Steven Spielberg Set To Bring Halo To The Big-Screen?

By Popzara

The legendary director may help bring the famed Halo franchise to the big-screen, designed for blockbuster summer success.

Original post at Popzara Blogs:

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The on-off again relationship Hollywood has endured with Microsoft/Bungie's Halo franchise has become nearly as legendary as the games themselves, as previous attempts to bring the space saga to the big-screen has attracted some of the biggest and most influential names in cinematic history, only to have these efforts dashed at the last moment. But now it seems a new campaign (no pun intended) to transform the saga of Master Chief into movie royalty is on once more, this time handled by none other than Steven Spielberg himself.

The last attempt to bring Bungie's popular space saga to the big-screen, which was to include the likes of Academy Award-winning Peter Jackson and director Neil Blomkap (their work transformed into the upcoming District 9 film), with major special-effect work from the famed Weta Studio (Lord of the Rings). Jackson and Spielberg are close friends, with plans to co-direct the upcoming big-screen TinTin films. The Halo license itself is set for action in an upcoming collection of anime-inspired films, collectively titled Halo Legacy, due next year on DVD and Blu-ray discs.

Stuart Beattie (the recent GI-Joe: Rise of Cobra) would be handling screenwriting duties, based largely on Eric Nyland's prequel novel to HALO, THE FALL OF REACH. Beattie describes the potential film as "an amazing story about this child that no one cares about and who cares for no one else, who kind of ends up saving all of humanity."

Reports have the director looking for mega-project to spearhead a new distribution deal between Dreamworks and Walt Disney Pictures in the wake of losing the Transformers license to Paramount Pictures. Convincing Disney to bet on big-buget videogame adaptations shouldn't be a problem, as the studio is fully behind the upcoming Prince of Persia (potential) summer franchise that's set to launch next year.

Spielberg is a confirmed lifelong meta-geek, having declared his love for all-things enshrined in the universe, having declared his love for the videogame industry in both gushing praise and even a few additions (Medal of Honor, Boom Blox) of his own. He's also famous for brining extremely troubled films to fruition, such as the Peter Pan-sequel HOOK and Stanley Kubrick's vision for A.I. Time will tell if he can do the same for Master Chief, but given his massive success in helping revive the Transformers franchise, nothing seems impossible for the man behind E.T., Indiana Jones, Jaws, and Jurassic Park.

Thanks to IESB.com for the report!