Master Chief Going From Machinima To Cinema

Universal and Fox have signed on with Microsoft to make a summer 2007 movie based on the Halo video game.

Halo has been most well-known as the signature must-have game for Microsoft's Xbox game console. A popular "machinima" has been the Halo-based Red Vs. Blue, now preparing for its fourth season.

But the deal with Microsoft will see 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures develop a big-screen blockbuster based on the Halo game, according to several sources. "28 Days Later" scribe Alex Garland wrote the screenplay; ex-Microsoft pointman in Hollywood, Peter Schlessel, will produce.

A director has not been selected yet for the movie. There should be some competition for the job, though. Variety notes that the Halo games have pumped up over $600 million in sales. That's a big potential audience in a young male demographic that Hollywood covets more than film projects that come in under budget.

One can almost count on Microsoft's game division working hard on a future Halo game, to be ready when the movie hits the box office. The Harry Potter film franchise and the Star Wars empire have been ushered onto the screen with related video games arriving on game store shelves at the same time.

David Utter
Staff Writer
Published: 2005-08-24