Rumor: Neill Blomkamp To Direct Halo TV Series

[Andy Chalk]

Rumor: Neill Blomkamp To Direct Halo TV Series

The word on the street is that Neill Blomkamp of District 9 and Elysium fame may direct the pilot for the Steven Spielberg-produced Halo television show.

Microsoft announced [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsjTJNtrVg0] during the Xbox One reveal last year that its famed Halo franchise would be coming to a live action television series, with none other than Hollywood heavyweight Steven Spielberg serving as producer. Now a rumor is going around that another big name will direct the pilot: Neill Blomkamp, best known as the director of District 9 and, more recently, Elysium.

The report is unsubstantiated but comes from "trusted sources," according to Latino Review, and it carries a certain amount of weight because Blomkamp was attached to direct the Halo feature film a few years ago and said last year [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123188-District-9-Director-Still-Interested-in-Halo-Film] that he's still interested in it.

"I still really love the world and the universe and the mythology of Halo. If I was given control, I would really like to do that film," Blomkamp said. "But that's the problem. When something pre-exists, there's this idea of my own interpretation versus 150 other people involved with the film's interpretation of the same intellectual property."

But with Spielberg's involvement at the top, and the lower risk of a television pilot versus a full-blown feature film, Blomkamp might just have the freedom he desired to make the show, or at least the pilot, his own. It's far from supporting evidence, but it doesn't sound beyond the realm of possibility either.

Source: Latino Review [http://latino-review.com/2014/01/exclusive-take-guess-whos-directing-spielberg-produced-halo-pilot/]


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[Barbas]

That seems like quite an unfortunate step down for someone who directed District 9 and Elysium. A real shame.

 

[Mirrorknight]

No! Bad Blomkamp! Quit trying to make a Halo whatever! You're better then that! The universe was telling you something when the movie didn't work out! It was telling you "Stop trying to make a Halo thing!"

 

[fix-the-spade]

That seems like quite an unfortunate step down for someone who directed District 9 and Elysium. A real shame.

That will depend entirely on the quality of the finished product. I don't think many people expected a $30million budget handy-cam style B-movie would turn out to be District 9, but it did.

Spielberg making anything is enough to be interested, Spielberg and Blomkamp together remains interesting even with the Lord of the Rings by James Cameron for the purpose of merch sales world of Halo.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

This... could not be all that bad?

Then again, video-game TV shows aren't something that people outside of the fanbase or medium would necessarily correlate with "quality".

Or video-game writing in general(remember how they hired an award winning writer for CoD: Ghosts? Yeah, that happened).

 

[ClockworkUniverse]

On the one hand I really, really doubt it, because this bears very little relation to Blomkamp's usual stuff.

On the other hand, this is literally the only thing that could get me interested in Halo again. I always felt that the issue with Halo is that it has a rich, interesting universe to work with...but doesn't actually do anything with it most of the time. So this would be a definite step up for the series in my book.

As to whether I WANT it to be true...well, it would be good for Halo, but I care more about Blomkamp's original IP stuff than I do about Halo, so.

 

[Tom_green_day]

Does this basically mean Sharlto Copley is in it? Love that guy.
I really liked both District 9 and Elysium so while I don't care for Halo, it will be good for those who do.

 

[Deathfish15]

Please, god, no. This guy isn't talented enough to handle something like Halo. Both District 9 as Elysium fell flat on their face. D9 even more so because it was absolutely forgettable. At least Elysium had an interesting universe and a fun (though generic) villain. Halo is supposed to be more like the original Pirates of the Caribbean, a ride from beginning to end, and Blomkamp only managed to have that kind of effect when he blew people to smithereens with explosives.

You are so wrong on so many levels that it's ridiculous. Maybe in your opinion D9 wasn't all that, but it by no means "fell flat on it's face". That's just a straight out lie there. In fact, D9 was the summer blockbuster that came out of nowhere the year that it released; reviewers and audiences were both pleasantly surprised at how well it was from a no-name director on his first motion picture. Elysium was a bigger movie with A-list actors playing in it, but still brought out gold just like D9 did in character development, plot points, story, special effects (a big one in Sci-Fi movies), and an overall engrossing entertainment experience.

 

[Orks da best]

Hmmmm there are so many ways it could go wrong or right

Lets hope its goes right.

Though either will not focus on the Chief, or give him a character that is lacking in the games besides 4. Yea despite my love of the series I can tell that outside the books and Halo 4 the Chief is lacking in character development. Forward onto dawn saw that and he appears at the end in the role that Spartans serve in the war. Hope for the soldiers on the ground. Hope to live. Hope to win. Along with being butt kicking troops.

And the timeframe is could also be set in, the start of the war, the first Spartan deployment, the attack on Reach, attack on Earth, the Aftermath of the war. So many places the series could be set.

And for those saying this is a waste, it only is if it fails hard. If it succeeds that it will be worth it.

For not every story can be good, but a good story can come from anywhere.

 

[UsefulPlayer 1]

Neill wraps this topic up nicely I think.

He already expresses his concern that he won't have the creative control that he wishes. I'm a fan of his work so I hope has the green light to do whatever he wishes.

Although I think the Marvel films cater to a different audience than myself because of how kid friendly it is, I hope that they learn something from Disney when they hired Joss Whedon. I feel that is a clear example of the link between visionaries and success.

 

[RyQ_TMC]

Huh. Sharlto Copley as Master Chief. That's the second best idea to throw money at I've ever heard.

Anyhoo, I'm a bit worried about Blomkamp's future. I love District 9, even though it wasn't exactly subtle with its underlying political allegory. Then came Elysium, which I liked, but it couldn't stop beating you over the head with its painfully obvious message. If he approaches a Halo TV series the same way he approached Elysium, we'll get more ham-fisted messianic imagery than we ever asked for.

I'm still giving him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the anviliciousness of Elysium was a fluke. Maybe it was due to pressure from the producers. I haven't given up on Blomkamp and I hope D9 wasn't his best.

 

[Thomas Barnsley]

Please, god, no. This guy isn't talented enough to handle something like Halo. Both District 9 as Elysium fell flat on their face. D9 even more so because it was absolutely forgettable. At least Elysium had an interesting universe and a fun (though generic) villain. Halo is supposed to be more like the original Pirates of the Caribbean, a ride from beginning to end, and Blomkamp only managed to have that kind of effect when he blew people to smithereens with explosives.

I think you'll find A LOT of people would disagree about District 9. I'll give you Elysium, and I'll even give you a bit of the D9 criticism, but I would hardly say it is forgettable.

OT: I might actually watch this now. Though I do wish they'd hurry up with the Halo 2 remake first. Hell, make a series about Halo 2 instead, I'd be up for that.

 

[Renegade-pizza]

Please, god, no. This guy isn't talented enough to handle something like Halo. Both District 9 as Elysium fell flat on their face. D9 even more so because it was absolutely forgettable. At least Elysium had an interesting universe and a fun (though generic) villain. Halo is supposed to be more like the original Pirates of the Caribbean, a ride from beginning to end, and Blomkamp only managed to have that kind of effect when he blew people to smithereens with explosives.

Please play 5 minutes of Call of Duty multiplayer, tally the profanities and racial slurs, double them, compress it into a concentrated form of rage and you'll know what I want to tell you.

As a South-African(where Neil's form, BTW) Woooooooooo! I loved his work and I think that he could really make something great.