Before Neil Blomkamp was given the chance to develop District 9, he was attached the Halo movie, a movie that eventually fizzled and died over budgetary concerns. As gamers, watching District 9 was a strange experience. We were given the chance to watch this new, dazzlingly original thing, but in the back of our minds there was always that niggling question how good would a Neil Blomkamp directed Halo movie have been?
Turns out that many people at Bungie felt that same tension.
“Yeah, there was a little bit of that,” admitted Bungie’s Head of Art, Dave Dunn when we spoke to him earlier this month. “But the people here at Bungie are huge sci-fi fans and how often does an original voice pop up? So less than being disappointed it wasn’t Halo, we were more excited someone let him do something and gave him the chance to create something. It was such a good movie.
“And if he wants to come and talk about doing a Destiny thing? Well…”
But despite the above hint, Dave Dunn explained that Bungie tends to be very strict about what can and can’t be done with its intellectual properties. The rule is: if it doesn’t expand upon the gaming experience in a meaningful way don’t do it.
“We like to do things that we think will add meaningful context to our fans experience of the game,” he explained. “So if it makes sense it makes sense, but it’s not something we’re actively pursuing. Me, personally, when I look at a lot of video game movies not many of them have added to the canon of the game’s universe.”
Dunn mentioned that the Halo movie wasn’t something the team were that enthused about to begin with, but once the ball started rolling keeping some semblance of control was paramount.
“Originally with the Halo movie we weren’t particularly interested about that,” says Dave, “but then it started happening and we thought we would have a decent amount of influence on how it would all turn out. Maybe we were kidding ourselves!
“We certainly are extremely protective and that’s a good thing.”