Microsoft's First Trip To Hollywood Not Working Out So Well

Microsoft has had a Halo movie in the works for a while now, but it looks like it was killed this week. Universal was supposed to produce the Redmond-written script, a budget was set of $145 million and no less than Peter Jackson was set to produce, but late last week it was revealed that the studio wanted to renegotiate terms and Microsoft bailed. A great post on the subject at GigaOm asks, "The real mystery is why Microsoft is still plowing ahead. Has anyone bothered to tell them a Halo movie must be one of the most ill-inconceived film projects ever?"

True, video games haven't fared well at the box office, but a Halo movie would seem like a good candidate to break the mold, especially with the director of King Kong LOTR working on the project and bringing his badass prodcution company with him.

Seattlest would like to suggest an alternate path to the cineplex, since Microsoft seems to be too stubborn to do the whole Universal/Peter Jackson thing: Film it machinima style. The Red vs Blue guys have been milking Halo for cinematic winners for years and one would guess that they've done it on a budget slightly less than $145 million. Turn the script over to them and give them free reign to make changes or, better yet, scrap the whole thing and write their own.

We'd love to see the Redmond-approved version of the script, by the way, so if anyone wants to dress up as Master Chief and drop it off at Seattlest HQ were always available.