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Peter Jackson on the Halo film

He hopes it won't suck.

Peter Jackson's revealed his lofty ambition as executive producer of the new Halo film, which begins shooting next year. "Hopefully it won't suck," he told film site Dark Horizons during a recent New York interview.

Jackson, who recently finished work on his latest film, a remake of King Kong, said that he was attracted to the project because he's a fan of the game, although he admitted that videogame movies "suck" - hence the quote.

Asked why he didn't choose to direct, he responded: "I want a break. I want to have the fun but not the hard work. I just want to be part of the creative team but not actually have the pain."

At the time the interview was conducted, Jackson said there was no director attached. Since then of course there's been chatter about Guillermo Del Toro, although that's not been confirmed. However, Jackson did sort of admit that the script recently rated by a script-review website was genuine. "I'm pleased, yeah," he said when asked pointedly about the reaction to it. "You never know what to expect."

Earlier this year Microsoft distributed the film script to various Hollywood studios - well, technically a bloke dressed up as the Master Chief did - having reportedly paid Alex Garland $1 million to write it. Soon after, a deal was agreed between Universal and Fox to bring it to film screens in 2007.

Microsoft originally announced Jackson's attachment to the project, along with his partner Fran Walsh, during X05. Jackson's Weta Studio will also be involved, working on special effects.