The Halo movie has been simultaneously dropped by both studios that were co-financing the project. Universal and Fox studios announced that they were both backing out of the project. This is actually really unexpected, at least from an outsiders point of view. I talked to a person at Universal this morning who just said “this has been coming for a while now”, but didn’t offer any other explanations.
There are a few primary SPECULATIVE reasons floating around right now about why Universal and Fox both dumped Halo now and at the same time:
1) Microsofts demands were too high taking $5 million upfront and 10% of the take
2) The production budget has already soared from $135 million to a rumored $200 million
3) The studios were uncomfortable with the selection of Neil Blomkamp, a guy who has never worked on any movie in any capacity, as the director.
There are conflicting reports about the validity of one or all of the above “reasons”, but it’s obvious to me that something SIGNIFICANT must have occurred for both studios to back out at the same time, and I have a feeling a combination of the above reasons, as well as one or two others we probably don’t know about, are at the heart of it.
Now, don’t worry too much. Yes, it’s a REALLY BAD sign that both studios dumped Halo at the same time… BUT… don’t doubt for a second that this project will get made. Too much money has already been sunk into it, and the profile is too high. Someone will step up to the plate to fill the massive shoes of Universal and Fox. I have no idea who that will be… but it’ll happen. But I’ll guarantee you something significant will change… either the budget, or Microsofts cut, or the script or the director… but if there were reasons big enough for Universal and Fox to ditch at this point, other studios will probably be hesitant to step in without those issues being addressed. But Halo, one way or another, WILL happen. To much is at stake for it not too.
