With a little due diligence, you can see most of the quotes in here (including reference to seeking new distribution partners) are pulled from the Oct 19, 2006 story Variety ran when Fox and universal drop-kicked the project. (Link: [www.variety.com]

The Play story cribs almost entirely from this outdated article, feeling a lot more like wishful thinking in the wake of no news than a breaking story. Bummer.

SenorChefy

well the whole dancing thing from my view point was just one of Raimi's quirks. Raimi is a dork, a total nerd, and I DO mean that in a good way. A lot of Raimi is just like Peter Parker, whom he also sees as a complete nerd. He loves Peter Parker more then he actually loves Spider-man in the purest sense. The whole dancing portion while short as it was, is Raimi's way of nerding Parker up, finally getting to cut him loose and be extremely confident and a little twisted. With that in mind I actually kind of liked that scene. However the whole emo hairstyle did kind of put me off a little. But really I blame emo's for ruining the idea (tee hee), I suppose it would have been better for Parker to look more unkempt and a little messy rather then flipping his hair over more.

But the character work and the black suit worked for the movie and made it a central plot in itself. I just wish Raimi would have just stood his ground and kept Venom out till the next movie. The first 2/3rd's of the movie was perfect, and I was caring about the characters, I wanted everyone to come out on top and the bad guys punished, but once Venom came in, the whole movie felt forced. Harry Osborns Butler scene felt like it was written in at the last minute as well as the Venom/Sandman team up. I felt that Harry was supposed to team up with Sandman with Harry's influence on money that Sandman needed. I really felt the build up of Venom could have been held off for a much more successful film. But overall I still enjoyed it.

Datalock

mcderek3000

No you did not make your point. In fact, you made no sense at all.

Tisteldun

Amiash Loves You

Amiash Loves You

Master Chief is a standard action hero. Remember the plot in Eraser? Yeah, he was saving some chick or something, but wasn't it a great movie? Hell yes!

Verum

lilsamuraijoe

Deep and awesome? What game were you playing? Halo = G.I. Joe pissing contest in space. The guys Yo Joe! and fight Generic Alien Species A before they can use their Deaht Sta- Halo weapon. Oh and Master Chief has roboTnA in his helmet. It's like the space marines from Aliens without the humor... or personality...

BrainofJTD

Frankly, I don't like Halo, but there is indeed a deep and awesome storyline there.

but, although it rarely gets credit, I think the storyline is stolen almost entirely from Isaac Asimov's book called... what was it called... Something simple like, "The Ring" or something. It was a fun read. Anyway, the whole premise of a ring around a star acting as a planet/living surface was stolen entirely from his book.

corranthrn

lilsamuraijoe

In any case, even though Peter Jackson does have an Oscar for his directing, so does Michael Cimino, who won his Best Director Oscar for The Deer Hunter. The Deer Hunter is an excellent film, to be sure, but then Cimino was given a blank check to make Heaven's Gate, production stalled, the film bombed, United Artists went bankrupt, and he was all but run out of town.

Peter Jackson is, if anything, an effective organizer, and he has a talented artistic eye. Lord of the Rings would have been a clusterfuck of a production without someone steady enough to manage three films at once at the helm, but he pulled it off. He's a talented individual, but that does not by itself make him or his opinions infallible. As different a film as it was, and thus being hard to directly compare, King Kong was considered a disappointment by many despite being a film that Jackson has wanted to make since long before Lord of the Rings fell in his lap.

Though I don't have an Oscar of my own, that doesn't mean that I can't provide my own opinion or perspective on how well a Halo film would fair, or why it stalled in production. Like I've said before, however, this conversation is largely moot because Jackson would not be directing.

Lezard

I agree. They have been doing to much talking on the Evangelion move. Either make the film or cancel it(although with Evanglion Rebuild the movie is kind of pointless).

As for the Halo movie, it could actually be pretty good ONLY if it does not glorify the violence(such as the Halo 3 believe ads, an impossible task).

F8X

Yeah, I guess I should rethink that whole Peter Jackson knows what makes a good movie thang, because you studied film in college...

Cruithne

Lezard

AoE

tehFluffz

I bet on another website, devoted to movies, there's a thread in which film geeks are offering Will Wright advice on how to make games.

Cruithne

So in closing: Eat my ass.

ibelli

Krondonian

Krondonian

CyberSkull

Mmm... Winslet...

KapuKapper

Oh, and Frighteners is awesome, but dude, you've got to see Braindead / Dead Alive.

CitizenTian

TOCATL

your first few points are extremly valid. At least up until you got into the Raimi bashing. Your really pigeon-holing his directing abilities from one movie. The man has a very visceral style of action. If you had actually WATCHED the Spider-Man movies or at least the Evil Dead movies, you'de see that he knows how to sell an action scene. But he also knows how to direct actors and get the most out of them on screen. Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson are not THAT dissimilar in their directing approach either. Both used to do some off-the-wall horror and genre-bending movies. Hell, Jackson directed "The Frighteners" back in the day and it still holds up to todays flicks. You could almost call Raimi his evil twin...but right now Jackson is the guy with the gun.

Datalock

cayton

1. The studios backing out at the size of the budget and the revelation that Peter Jackson would not actually be serving as director.
2. Microsoft's refusal to pick up the tab themselves, despite being financially able to do so.
3. An already shaky history of video game adaptations.
4. General level of awareness of the franchise outside of the games' core audience.

Despite all of this, a Halo movie could still do extremely well financially, like the first Tomb Raider (though it would need to do better to make a profit on what would most likely be a substantially larger budget), or it could fizzle out of the gate and be quickly forgotten like the second Tomb Raider. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within tanked so horribly that it kick-started the chain reaction of events that led to the Square Enix merger.

As for Halo 3's sales records, keep in mind that you don't need to sell as many games as you do tickets to earn an equal amount of revenue. Halo 3 costs $60 for the normal version, and $130 for the Cat Helmet Edition. A ticket to a movie at a local theater in my area costs roughly $9. Films that don't do well at the box office then have to rely on DVD sales to turn a profit, and that's not a guarantee, either.

And as for Peter Jackson's Oscars, keep in mind that not every Oscar that Return of the King won has his name on it. Also, I know more than one person that was, to put it politely, less than thrilled with his direction of King Kong. This is a moot point, however, as he wouldn't be directing Halo even if the film is revived.

Lezard

...*imagines the world's first full-length feature film machinima*

...screw that, they need to make a Red vs Blue movie! Or at least shorts at the start of the movie.

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

carrierj1

4dSwissCheese

Anyway, if you're not a filmmaker or producer I don't see what authority you have to cast PJ 'out of big-budget' filmmaking. And besides, would you rather see Sam Raimi make The Hobbit? We'd probably end up with Bilbo doing a dance scene a-la-The Mask, Thorin would break down in tears 7 or 8 times, and Wilmer Valderrama would be cast as Smaug. That's not the world I want to live in.

CitizenTian

The very same can be said about franchises like resident evil yet they still managed to somehow make enough $ to spur on the release of sequels.

excalibre

4dSwissCheese

Nostradamus has forseen it...

NYC Armor Guy

I think I'm beginning to understand why all these movie studios are losing money.

FoxHoundADAM

thePheonix9

Lezard

actually, Peter Jackson isn't out of the 100 million dollar movie making style yet. After he's finished with "Lovely Bones" he's going to direct a series called Temeraire, then there's the speculation that he'll direct "The Hobbit" sometime in the future. He seems to love epic movies, but really who doesn't?

Datalock

The audience would grow tremendously if the movie was made. I know all kinds of people who hadn't read, or still haven't read the LotR Trilogy and loved the movies. Also, a movie like Halo with all those special effects, and Peter Jackson's name attached to it would draw a relatively large audience. That's not personally why I got to see a movie, but Transformers was pretty successful, and it was a pile of garbage. I'm sure there are better examples, but I just watched that movie, and oh man was it awful.

EternalGameNation

4dSwissCheese

thePheonix9

Almost as limited as Resident Evil's?

caleb

dude, did you not just see Hollywood wants to make a Spyro game? Plus they want to make a "The Sims" movie and a Joust movie. I mean come on...if these can be made into movies then a multi-million dollar making franchise like Halo could EASILY be made into a great flick. And I'm willing to campaign to keep Neill Blompkamp involved in directing this movie. He was born to do this flick. Wait...I just mentioned this in the spyro movie thread...Did I just ESP the news?

Datalock

Even King Kong only cost 207 million and grossed 550 million. Giving it a modest 2 to 1 profit.

Really now that I think of it the most expensive movies ever are only around the 300 million mark, so you're "nearly a billion" comment is out to lunch.

Bon5ai

EternalGameNation

make this movie blu-ray exclusive just to really piss people off :D

Fluffy22

Zarian

"Halo's target audience is too limited for a movie"

Then we will get the fans to see the movie three times and buy the DVD version! =P

DigitalHero

Your concept of the economics behind making this a movie are so flawed its not even funny.

willy626

And I won't talk about AvP.

Black_Ops_19

caleb

KraazyCraig

Karttikeya

"Finish the Movie."

HAHA.

DigitalHero

ibelli

OmegaKulu

Stream_Of_Consciousness

huginn

Atamisk726

Tonx

They seriously need to make this movie now.

thegreatseal