't work out mainly due to Microsoft's desire for control of the direction of the film, according to Jamie Russell's book "Generation Xbox: How Video Games Invaded Hollywood."
Blomkamp, who went on to direct the Oscar winning "District 9" and is out promoting his new movie "Elysium" tells IGN his perspective on why the movie didn't get made:
"I still really love the world and the universe and the mythology of Halo. If I was given control, I would really like to do that film," Blomkamp says. "But that's the problem. When something pre-exists, there's this idea of my own interpretation versus 150 other people involved with the film's interpretation of the same intellectual property. Then the entire filmgoing audience has their interpretation. You can really live up to or fail in their eyes. That part isn't appealing to me, but the original pieces are appealing."
There you have it. Microsoft needs to let filmmakers do their thing. Otherwise we're left wondering about what could have been.
