Halo Movie Postponed News

Back in the middle of October, Fox and Universal announced that they had pulled out of the Halo movie project, due to both Microsoft and Peter Jackson's Wingnut Films apparently refusing to budge on profits, and the choice of director.

Despite reassurances that pre-production on the feature film would be continuing in New Zealand, news has today emerged from Microsoft and Wingnut that work has now been suspended with immediate effect. In a statement from Wingnut Film, the reason for the postponement is a desire to wait until, "...we can fulfil the promise we made to millions of Halo fans throughout the world that we would settle for no less than bringing a first class film to the big screen."

The statement goes on to explicitly support would-be Halo director Neill Blomkamp's role in the movie's production, which seems to suggest that his appointment has been a major sticking point in attracting renewed interest in the movie from other film companies.

The full statement reads:

"As was previously confirmed, we deeply regret that both Universal and Fox did not choose to move forward with financing the Halo film under the original terms of the agreement. At this time Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, along with their partner, Microsoft, have mutually agreed to postpone making a feature film based on the Halo video game universe until we can fulfil the promise we made to millions of Halo fans throughout the world that we would settle for no less than bringing a first class film to the big screen. We are fully supportive of Director Neill Blomkamp's vision of the film. Neill is a tremendously gifted filmmaker and his preliminary work on Halo is truly awe-inspiring. While it will undoubtedly take a little longer for Halo to reach the big screen, we are confident that the final feature film will be well worth the wait."

Today's news also strengthens the argument that the Halo IP may have grown a little too big for its boots, and that Microsoft may just have believed its own hype. During early talks with various movie studios, it was reported that Microsoft were giving the likes of Universal and Fox just twenty-four hours to decide whether they wanted 'in' on Halo, as well as certain demands for a cut of the box office takings.

Will we see Halo in movie theatres before the end of the decade, if at all?

We'll have more news shortly...