Stuart Beattie talks up 'Halo' movie

Source: Sci-Fi Wire + First Showing

Apart from also being a fellow Aussie, Stuart Beattie is a personal hero of mine. He's written some fantastic scripts over the years, and he's had an amazing career - a career, a scribe like me could only dream of. He's also a genuine, all-round nice guy - a rarity in the film biz, I can assure you.


"Fosters thanks, mate. Make it two."

Beattie has gladly confessed on numerous occasions, that after a hard days work, he often enjoys relaxing over an online bout of Halo. He's been trying to stir up some excitement for a Halo feature film, particularly one that follows 'The Fall of Reach' arc, for over a year now. He adapted the books, based on the hit video game franchise, and even went so far as to hire a concept artist to produce artwork, which would accompany him while he pitched his take to studios. So far, no one's bitten.



SciFi Wire caught up with Beattie recently and talked with him about Fall of Reach and the latest developments. "I really believe a Halo movie would just be awesome, especially this Halo movie." Maybe there is hope?

"I just think it's an amazing story about this child that no one cares about and who cares for no one else, who kind of ends up saving all of humanity," Beattie starts out saying. Anyone and everyone who has ever played Halo I'm sure would love to see a movie as well, but we all know the original project got scrapped when Microsoft couldn't agree with Fox and Universal on the budget. "I firmly believe that the first Halo movie needs to be the Fall of Reach story, because it sets up all the characters, the world, the Covenant, the big struggle between mankind and the aliens, all that stuff," he explains. "So that's where my money is."



As for the kind of budget necessary to make Halo: Fall of Reach, Beattie mentions that "it's a big $100 million-plus film." However, as we know all too well, video game movies usually aren't that great and do too well. Hopefully that will change with Prince of Persia, but until then, we'll just have to wait patiently.



"Once my generation of filmmakers start to get to that position where they allow us to make these big-budget films based on these video games, then we'll start to get some really great movies based on video games," Beattie said. "I think it's the same as books, [and] it's the same as comic books. I think not every video game should be made into a movie, just like not every book should be made into a movie. Not every comic book should, but certain ones definitely should, because they're so visual, the characters are so rich and the mythology is so vast that they should. Halo is definitely one of the shoulds."



I agree with Beattie there, but who knows if we'll ever see a Halo movie. If things go very well over the next few years, it could just happen, but that's the problem. It's my belief that Peter Jackson is using District 9 as a way of proving that Neill Blomkamp can direct a big feature and can bring audiences in. So not only does that movie need to do gangbusters at the box office in August, but Prince of Persia needs to be a worldwide hit as well. If all of that works out, I could see a Halo movie moving forward once again, hopefully with Neill Blomkamp at the helm and Peter Jackson producing, the same as before. But alas I can't predict the future.



"I would just love to see a Halo movie up there on screen. It's magnificent," Beattie says. "As always, the moment we bring up the Halo movie, there's always a discussion surrounding it."