The Halo movie is not any closer to being made now that Universal Studios and 20th Century Fox have made a last minute pull-out from the project.

Apparently, Universal and Fox tried to strong arm Microsoft and the film makers to accept a pay cut, apparently in response to an upward spiral of estimated production costs stretching Babel-like into the sky from the base of the original $135 million guesstimate. Rumors brought that number up to $200 million.

Apparently, Peter Jackson's still soldiering forward on the project, doing pre-production work at his studios in New Zealand. Talks continue with other potential partners. Jon Polito has been cast as the Master Chief. Florian Eckhardt

'Halo' pic loses its studios [Variety]

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