20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures have pulled out of the Halo movie project, which effectively leaves executive producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh without financing or distribution.
Apparently, the studios wanted to reduce the amount of money paid out to Microsoft and the producers, thereby creating confict.
A representative for Jackson and Walsh explains:
“Basically, they said that in order to move forward with the film, the filmmakers had to significantly reduce their deals. They waited until the last minute to have this conversation. Peter and Fran, after speaking with their producing partners and with Microsoft and Bungee [the studio that designed the original game], respectfully declined.”
Many have speculated that other problems including a spiraling budget which had apparently ballooned to $200 million and a lack of faith in first time director Neill Blomkamp were also to blame – although this has been denied.
All hope is not lost though, as Microsoft is currently shopping the project to other major studios with hopes of getting this thing off the ground sometime in 2007. However, keep in mind that New Line and Dreamworks passed on the project initially, citing budget concerns and Alex Garlands screenplay as reasons behind their decision. And we can be reasonably sure that Sony would be out of the running because…well, I’ll let you figure that one out.
