Halo film

The image released alongside Bungie's announcement of the Halo film in 2004.

"If we ever make a Halo movie, who would you want to write it?" I asked Marty as we exited the theater, "I bet that Garland guy would be all over the Flood."

— Joseph Staten, after watching 28 Days Later.

The Halo film, officially confirmed in 2005, was a film project in development until its ultimate cancellation in 2006. The film, intended to be produced by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh and directed by Neill Blomkamp was postponed indefinitely when funding studios 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures pulled out due to monetary concerns.

When plans for the film eventually fell through, Jackson and Blomkamp instead started production on District 9. Many elements from the cancelled Halo film were re-used or adapted for District 9, including the basic Warthog and Pod infector designs.

Development

Neill Blomkamp.

Early origins

Discussions for a potential Halo film began in early 2002, shortly after the release of Halo: Combat Evolved and in the early preproduction stages of Halo 2. At this time, Hollywood began getting in contact with Bungie staff, surprising the development team with just how far their game's success had reached. Ultimately, these early talks didn't amount to much, as film production for game adaptations at the time was expected to see Bungie have almost nothing to do with the film, with creative control entirely ceded to the filming crew. As such, Pete Parsons urged Joseph Staten to put the film on the backseat, as any time spent on a film project would be time taken away from developing Halo 2 - a production which would soon become an infamous development hell.

Toward the end of Halo 2's development, Parsons introduced Staten to Peter Schlessel (the former president of Columbia Pictures) to discuss a Halo film, though Schlessel was dubious about the idea. Instead, Schlessel urged Bungie to finance a script themselves, and provided a shortlist of writers for consideration - intending for Bungie to get their script together and then pitch it to Hollywood to be picked up. Staten and Martin O'Donnell had seen 28 Days Later a few months prior during a trip to Los Angeles to record Halo 2 voice dialogue, and thus were excited to see the film's writer, Alex Garland, on Schlesser's list - having previously speculated that Garland would be perfect for writing a story with the Flood. A phone call with Garland to discuss potential high-level ideas for a film saw Garland offer to visit the Bungie offices in Seattle, and work began in earnest on creating a script for a Halo film. In February 2005, Creative Artists Agency confirmed that Microsoft had completed a million dollar deal to sign Alex Garland to write the Halo screenplay to be offered around to studios.

Following the release of Halo 2, Joseph Staten took a backseat on the Halo game development to recover from the stress the project had put him through. At this time, around 2005, he began to work with Ensemble Studios on their upcoming Halo MMO and Halo Wars projects, alongside writing Halo: Contact Harvest and becoming the general franchise manager for Halo's extended universe. This role saw Staten head up on the new Halo movie project - which saw Staten take a minimal role on Halo 3 for most of the game's development.

Collaboration with Peter Jackson

The Halo film was born of a collaboration between Bungie and WingNut Interactive, a studio founded by Peter Jackson who expressed interest in creating a Halo game. At the time of Bungie becoming independent from Microsoft in 2007, a contract was agreed upon in which Bungie would provide three more Halo games, in return for their independence - these three games were Halo 3, a mainline sequel which eventually turned into Halo: Reach and Halo: Chronicles - which would be produced alongside Peter Jackson and WingNut. Jackson visited Bungie's offices in 2005 to speak with Staten and Paul Bertone, with the rest of the team focused on what the successor to Halo 3 was going to be. Later on, Staten and Bertone visited Jackson in New Zealand to plan out the Chronicles prototype - during which discussions the ideas of the Halo film circulated more.

Garland's screenplay was completed later in the year, and on June 6 a stunt was performed in which a series of actors dressed as Master Chief were driven to the various studios in Hollywood with a copy of the Halo script and terms for the deal. This was done by Microsoft, new to the film industry, in an attempt to dazzle the Hollywood executives - which succeeded in making headlines. Ultimately, these terms were seen as extremely heavy-handed, and showed how unfamiliar Microsoft was in dealing with the medium of film.

For the rights to a film production, Microsoft expected to be paid a $10 million fee as well as the studio's agreement to adhere to guidelines set by the game's developers. Microsoft also wanted the studio to seek approval over the director and cast. In addition, Microsoft sought full merchandising rights for itself, a minimum $75 million budget, and company representatives' full access to the film's rough cuts in Los Angeles. Most potential studios - namely Paramount, DreamWorks, Sony, and Warner Bros. - did not want to cede creative rights to the film and passed over the project.

Ultimately, 20th Century Fox and Universal Studios entered negotiations with Microsoft to divide the distribution rights to Halo. The original $10 million deal was reduced based on the studios' negative response to the exorbitant price tag. All negotiating parties eventually agreed upon a deal to produce the Halo film; it was decided that Universal would distribute domestically, and take sales from the U.S. box office, while Fox would take the international distribution - with both co-financing the film. The studios agreed to give Microsoft $5 million to option the film, and 10% of grosses.

On August 22, 2005, the deal was announced to be finalized, with summer 2007 as the target release date. On October 4, Bungie announced their partnership with Peter Jackson, alongside Universal Studios' producers Mary Parent and Scott Stuber. It was later revealed that the film would have been shot in Wellington, New Zealand.

In July 2006, author D. B. Weiss announced that he was working on his second draft of the new script for Halo, which contained elements of the project's original screenplay by Alex Garland. Other screenwriters, namely Scott Frank and Josh Olson were also attached to the rewriting of Garland's script.

A few weeks after Bungie's meeting with Jackson in New Zealand, Guillermo del Toro was signed on to direct with Jackson producing, though del Toro's involvement ultimately fell through and he was replaced by Neill Blomkamp. An interview with del Toro conducted in August 2005 mentioned that the director was excited for Halo due to finding the series' setting and protagonist of the Master Chief interesting in a way that other video game films weren't - though also added that he was early in the pre-production stages for Hellboy II, and thus considered it his first priority, adding that if the option were still available once Hellboy had finished he would still be open to make Halo.

Blomkamp's involvement was announced in August 2006, with the caveat that he would direct for a smaller fee - despite Microsoft wanting Jackson to direct. Ultimately, Jackson's more direct involvement would cost much more money - with Jackson's fees already running into several millions of dollars. During this time, Universal funded $12 million for the film's development - a portion of which was spent by del Toro during his tenure with concept art produced. This concept art was stated by Blomkamp to be something he was confident Bungie were happy with, though Microsoft became worried the material was too unconventional for the summer blockbuster they wanted. Ultimately, del Toro went on to make Hellboy II: The Golden Army and the rest of the money was spent on the new screenwriters and a watch for Peter Jackson.

Cancellation

In January 2006, Universal's chairman Stacey Snider stepped down from her role, though Universal agreed to honour their existing contract on the film. This involved Peter Jackson taking a significant chunk of the budget as his pay, with Microsoft promised another 10% of the payout. Later in September 2006, Fox co-chairmen Tom Rothman Jim Gianopoulos were stated to have been worried about the glacial pace of development and spiralling costs - with no completed script to show for it. Fox ultimately called for a meeting to express these concerns, with rumours saying that News Corp. CEO Peter Chernin called upon Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to remove Universal from the project entirely.

In October 2006, Universal were nearing another payment, prompting Rothman and Gianopoulos to insist that the first-dollar deals awarded to Jackson, Fran and Schlessel all be revoked - or Fox would walk. Jackson consulted with Microsoft, his co-producers, and Blomkamp, but ultimately refused the deal. Universal and Fox subsequently removed themselves from the deal. Blomkamp and Jackson have both cited money and control as their main reasons to abandon production. In response to these events, a representative of Jackson and Walsh stated;

“	Universal, on behalf of both studios, asked for a meeting with the filmmakers just prior to the due date of a significant payment. Basically, they said that in order to move forwa