"Come on, don't jump! We were joking about Tom Cruise playing you...
Telling a simple story of Earth invasions, ancient WMDs and rival species of aliens ripping across the galaxy, only to be thwarted by the mirror-visored Master Chief, the Halo milieu has all the hallmarks of space opera in the grand tradition.
From its uber-bright AIs to the Iain Banks-style names given to its space ships, there's plenty of Halo to work with beyond the velocity of its ammunition.
With a script by Alex 'The Beach' Garland (or in movie terms, Alex '28 Days Later' Garland) things began very positively.
"Alex 'The Beach' Garland was apparently paid well over $1m to write Master Chief's story for celluloid..."
An avowed game head, Garland was apparently paid well over $1m to write Master Chief's story for celluloid, a sum of money you would think, which would be more than enough to focus the mind. And the good news didn't stop there.
Initially slated to be made by WingNut films, with Peter Jackson attached as executive producer, it looked for a while as though Halo could be the one to break out of the Uwe Boll-sponsored mess that movies based on games have slipped into.
House of the Dead, Bloodrayne and Alone in the Dark are all empty-headed fiascos, but this one didn't have to be. And then, one by one, the wheels started to come off.
Published 21st January 2007
