Spielberg to Direct 'Halo' Movie?

A lot of chatter about Halo these days.  Yesterday, we reported that Dreamworks is interested in picking up Halo which was supposed to be turned into a movie about three years ago by Universal.  Now, it seems this thing is really gaining some steam as NY Magazine reports that Dreamworks AND Steven Spielberg are negotiating to obtain the rights.  Whether he will direct it remains to be seen but I'm sure Microsoft would feel much better about giving their ultimate franchise IP to a guy like Spielberg than someone like Uwe Boll.

I believe where Universal and Fox have failed, Steven Spielberg will succeed.  Why?  Well I know from first hand that Xbox execs are pretty fond of Spielberg and they even tried to bring the Spielberg directed film, AI to the gaming console.  Most importantly, Spielberg will base the movie on the novels and not the video game to avoid legal issues that stem all the way back to the divorced game studio, Bungie.

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Dreamworks Eyeing 'Halo' Movie?

Last month, Microsoft mentioned it was still interested in making a Halo movie. That was before Halo:Reach was released on September 14th, and made a cool $200 million on it's first day.

Now it seems that Dreamworks Pictures is interested in making a Halo movie...

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'Halo' Movie Not Really a Priority for Microsoft

Earlier this week, I commented on how it was strange that when one video game movie adaptation made news, it seemed like a lot of them did. At that point it was Red Dead Redemption (not really even a movie idea...yet), then Half-Life, and then BioShock. Now it's time to get a Halo update.

Microsoft owns it, of course, and I'm fairly confident they'll find a way to screw it up. I mean, they can't even keep their hands off Microsoft Word, so this might be a real burden for fans of the game. Variety talked to the company's Frank O'Connor, and the end result is it's a while off.

"We're still interested in making an excellent Halo movie. We've created an awful lot of documentation and materials to support a feature film. We have a good idea of what kind of story we want to tell, but won't move on it until there's a great reason to do it. We're in no particular hurry."

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Microsoft Still Holds Out Hope for a 'Halo' Movie

Earlier this week, it was revealed that the video game Gears of War wouldn't be making it to the big screen anytime soon, due to budget concerns and the desire to make it a simpler story. In the process, director Len Wiseman is probably off the project, as well. Now there's an update from Microsoft about the Halo movie, and it's going the other direction.

At first, it seemed like a great idea, with Peter Jackson and Neill Blomkamp crunching the screenplay, and if memory servers, Blomkamp was going to direct. It's an easier case to make now, thanks to District 9, However, that's not happening now. Jackson and Blomkamp are long off the project and have stated that they won't return. For a while, there was no movement on the movie at all, but now Halo's Frank O'Connor tells IGN that it will happen. Eventually. "We're going to make a movie when the time is right," he said. "We own the [intellectual property]. If we want to make a movie, the scale of all the other stuff that we do changes dramatically.

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Peter Jackson Updates 'Hobbit' Casting and 'Halo'

So...Hobbit casting. Peter Jackson's talking but we don't have much in the way of Bilbo Baggins talk. However, the producer of the two-parter and the director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy tells MTV we'll get three familiar cast members when The Hobbit rolls around.

Of course, one of those names is no secret: "Gandalf, being a 2,000-year-old wizard, is still around and plays a major role in The Hobbit, and we're having Ian McKellen reprise," Jackson emptily confirms. As for the others, well, it won't Orlando Bloom or Elijah Wood or Sean Astin in some kind of flash forward device. "There's a couple of other characters: Elrond, who was played by Hugo Weaving, and there's a possibility of Galadriel, who was played by Cate Blanchett."

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