Remember when Microsoft promised about a month ago that they were still working on a Halo movie because "we've created an awful lot of documentation and materials to support a feature film" ? Josh roundly mocked them at the time because it seemed like they just wanted to make a movie because they'd drawn up all the paperwork, but really, who could blame them-- the process of making the Halo movie that Fox and Universal were co-producing back in 2005 was so protracted it's unimaginable how many file cabinets are dedicated to that now-dead project.
As it turns out, though, Microsoft might have meant something different by "materials"-- novelizations of the video game, of all things. According to a massive story by Vulture, DreamWorks is looking to pick up the rights to a Halo film, and in order to avoid any conflict with Fox and Universal, they're claiming to base the film on Microsoft-approved Halo novelizations. The DreamWorks connection obviously raises questions of Steven Spielberg getting involved as producer or director, but there doesn't seem to be any plan for either just yet.
The rest of the article goes over the tumultuous history of the original Halo movie, which at one point had a script from Alex Garland, Peter Jackson on board to produce and then-nobody Neill Blomkamp to direct. The deal between Fox and Universal was complicated to begin with and only got more so as more and more people took advance slices of the gross-- gross that never existed, of course, because the project fell apart. If DreamWorks is the only studio involved this time around, it's possible things will turn out better, especially with a voice as strong as Spielberg's guiding things to some extent. But does anyone still want to see the film version of Master Chief? Sure Halo: Reach was an enormous hit, but it still seems like this is one idea whose day has passed.
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