Del Toro excited about Halo

By Robert Purchese Published 2 January, 2008

It's more than grunts in space.

Mexican film director Guillermo Del Toro has been getting himself all worked up about a Halo film.

The mastermind behind Pan's Labyrinth was chatting to Aint It Cool News about various upcoming projects before declaring his fondness for the adventures of Master Chief.

"It would have been beautiful and I must tell that's a... of anything in my life that I look back and wish it could have happened is that project, because it is such a powerful experience," chirped Del Toro.

"People talk about it and say 'it's Aliens or it's a retread of this or that,' I don't think so. I think the angles to that game are far more epic and far more complex as a cosmology than that. It's not just about grunts in space. It's much more than that. It's a whole epic."

Unfortunately Del Toro has rather a lot on his plate at the moment with Hellboy 2 due sometime this year. But eventually the Mexican director believes Halo makes far too much money and is much too successful to be ignored, which makes him happy for the future.

"I love it so much that I would like to see it in any incarnation. If Neill [Blomkamp] and Peter [Jackson] get to do it, I'll be almost as happy as if I was doing it," he added.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • RedPanda #1 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • Charlie_Miso #2 4 years ago

    this is news?

    wiggidy. wiggidy wack.

  • zoidberg #3 4 years ago

    lots he knows about space grunting.

  • robg #4 4 years ago

    From what I remember, the Halo series has been polished so much throughout the versions that its plot is now thin enough to be transparent.

  • Fitzmogwai #5 4 years ago

    There's a plot??

    Ooops, there goes that New Year resolution.

  • Beano #6 4 years ago

    Del Toro should not waste his talent on Halo.

  • bdc #7 4 years ago

    I'm a big Halo fan, but I honestly think he's being given moneyhats to spew that much gush about the series. Its plot is definitely not one of the stronger points, but gameplay is. That's why the film is going to be so redundant it's not funny.

  • miiiguel #8 4 years ago

    Beano, Quick! email him! you know better!

  • Freek #9 4 years ago

    There's a substantial plot there, the games just don't tell it verry well. 1up did a feature about it last month that laid it all out.
    A film would most likely do a better of telling it, not hindered by a need to rush through it to get to the next playable level.
    Edited by 2 at 02/01/08 @ 12:11

  • Beano #10 4 years ago

    @miiiguel: What a surprise that came from you. LOL.

    Halo is big gameplay-wise. Not it's story which is very generic.
    Edited by 1 at 02/01/08 @ 12:33

  • Beano #11 4 years ago

    But Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy made up for it... in spades ;)

  • miiiguel #12 4 years ago

    Beano, I read the books, I have loadsa of those litle toys (we call them action figures :) ). So I have a different prespective of Halo universe. But I admit I never got into those Marioooooo stars and MGS FMV's, so there you go...
    Edited by 1 at 02/01/08 @ 12:54

  • smartgun #13 4 years ago

    The Halo mythology is reasonably rich ('I love bees' and Iris were glimpses into the surprising depth of it) but, as Freek says, the storytelling in the game is a complete mess.

    Plus, has anyone noticed that The Master Chief looks rubbish? Like a fat motorcycle courier who's read too many issues of Guns & Ammo.

  • Khanivor #14 4 years ago

    Fuckwittery knows no bounds in your world, eh?

  • Cannibal #15 4 years ago

    Games like Silent Hill that actually had plot have crossed over and flopped. What about Halo makes people think it can break the trend? Sure it will have a decent budget and look pretty and probably make a good bit of money, but is it a good movie in the waiting... No.

    I actually enjoy the Resident Evil movies as fun popcorn flicks but only the second one was even remotely faithful to the games. For Halo to be good, they'd probably have to change it to the point where only parts of it resemble the game.

  • Cannibal #16 4 years ago

    Also, is it just me that sees big money in someone like Pixar doing a Mario movie that actually resembles the game and not the horrible live action movie?

  • zedzee #17 4 years ago

    A Halo film will flop like every other film based on a game. The popularity of games has not quite crossed over yet into mainstream, despite the games industry being bigger than the film industry for some time now.

    Besides, games publishers could one day look at film making and say "Nah, not worth it, mate. They don't make money like games do!"

    And if Master Chef (or whatever his name is) is played by a known actor, he will want to take his helmet off after the first minute of celluloid, same as how they ruined Judge Dredd.

  • MightyMouse #18 4 years ago

    Glad to see we're all watching our zero punctuation. But yes, halo has so little plot that it's not funny, it would literally take 5 minutes to come up with a universe better suited to a generic sci-fi film, which is all a Halo film could ever hope to be.

  • miiiguel #19 4 years ago

    I read somewhere he's undecided to do Halo or Lair.
    I hope he goes for the later, I like Halo too much to see it lose some of it's aura by means of a movie. Maybe in 5-6 years.