I can hear the sighs of relief from all across the country, yes according to Eurogamer, although without any source information, Uwe Boll is not, I repeat not, directing the Halomovie. Phew.
Rumours of Boll’s involvement began after he was billed as the Halo director on the movie’s IMDB entry.
But have no fear – the IMDB entry is officially wrong. Universal Studios and 20th Century Fox have yet to even produce a shortlist of potential Halo directors, and we’d bet our special edition DVD of German Fried Movie that Boll won’t be on it.
Don’t know how they know, but they seem pretty certain. Here’s to that news. Who’s happy? Now, with that, this means we have a question to discuss…who should direct? That’s over to you guys.
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I know where the rumour came from.
Boll cites Halo as one of his possible future projects in a Dungeon Siege sales pitch to investors on his own production company’s website.
Sly bugger.
Don’t usually post on sites, but no UWE BOLL warrants a post and some sort of international peace award. Thank god the saw sense, and lets hope they can convince Peter Jackson or The Cameron to take control of the whole project. can’t wait!
Come on people there is only one person who can direct this film…I mean his influence is seen in Halo! That’s right…James Cameron. I mean look at the Pelican drop ships in Halo…obviously influenced by the dropship in “Aliens”. And the Marines and their chatter…also influenced by “Aliens”. The only bad thing is that James Cameron won’t shoot films in any format but 3D from now on ==> http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6262182.html…that would really put the pinch on the budget for the film. Oh well it’s nice to dream isn’t it? :D
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When you visit the boll fansite it says he has been contactedabout directing the halo movie
THIS BETTER NOT BE TRUE!
I also forgot to ask what people thought they were gonna do with halo.. do you think there gonna do like zombie type movie with the flood, or is it gonan be BIG explosions, big action, or a mix of both?.. im hoping for both.
and some games have done well on the big screen. Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Mortal kombat..(I know they weren’t good but they did well)
Ray`
Ok, I got to ask one question?.. what do you think` Halo will gross?.50mill,100mill? 200+?..( I think it will gross anywhere between 42-46mill its first weekend and its gross after that will depend on if its good or not). When you go to watch a movie, say Transporter 2… its more about the character of the transporter then the movie, you need a strong leading character before you even think about a story, in order to make a movie good.I personally find Master Cheif a very interesting character,hes got a cool suit,blows shit up,is funny and witty.. what more do you want?.Now.. besides a few defining moments in a action movie you have nothing, except build up for the defining moments, weather its the first time he meets the killer or whatever, Halo gives us that.. the first incounter with the flood, tryin` to kill the prophet…etc.. So what is a video game except a buildup to these points?.. An action film and video game(like Halo) are more closely related then people makin` it seem… I just dont think that games have been givin` the right treatment.. hell if you give me the camera and tell me to shoot Titantic,i gaurentee you it wouldn’t of grossed over a billion dollars,So to say that games-to-movies are always bad is stupid.. everyone knows that there isnt the best history for this category but we all know theres gonna be a game-to-moive adaptation thats going to be intertaining, do well and open up the doors for other games to be treated with respect instead of sellin` it off to Mr.Boll to be rediculed and tossed in the pile of other crappy games-to-movies.Halo is the biggest game ever period, so why can’t it be the “saviour”.. I personally think it will, and Im not just saying this because I love the game(which I do) but I feel that they are putting so much effort into making it right that I feel its gonna come out right :)
and as for directors, i’ll leave the Nolan thing alone since John smashed me for it :(.. but SINGER… he’s already been into the comicbook stage, why not try the games?…
To finish I have two things left to say.. This would make a great audio edition! lol.. and I really dont see the difference between comic book adaptations and video games, there both forms of entertainment either braught to life with polygons and pixels or with pen and paper.Both ways give you that feeling of watching a characters struggle, and his victory or defeat(life lesson or whatever),to say Nolan wouldn’t watse his time with games is just STUPID.. he spent time of a dead franchise to help rebuild it, and to give us the masterpeice that we saw this summer… so why couldnt he rebuild the games industry!!! COME ON PEOPLE!
Ray`
I don’t have really high hopes for the Halo movie, but I do think that if there’s one video game movie with potential to be good, it’s either Halo or the Silent Hill movie being written by Roger Avary and directed by Christophe Gans.
Halo has more of a story to work with than most games. There is a detailed universe starting to develop (especially in Halo 2) and there is even a series of novels out now. I’m sure they’re probably not all that great, but the point is, there is source material for Alex Garland to draw from. And even if he has to fill in the blanks a bit, I certainly don’t think he’s a hack by any means.
The one question I have is regarding the portrayal of the Master Chief. In the games you never see his face, and he rarely talks. In order to have a successful movie I think this main character needs to be fleshed out… he can’t stay vague and mysterious, even if the fanboys like it that way.
Hey there T-Jax
If you read my previous post I was only pointing out that there is a massive difference between doing a Video Game Movie and Comic Movie. Thus my points about track record and Source Material. It makes them two different animals altogether.
>You don’t need LOADS of source material
>to have a good script. You need a good
>screenwriter and a good story. And also a
>good team to make it come alive on screen.
I never said you NEED loads of source material. I was pointing out the differences between the genres.
The fact of the matter is that NO ONE is interested in “Halo the Movie” because of who may write it, or the story of Halo… the vast majority of people looking forward to this film are only excited about it because it’s their favorite game. But that’s it. It’s a game. A game with very little sotry to it (Like 99.9% of games).
Video games are based on Game Play and Action.
Movies are based on Story.
You see… people can get excited about a Batman movie because they know so much story. They want to see that story brouht to life.
Halo on the other hand has (esentially) no story. You’ll argue (if I’m understanding you right… please correct me if I’m off on this) that you don’t need previous story to make a good movie. That is true. BUT… it brings up the question “Then what’s the point of calling it “Halo”? Halo is a video game. If you’re just going to make up a whole new sci-fi action story… why bother calling it “Halo” (except for the obvious marketing angle).
This is the same delema all video game movies face. Just because Halo is a much better game than all the rest has NOTHING to do with it’s potential for it being a good movie or not.
I agree with you that there is a chance of it being ok. I’m just a lot less optimistic about it.
Cheers dude!
John, The big difference between this video game movie and the others is the developers of the game are not giving full rights to director. They want to be in the process full fledged to ensure that the movie stays true to the game. I dont believe the movie will encompass things we have already seen in the games. Look and how the books and games mesh everything together…I think this movie will be done in the same way…to prepart us for something or tell a story from one of the books, like the FoR. I am a Halo fan, but I had my doubts until it was confirmed that Bungie was not just selling the rights to Halo to anyone who just wants to make a dumb movie. I thought at first that this was a ballsy move until I thought about it…why would someone do that when they know nothing about making movies…because they want to ensure the movie stays within the storylines parameters. I think this movie is going to be a stage setter for future comic and video game adaptations. Too bad we have to wait till 2007 though.
Yeah, I think there’s middle ground here, and whatever the piece of work is you can’t just stand up now and shout “I think it will be crap because all other pieces of work like it are”. With that mentality no movie industry or genre would grow.
However you equally can’t stand up and say “this is gonna rock because…” when there’s only the Production teams and a screenwriter attached.
The middle ground is that there are some videogames that have a wealth of story behind them. In the case of Halo it’s not just from playing the game, as T-Jax pointed out a whole universe has grown behind that.
Most movies are diluted to a one minute conversation which sells it, and often there’s no script behind it at that stage, and that’s the same for videogames or any other material for that matter.
Halo is probably one of those games that rise to the top of the story rich pile. Halo has this huge amount of backstory created by Bungie and other writers and fans around the world.
I think the comparison between the writer working on this adaptation and those that have worked on adaptations before is also a telling sign. This is a proper screenwriter with some big movies under his belt, not that I’m saying these are blockbusters, but they’re big and the stories are well developed. Note that what the Director does with that story is a whole different ball game. In comparison to the writers of Resident Evil, etc, this is a huge step up.
Now if that follows on with the Director and the rest of the team, I think we’re in for a big solid movie and there are possiblities of it being pretty damn good.
However, I don’t see these big stars attached. Mind you if we can accept John Woo being attached to Spyhunter, a movie with zero story behind it, then what’s so bad about looking out for Halo?
John wrote:
> Comic movies have a history of sucsessful films (lots of bad ones
> too… but many good ones). Video game movies have a horrible
> track record with zero good films.
The only reason Nolan should care about their track record would be because the audience would think “oh, it’s another videogame movie, it will suck, I won’t go see it”. But I think Nolan’s name would make the difference for the ones who care about track records. Otherwise, if he intends to do a good movie, he should only care about the team he’s working with, the script etc – regular things that matter for regular movies. Not the genre of the movie.
> comic movies have LOADS of source material and story to draw from.
> Decades of it. Video games (by design) have about 10 minutes of
> story to them
You don’t need LOADS of source material to have a good script. You need a good screenwriter and a good story. And also a good team to make it come alive on screen.
And if a writer needs loads of material to come up with a story set in a specific universe, he must be suffering from a total lack of inspiration.
The loads of material are useful only for describing in detail the characters and the universe. And this can also be accomplished by talking directly to the creator (in this case the Halo writers) which can describe and explain everything.
Also, some video games don’t have only “10 minutes of story”. Halo has the Halo novels. Its main universe is in the heads of his writers, it’s not on paper or film yet. There are other games who have great stories – I remember reading “Prophet without honour” by Ragnar T√ɬ∏rnquist, set in the Anarchy Online universe, which was a great Sci-Fi book; and after also playing The Longest Journey I think the guy has a really great imagination and is a great storyteller. Some of the people that work in the video game industry are extremely talented and just because they haven’t produce tons of material for a certain game doesn’t mean that they are below comic book creators.
> The guy who wrote “The Beach” and “28 Days Later” (a decent zombie
> movie… but a horrible script) gives you confidence that it’ll be
> a good screenplay??? Man, you must have more faith than a Baptist
> minister!
I loved 2 of the books he wrote, The Beach and The Tesseract. I absolutely loved 28 Days Later – for me it was one of the best horror movies I’ve seen and had a great script (and don’t even get me started about its good reviews). I also read several interviews with the guy and I like how he’s thinking. So yeah, so far I think he is a great writer and he will do a great job on Halo. But, hey, even if it turns out to be a good movie, you might not like it. Or the other way around. People have different tastes in movies.
> because he has nothing to work with as far as Source Material goes
He has his HIS IMAGINATION. He can start from some basic stuff and build around it.
Yeah, the movie could still suck – it depends on who they will choose to direct and on some other things. But so far it looks good (to me).
Hey there T-Jax
There is a MASSIVE difference between doing a comic movie and a video game movie.
Comic movies have a history of sucsessful films (lots of bad ones too… but many good ones). Video game movies have a horrible track record with zero good films.
Also, and this is the big one… comic movies have LOADS of source material and story to draw from. Decades of it. Video games (by design) have about 10 minutes of story to them (which is the way it should be since the prime focus in games is action and game play rather than story.)
You also wrote:
“I’m sure Halo will be an OK movie, at least because Alex Garland wrote the screenplay”
The guy who wrote “The Beach” and “28 Days Later” (a decent zombie movie… but a horrible script) gives you confidence that it’ll be a good screenplay??? Man, you must have more faith than a Baptist minister! :)
Ok, let’s pretend for a moment that Garland is the best writer in the universe… that still doesn’t change anything… because he has nothing to work with as far as Source Material goes. There is about 10 minutes of story and relevant dialog in Halo. So he’ll either have to stretch the hell out of it… or chage it so much and add so much that it’s going to tick off the fans of the game.
I hope it works. I hope a Halo movie rocks. But it has almost no chance… because it’s a game… not a story.
Just my two cents worth.
Cheers!
I think Nolan has some other projects he wants to work on, before eventually directing another Batman movie. So I don’t think he will direct Halo simply because he’s too busy right now. Not because “he isn’t going to waste his career on a videogame movie” – he just did a comic book movie! I don’t think one based on a videogame would be such a radical change.
Also, I’m sure Halo will be an OK movie, at least because Alex Garland wrote the screenplay. I think he’s a great writer and they would have to really do their worst to screw up his script or hire a lousy director. Try to look past the “oh, it’s another videogame movie” and look at the people involved in the project.
While I can appreciate the desire to get a Jackson or Chris Nolan for Halo… let me interupt this fantasy will some cold hard reality.
There is no way in HELL Christopher Nolan would do a Halo movie. Why? Because he has a career that he isn’t going to waste on a video game movie. Would it be cool to see him do it? YES! Would he ever actually do it? Not a chance.
Halo will suck. It is inevitable. All video game movies do. And it has nothing to do with weather it’s a good game or a bad game (Halo is fantastic).
That’s John’s happy thought for the day. :)
Cheers guys!
(psssst! guys! now that Ray is gone hunting Boll, I can tell you that my previous post is not true! but please don’t tell him! pleeease! let him find Boll, and tell him after, OK? thanx!)
To Ray:
My brother works for Eidos and he heard that they quietly sold the Hitman rights to Uwe Boll – he made them such a good offer they basically couldn’t refuse. It involves LOTS of money – must be the deal of the century for Eidos. They also won’t support the cost of the movie, but will receive a large share of the profits if it is successful. Boll is also aware of the bad reputation he has, so he will direct under the nickname Peter Jacksonboll. That’s the only change; concerning the movie, he will butcher it like usual. And don’t try to get all this information cofirmed – they will deny everything until after the movie comes out.
So, what are you waiting for? Go get him!!
*Does a Jig* IM SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW!!
I won’t allow Mr.Boll to ruin any game I like… IF HE EVER TOUCHES HITMAN,SPLINTER CELL, or HALO imma freak out and go a-wall on his arse :)..(j/k.. OR AM I?)
HALO SUMMER 2007, when I looked on the http://www.movies.com site it had jackson listed, but it doesn’t anymore..I say pick Nolan!! seein` how he stayed true to the batman series, let him work his magic with Halo..
Ray`
From the Bungie site:
“Yesterday, the IMDB entry for the Halo movie was changed – with the inclusion of Uwe Boll as Director. This caused no small amount of uproar on Halo forums around the net – even sites like Joystiq speculated on whether this was true. It’s not true. Joseph Staten, Halo 2’s writer and the Bungie employee who is currently most involved in the movie negotiations, had this to say:
‘Nope. Absolutely not true. Trust me, when we’ve got something big to announce about the film (such as the director), we won’t just be sneaking it onto IMDB.’
Hopefully, this will put the rumors to bed… thanks, Joe!”
http://nikon.bungie.org/news.html?item=14056
So you can call it official.
Also, there’s a post on the Boll’s Fansite Forum (yeap, there is such a thing), apparently from the Audio Director at Bungie, who says that Peter Jackson has been chosen to direct Halo and that later this week they will release a statement. But I think this post is fake.
(http://board.bollfans.com/viewtopic.php?t=222)
BTW, IMDB just removed Uwe Boll as director from the Halo page.