Spielberg goes shopping for Halo novels

By Fred Dutton Published 7 October, 2010

Big screen adaptation back from the dead?

Legendary movie director Steven Spielberg is contemplating snapping up the film rights to the Halo franchise, if Hollywood chitter-chatter is to be believed.

According to Vulture, the Jaws director is looking to pick up the rights to the Halo novels rather than the game itself, to avoid legal wranglings with Fox and Universal.

The studios were left with a $12 million bill after their planned Peter Jackson-produced adaptation fell through.

There's no hint at the direction Spielberg might take if he did claim the rights, but last year it was reported that the director is a big fan of Pirates of the Caribbean screenwriter Stuart Beattie's Halo: The Fall Of Reach treatment – itself an adaptation of Eric Nylund's novel of the same name.

Spielberg and gaming go way back. The ET creator informed The Guardian of his passion for PC gaming last year, and he's tried his hand at making games himself, in the form of the Wii's excellent Boom Blox.

Next from Spielberg is The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, starring Simon Pegg, Daniel Craig and Nick Frost. It's produced by the aforementioned Peter Jackson. Coincidence?

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (34) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • coolbritannia #1 2 years ago

    Green light, green light to engage.

  • MiniAmin #2 2 years ago

    Spielberg + Marty O'Donell = film heaven.

    Please let it happen!

  • riceNpea #3 2 years ago

    i can't forgive Spielberg for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. poor Indy

  • coolbritannia #4 2 years ago

    riceNpea, me neither, but keep Lucas' stink off this and it'll be awesome

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #5 2 years ago

    This is mega exciting news, but I remember how chuffed I was when Spielberg picked up the rights to the Transformers franchise. My favourite childhood passion, and my favourite director, and we end up with two ugly Michael Bay movies.

    Hopefully he'll direct it himself...

  • coolbritannia #6 2 years ago

    I want Blompkamp back, maybe this Spielberg thing is a face saver for him to return?

  • effinjamie #7 2 years ago

    Personally, I'd have the guy who made the Reach adverts!

  • Centrifugal #8 2 years ago

    We've just had a game about Reach. I don't want a movie too. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a Halo movie, but I don't want them to be a retread of the novels.

  • Psychotext #9 2 years ago

    Story is better in the books... so go for it!

  • Negotiator #10 2 years ago

    If Microsoft wanted to make this film already they would have, Spielberg being interested makes no difference. At the end of the day its Microsofts call and I think they are waiting for a tie in to Halo 4.

  • CaptainQuint #11 2 years ago

    I'll believe it when I see it but by god would I love it to happen. I'd even be happy for the mighty John Williams to move over, for Marty 'O Donnell. Hollywood has been calling him for a while now anyway, so it would only be right.

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #12 2 years ago

    That's not true, actually. They need a film production department and especially distribution. Could MS stump up $200m for budget? Yeah, probably, but who's gonna produce it for them? Plus obv it's cheaper to split costs and await bigger returns..

    Remember, the only reason the deal fell through before was because MS wanted too much control and too much money back. When the studios balked they didn't have the infrastructure to make it on their own.

  • Gambit1977 #13 2 years ago

    Shouldn't it be 'halo movie gets 3 red lights'

    /runs

  • Stompy #14 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 23:13:35 17-04-2012

  • Lee_Morris #15 2 years ago

    Every other news story I've seen about this has pegged Dreamworks as going after the films, not Spielberg himself.

  • Emmit_Assassin #16 2 years ago

    I don't like the Halo games, but the universe would make a pretty decent film. They'd make an even better film if Spielberg were involved. Halo: Reach was a strung together mashup of every cliche possible losly held together with a rinse and repeat plot that contained stereotypical and unoriginal characters, beautiful backdrops, poor gameplay and excellent multiplayer. (edit-) IMO!!!!! FFS, frickin Halo fanboys piss me off. Other people are allowed an opinion, you know!

    There's a TinTin film with Simon and Nick? Awesome!! The only problem I have is Daniel Craig. Great Bond (possibly the best if the next film is as good as Casino Royale) great in Layer Cake, but what else has he been in? His Dark Materials? Oh dear, that didn't go too well, did it?
    Edited by Emmit_Assassin at 08/10/10 @ 09:27

  • waggy79 #17 2 years ago

    Tomb raider too lol

  • linksdad #18 2 years ago

    Ooh Spielberb, cannot wait for the "20 minutes too long drawn out 'tension sequences'

  • Whitster #19 2 years ago

    @Centrifugal

    the Fall of Reach book actually goe's alot further back to the beginnings of the Spartan II program and the human outer colony rebellion so it wouldn't just be a take of off the game.

  • edhe #20 2 years ago

    @Emmit_Assassin
    It might just be your opinion but you do realise it's wrong right?

    I could see massive potential in a film based in the halo universe but it won't be too easy - mean where do you start? Do you start with the forerunners and their end? Do you eve bother with the flood? do you narrow it to SPARTANS? just the IIs or the IIIs also? do you bother with Halsey? Do you bother with John? Do you even bother with story that's been done in the games?

    From the adverts for ODST & Reach you can see easily that they could make good sequences but in order for it the be "halo" it will need to to cover something very important.

  • retr0gamer #21 2 years ago

    Spielberg reads Halo novels. Spielberg comments 'Who wrote this shit?'

  • BabyJesus #22 2 years ago

    Ah I forgot about the Tintin movie, can't wait.

  • altitude2k #23 2 years ago

    @Britesparc

    Wrong. The reason it fell through was because PJ's was asking for a budget that was way too high for Universal and Fox to stomach. Nothing to do with MS wanting more control...

  • McBradders #24 2 years ago

    Great novel, would make an excellent movie. Go Spielberg! Just don't let Micheal Bay touch it :(

  • coolbritannia #25 2 years ago

    @altitude2K - WRONG

    It was famously a mixture of both issues. The studio's were reluctant to put that much money up while giving M$ almost complete control of the project. Go look it up, I'm right.

  • coolbritannia #26 2 years ago

    I can see this focusing on the Spartan II project same as Fall of Reach. Spielbergs angle would likely be the friendship between the Spartans from them meeting as infants through to them dying in battle.

    Stand By Me meets Starship Troopers, I'd watch that.

  • BabyJesus #27 2 years ago

    BTW Saving Private Ryan alone absolves Speilberg of his Indy sins.

  • mcmonkeyplc #28 2 years ago

    Jizz

  • darleysam #29 2 years ago

    As long as they leave The Flood alone. Or ask anyone else to write it. Even Kevin Butler.

  • zedzee #30 2 years ago

    Can't wait to see how he's going to incorporate a dig at Christianity in this one.

  • Chazmeister #31 2 years ago

    I'd much rather Spielberg picked up a proper sci-fi novel written by a class writer to turn into a film, than some book of the game tripe. He could have picked a world class writer like Peter Hamilton, Neal Asher, Richard Morgan, Charles Stross, Iain M Banks, but no he's picked some junk written for a computer game.

  • fisherpot #32 2 years ago

    Yeah just cos he picked up a book doesn't mean anything as most people in the world read books! Don't let Spielberg do it as he destroyed the last Indy! To be honest I would like to see Chris Nolan as he is directing some good films at the moment or Neill Blomkamp as District 9 was very good and I think he could be the right man for the job!

  • Seehuusen #33 2 years ago

    Gonna be interesting how 343 industries will treat the halo franchise, i hope we'll see a revelation of Halo 4 soon tho

  • espibara #34 2 years ago

    Gotta love those Halo live action adverts.

    Problem is Speilberg has been a spent force for years. He lost the magic years ago.

    I'd say have Spielberg as producer and Have Blomkamp direct as District 9 was all kinds of awseome.