Why the Halo Movie Failed to Launch in 2005

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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A new book called Generation Xbox: How Video Games Invaded Hollywood, details the Halo Movie’s failure to come to the big screen and places the blame squarely on the shoulders of Microsoft. The demands of Microsoft for perks and greed on the side of Microsoft made negotiations impossible and the entire project unworkable. A greedy Microsoft? Say it ain’t so. :D

Microsoft, unaccustomed to Hollywood’s culture, was impressed by that story. It wanted to be able to dictate the terms even though it was a newcomer in the movie biz. Halo was its prize property and they wanted to protect it.
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Dam even tho I dont like halo I like the story line and would of like to see it in the movies with a Microsoft budget a real movie not a wanna be anime
 
On average, Hollywood tends to fuck up everthing they adapt to screen whether it be books, comic books, or video games. Book adaptations do alright most of the time, but comic book adaptations have only started to get good recently with the comic book companies themselves getting directly involved in production. There has yet to be a decent video game movie adaptation. That movie had a small chance of being amazing, but an even bigger chance of being terrible considering Hollywood's terrible track record. Microsoft's greediness most likely saved that movie from being another statistic.
 
jay2nice000 said:
Dam even tho I dont like halo I like the story line and would of like to see it in the movies with a Microsoft budget a real movie not a wanna be anime
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I'm kind of glad it didn't get made (yet). I want 4k(8k:D), 60Hz(120Hz:D), 3D, and CGI that takes scrutiny to see that it's not real.
 
Apple $oftware is just as greedy when it comes to Macinto$h O$ X and other products. :rolleyes: (Yep, purposefully writing this post this way.)
 
I'm glad it went the way it did because we got District 9 which was just pure bad ass sci-fi
 
It could be that Microsoft really wasn't all that interested in a Halo movie and just decided that if they couldn't have all that they wanted in the deal then why even bother.
 
The takeaway from this article is that Hollywood doesn't operate like professionals.


...big surprise. We are talking about a bunch of flakes who deal in entertainment.
 
Savi said:
I'm glad it went the way it did because we got District 9 which was just pure bad ass sci-fi
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while i would agree, i still wish they would have let neil and peter go forward with it.

hes really the only guy in hollywood that would have been able to make halo everything it could have been.

but yeah, district 9 was amazing.
 
Zarathustra[H];1038636948 said:
The takeaway from this article is that Hollywood doesn't operate like professionals.


...big surprise. We are talking about a bunch of flakes who deal in entertainment.
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Yea this article attempts to put the blame on ms, when it looks like ms set standards that hollywood could not meet and decided not to make it. Apparently thats greedy...?
 
hahaha

This whole article tries to blame microsoft for not "Playing ball" when it was the other way around

Microsofts demands were -VALID- for christ sakes, if the movie was going to get 100 million in funding, it was -ALL- going to the movie, not the fucking bullshit shilling practice in hollywood where only 40 million gets into the movie and the other 60 million goes into exec's pockets

And then microsoft, who knows how to write an amazing property, keeps getting fucked over cause the studios keep telling them to "Change it". They want it more "Movie like" and not staying true to the games storyline. They want master chief to take off his helmet, they want nothing but action action action when tons of Halo games is just dialog between chief/arbiter and their comrades, they wanted saturday morning cartoon, microsoft wanted gritty space drama.

On one hand, there is nothing stopping microsoft from going this alone, but the problem is distribution and studio companies have -THE BIGGEST BULLSHIT QUOTA'S- when it comes to movie profits. 99% of movie profits in the first week goto the distributor/publisher in week one, week two, 85%, week three, 75%, week four, 70%. How many people go to see a movie a MONTH after its released? Yeah, publishers being greedy fucks for basically doing -NOTHING- other then distributing the movie is another reason this deal didn't pass. The article calls this microsoft not "Playing Ball", I call it fucking reality.

Microsoft was in the right on this one, no matter how much the article tries to paint them as "Unworkable", they wanted a decent right to the profits and they wanted creative control so movie studios didn't stomp the property into the ground. That's called not being a fucking pushover.
 
ShamisOMally said:
hahaha

This whole article tries to blame microsoft for not "Playing ball" when it was the other way around

Microsofts demands were -VALID- for christ sakes, if the movie was going to get 100 million in funding, it was -ALL- going to the movie, not the fucking bullshit shilling practice in hollywood where only 40 million gets into the movie and the other 60 million goes into exec's pockets

And then microsoft, who knows how to write an amazing property, keeps getting fucked over cause the studios keep telling them to "Change it". They want it more "Movie like" and not staying true to the games storyline. They want master chief to take off his helmet, they want nothing but action action action when tons of Halo games is just dialog between chief/arbiter and their comrades, they wanted saturday morning cartoon, microsoft wanted gritty space drama.

On one hand, there is nothing stopping microsoft from going this alone, but the problem is distribution and studio companies have -THE BIGGEST BULLSHIT QUOTA'S- when it comes to movie profits. 99% of movie profits in the first week goto the distributor/publisher in week one, week two, 85%, week three, 75%, week four, 70%. How many people go to see a movie a MONTH after its released? Yeah, publishers being greedy fucks for basically doing -NOTHING- other then distributing the movie is another reason this deal didn't pass. The article calls this microsoft not "Playing Ball", I call it fucking reality.

Microsoft was in the right on this one, no matter how much the article tries to paint them as "Unworkable", they wanted a decent right to the profits and they wanted creative control so movie studios didn't stomp the property into the ground. That's called not being a fucking pushover.
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And even at the end of the article, the part that "Killed the deal" the movie studios got hyper greedy and since they couldn't siphon off money like they do other movies (That $100 million budget for a movie, $60 million going to exec thing I talked about microsoft demanded they not do, that if $100 million for the budget, it was -ALL- going towards the movie), so they go after the production team and start demanding the directing team take 50-70% pay cuts that they can go and pocket. Peter Jackson consulted with Microsoft, and Microsoft -TOLD- them "Stand your ground, don't let them fuck you over" so he refused to get fucked over, and boom movie studio's canceled the movie

The reason this movie failed was flat out movie studio greed, nothing short of it.
 
Savi said:
I'm glad it went the way it did because we got District 9 which was just pure bad ass sci-fi
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I loved that movie; one of my favorites. I'd rather have an smart low budget movie like that than some massively big budget Halo fanboy wankfest.
 
I would love to see a HALO movie... The world, story is pretty bad ass IMO.
 
It's probably more a case of greed on the part of both parties. I don't have a very high opinion of either MS or Hollywood. It's kind of a shame,as much as I detest what Halo became and it's part in the "consolization" and declining quality of games,I would have liked to see what it could have become in Peter Jackson's hands.
 
ShamisOMally said:
And even at the end of the article, the part that "Killed the deal" the movie studios got hyper greedy and since they couldn't siphon off money like they do other movies (That $100 million budget for a movie, $60 million going to exec thing I talked about microsoft demanded they not do, that if $100 million for the budget, it was -ALL- going towards the movie), so they go after the production team and start demanding the directing team take 50-70% pay cuts that they can go and pocket. Peter Jackson consulted with Microsoft, and Microsoft -TOLD- them "Stand your ground, don't let them fuck you over" so he refused to get fucked over, and boom movie studio's canceled the movie

The reason this movie failed was flat out movie studio greed, nothing short of it.
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Too bad doom rolled over, not like it had much of a chance but hell>renegade genetics
 
The take-away from this article is that Microsoft is made up of people we can respect? Damn, what is happening to my worldview?! It's shattering. Someone help me out and vilify microsoft's role in this for valid reasons before my opinion of them gets elevated to saintly levels with regards to videogame adaptions.
 
Movie studios operate in la-la land, where its "You wax my whistle, I wax yours" where studio execs get insane kickbacks on movies made

Microsoft operates in -REALITY- and knows actually how business works, where money goes and how much things should cost, and how to wisely use money.

Of course it was a crash of ideals, the movie studio's dinosaur and unethical way of doing business vs the way business is supposed to operate and business ethics. Sadly, this article tries to paint the movie studios as "Making movies the right way", where getting kickbacks is "ethical" in their eyes

Remember when people used to do things just for a paycheck, and not get paid under the table?
 
Who cares the movie would of sucked. Nearly every video game movie made has sucked.
 
Trimlock said:
Yea this article attempts to put the blame on ms, when it looks like ms set standards that hollywood could not meet and decided not to make it. Apparently thats greedy...?
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Require Hollywood to meet standards? Perish the thought! Well they might meet them, provided they're low enough.
 
I don't buy that Microsoft was to blame for the Halo movie not coming out, but rather the studios.

Everything I've read to date shows that Microsoft wanted to keep tight control over the movie and that movie studios were not happy that they weren't being allowed to tinker with it enough. The article confirms this too.

It's less about the greed of Microsoft and more about how crappy the movie studios are.
 
I can't believe all the delusional Microsoft apologists. Microsoft was greedy plain and simple. If MS had really wanted the movie made, without screwing over a movie studio, they could have had the movie made. How many movie studios are there in the USA? At least 50? They could even afford to start their own studio. MS just wanted to stick it to some big studio.
 
BladeVenom said:
I can't believe all the delusional Microsoft apologists. Microsoft was greedy plain and simple. If MS had really wanted the movie made, without screwing over a movie studio, they could have had the movie made. How many movie studios are there in the USA? At least 50? They could even afford to start their own studio. MS just wanted to stick it to some big studio.
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Good point,look at Marvel Comics,they started their own studio,and did a much better job adapting their material to film. And MS has to have a lot more resources to fund a studio than they did.
 
This is what's wrong with the movie industry. One should not even have to go through Hollywood to get a movie published. Anyone should be able to do it, and be able to control it. If they want it in cinema, rental stores, or make it available online... the creators should be allowed to do what they want with it and make the movie what they want, not what Hollywood wants.

A Halo movie would have been pretty awesome. I totally forgot about this.
 
Microsoft should grow some balls and create a movie distribution company just for Halo. I'm sure they have enough money, and how hard is it to print movies, ship them, and pump money into advertising? Not much different from shipping a game really.
 
Outamyhead said:
Oh, I thought it would have been due to the story being kind of s#!t
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if you read the fall of reach by eric nylund (the book the blomkamp film was to be based on) you wouldnt say that. that book kicks all kinds of ass. one of the best action science fiction books ive ever read in my life. as much cool shit went down in that book as without remorse by tom clancy. not sci fi, but if you read without remorse, you know what im talking about.
 
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