Halo Chronicles and the Peter Jackson Halo movie are no longer happening says the source himself, Peter Jackson.
In an interview with Joystiq, Jackson commented on both the Halo Chronicles episodic game project that was in the works with him and the film.
“That Halo project is no longer happening, it sort of collapsed when the movie didn’t end up happening,” he said, referring to the Halo Chronicles project.
Regarding the Halo film, Peter Jackson says, “Microsoft has a whole strategy with the Halo property, and when the rights expired with the two studios, that sort of ended my involvement with the project. That fell apart because of internal politics at Fox and Universal. It had nothing to do with the budget or anything else. In fact, we hadn’t even been greenlit at all at that point.”
At least we have the Halo Legends anime project to look forward to, as far as films go. And in the game arena Halo fans will not be sold short in the slightest, as Halo ODST and Halo Reach are in the pipeline, and God knows Microsoft is always coming up with new ways and new ideas for Halo, like the Halo Waypoint Xbox Live destination.
So what is Peter Jackson up to now? He just got done executive producing a movie called District 9 with director Neill Blomkamp. Blomkamp was originally tapped to helm the Halo movie. District 9 is an apparently amazing CGI film with “a wide array of alien weapons that would make Ratchet & Clank jealous, CGI aliens that look better than Avatar, walking mech suits, and a really amazing performance from lead actor Sharlto Copley,” to quote Joystiq. District 9 was bore out of the wreckage of the Halo movie and hits theaters on August 14th this year.
When asked if Neill Blomkamp would ever come back to do the Halo movie if asked, he replied, “Creatively, it’s very compelling. I love it.” But essentially says that he poured so much sweat and blood into making the Halo movie that having it completely bottom out and collapse has left him jaded on the idea. And thus, he says, “I probably wouldn’t do Halo if it was offered to me.”
Sad, sad story. Although I would be willing to bet that Microsoft will eventually still do a Halo film. Particularly if the upcoming Gears of War film is successful, thus setting the stage for a slew of successful videogame-to-film movies that other game properties can ride. Just like the comic-to-film boom that seemed like it would be a fad, manifest itself as anything but.
Update by Ferry: Added the IGN Halo Movie Interview from San Diego Comic-Con 2009 “Will Halo Still Happen?”