Earlier this week, Paramount+ uploaded the entire 9-episode first season of its 2022 Halo TV series on YouTube. It was a way to help promote the upcoming second season of the video game-based show. We will likely get the first trailer for that second season today, along with possibly a date when season 2 will start (rumors claim it will be February 8, 2024, but that has not been confirmed)
However, back when Halo was arguably the biggest video game franchise, Microsoft and Halo's original developer Bungie had plans for a big-budget feature film based on the games, and they managed to recruit some major filmmaking talent to try to make it a reality.
In June 2005, a post on the Bungie.net site confirmed that the developer and Microsoft had reached a deal with screenwriter Alex Garland to write a script for a Halo feature film adaptation. Garland previously had written the screenplay for the acclaimed 2002 zombie film 28 Days Later. (He would later write and/or direct films like Dredd, Ex Machina, and Annihilation, and was the writer/director for the FX/Hulu series Devs).
That Bungie.net blog post was written by Joseph Staten who helped to write the scripts for the first two Halo games. He offered up his opinion on the draft script written by Garland:
How did that draft turn out? Let me put it this way: I wrote the script for both Halo games, but as Alex's interpretation rumbled from one climax to the next I found myself wondering (sometimes aloud): "Damn! How's the Chief gonna fight his way outta this?!" Only to follow-up a few pages later with: "Oh man, I can't wait to see that on screen!" Good stuff.
So the plan to make a Halo film was up and running. Indeed, In June 2005, IGN reported that Microsoft made an unusual move to deliver Garland's script to the major Hollywood film studios via an actor wearing the Master Chief armor.
However, Microsoft also wanted more from any studio who decided to make a Halo film. According to an E! Online story from 2007, the company wanted approval over the film's director and cast members. It added:
Among other demands, Microsoft wants all merchandising rights, a budget of at least $75 million for the flick and the right to fly company reps to Los Angeles to watch all rough cuts of the film throughout postproduction.
Microsoft also reportedly demanded a $10 million upfront fee from any studio that wanted to make the movie and 15 percent of the box office gross revenue off the top once it was released to theaters
In the end, Universal and 20th Century Fox announced they were teaming up to make the Halo film, while Microsoft agreed to "only" get a $5 million upfront fee and "only" 10 percent of the box office gross revenues.
Later in 2005, Bungie announced that Peter Jackson, the co-writer and director of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, would join the Halo film as an executive producer. The plan was for his WETA company to help create the props and visuals for the movie:
From fabricating Covenant weapons to building life-sized Forerunner structures to accomplishing shot after shot of complex live-action/CG integration – simply put, there’s no group of people we’d rather have realize the Halo universe on screen.
Jackson also helped in recruiting a director for the film. Empire in 2005 confirmed that Jackson had added Guillermo del Toro, best known at the time for directing films like Mimic, Blade II, and Hellboy, to helm the Halo movie.
At the time, del Toro said making a film like the Halo movie was interesting "because it’s so full of monsters", and that there had not been a totally successful video game movie adaptation at that time. He stated:
I really love the technical and visual challenges of the movie. It’s a very intense game and I thought it was very cinematic. The game is structured in many ways like a movie. It could kick some ass.
Ultimately del Toro passed on directing the Halo movie. In his place, Jackson pushed for a relatively unknown filmmaker, Neill Blomkamp, to direct the film. Blomkamp got started as a visual effects artist, but he also directed some impressive looking short films that put him on Jackson's radar. Blomkamp was officially announced as the director in late 2005.
However, in 2006, friction began between Microsoft, Universal and Fox over the high budget of the film. In October 2006, Variety reported that the two studios had pulled out of the movie and Microsoft officially put the Halo feature film on hold, where it would stay indefinitely.
Blomkamp eventually did direct Halo: Landfall, a short film series in 2007 made to promote the launch of Bungie and Microsoft's game Halo 3. Blomkamp went on to direct the acclaimed sci-fi films District 9 and Elysium.
Microsoft would eventually make its own live-action Halo projects after the departure of Bungie from the game series, but with a relatively small budget that were created mainly to promote the game franchise. They included Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn (made to promote Halo 4) and Halo: Nightfall. The current Halo TV series, which has had its own long development history, will soon get a second season, and we will see if the team behind the show will make some improvements compared to the mixed results of the first season
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