Halo film due in 2008 News
Xbox 360 Xbox News by Tom Bramwell
Halo will hit the silver screen in summer 2008, not 2007, Microsoft announced this week - and relative unknown Neill Blomkamp will direct.
South African Blomkamp has worked on a number of visual effects for television shows including Stargate SG-1, Dark Angel and Smallville, and has also worked on a number of advertising campaigns.
Microsoft describes him as "one of the most innovative and original artists currently working in short films and commercial advertising".
His work has netted him three Clio Awards for ad work, and a Visual Effects Society Award for a TV ad about a dancing Citroen.
More information can be found on his brief IMDB page, and GameSpot has tracked down a few of his shorts - there's Alive in Joburg, Yellow (both YouTube) and Tetra Vaal (direct link).
Along with Blomkamp, the Halo film has attracted Academy Award-winning film-maker Peter Jackson and his partner Fran Walsh as executive producers, with Jackson's Weta Digital and Weta Workshop handling effects and costumes. The film will be shot in New Zealand.
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Comments: 1-44 of 44 in total
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Markusdragon
10/08/06 @ 11:10
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Good choice of director. New blood means fresh style, and people won't moan as much about who he is because they'll be busy saying 'huh?' a lot whenever his name gets mentioned.
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PearOfAnguish
10/08/06 @ 11:11
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Says something sad about the film when it's appointed director got the job because of his work with CGI 30 second TV commercials.
Watch his short films before you pass judgement: http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/09/scruti... |
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greggywocky
10/08/06 @ 11:17
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Still, I'm not holding out much hope that it'll be anything other than a generic no-brain actioner.
Fingers crossed... |
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seems a bit Bruckheimer to me. New director form music vids / ads / shorts making big budget film under an experianced and probably controlling producer. but given the producer it seems like it good be all good
edited to add - not dismissing this guy at all, just drawing a parallel to a proven working production tactic that I think would bode well with Peter Jackson overseeing production. also as long as this isn't a case of Alien3 where a new director wants to do something innovative, but is hampered by higher ups who partially picked him for newness and related assumed maleability - which I don't think is the case here.
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most recently on 10/08/06 @ 12:45
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skillian: I'm sorry but I think making Halo is a waste of his skill.
He could extend the Alive in Joburg short and it would make an immensely more interesting film compared to Halo. But I figure he will receive a bunch of money and then go on to make interesting movies. I'm not sure if brains is something you require when making a movie like Halo as there is no need for social commentary. Though, he might feel the need and then Halo will be an amazing movie but nothing like the game. |
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heeey does this mean Halo 3 won't coincide with the Movie?
Or are they going to get Halo 3 out of the door before the movie wrecks it's iamge. i've got money riding on it, that in the first 10 minutes Master Chief will take his helmet off and then... we see Silvester Stallone!! /still feels pain from Judge dredd Movie. :-(
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 10/08/06 @ 12:23
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greggywocky
10/08/06 @ 11:26
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Perhaps they should have got Scorcese to do it.
Master Chief to Arbiter: "You lookin at me? You fuckin looking at me? Coz I dont see anybody else...." etc etc Maybe not. |
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NthSimulachum
10/08/06 @ 11:38
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Having watched the shorts...they've got a slightly different style to them...
Halo might actually be good...innovative director, good scriptwriter, weta doing cg and props? But a GOOD videogame film? *ambivalence* |
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greggywocky
10/08/06 @ 11:56
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Let's hope so. All these terrible videogame films only add ammo to those who might argue that gaming is moronic, violent waste of time.
Not that there's anything wrong with that, obviously.. :-) |
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This guy seems to be a perfect fit for the Halo project. He can work on a tight budget, (MS are looking to make a relatively cheap film at $75Mil) he has an eye for convincing aliens and robots, likes his action, but knows that the world is more complicated than a gun-fight.
As for his ability to tell a story, who knows, but it's often said that crafting a short story is harder than spewing out a long one. Conveying a setting, themes, action and characters in an elegant and understandable manner is hard to do in a short time. From what we've seen of this guy so far, he can do that. And remember, Ridley Scott was directing commercials and half hour tv shows before he did 'Alien'. And his only previous film to that was 'The Duelists', one of the finest swashbucklers ever made, and made on an absolute pittance at that. |
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PearOfAnguish
10/08/06 @ 12:21
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Wasn't Bungie's slogan for Halo - 30 seconds of fun, again and again?
Are you sure it wasn't - Copy and paste this map, again and again ? |
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Like it or not (and mindles violence aside) there's some well-fleshed out themes in Halo that are very close to 'classic' sci-fi from 70's Asimov / Arthur C.Clarke / James Cooper etc.
If this is done well, the story isn't messed with and done by people who 'get' games, this could be a real success. Bring it on! |
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kangarootoo
10/08/06 @ 13:39
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"and let someone with experience of making a coherent 2 hour story at the helm"
Isn't that partly/mostly the screenwriters job? The director is in charge of the delivery of story to screen. If the plot makes no sense and the dialogue blows, the director will be hard pushed to rescue it. Screenwriters just don't get enough credit IMO. They are the ones creating the plot twists, the challenging story lines and the believable characters (the last one is obvious a joint effort by lots of people). But we trumpet the directors like they wrote, produced and directed everything (which some do, but most don't). |
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Tiger_Walts
10/08/06 @ 14:45
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Looking at his work, he is able to establish a believable environment with a backstory and history efficiently. Something a film set in the Halo universe is going to need to do. The action scenes are thankfully 'clean' and not a mess of jump-cuts. He has also clearly mastered the art of CGI elements placed in live action, each shot being well thought out in their conception and execution.
I wouldn't be surprised if Peter Jackson hand picked Blomkamp himself. |
Comments: 1-44 of 44 in total
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