The hope for DreamWorks is that the Halo novels can succeed where the videogame-sourced film projects have failed, which avoid the legal issues?
Universal and Fox are forever at each other’s throats with anything to do with a Halo movie reaching the cinemas, but their legal forces can only claim movie right dominion over the videogames as a source? DreamWorks is optimistic of this loophole.
The Halo novels are untapped and are rich in the lore of Halo. DreamWorks' hopeful project has no writer yet so it’s very much in the brainstorming phase if anything. A major obstacle in the road however is Microsoft themselves, not just Hollywood power plays.
"It’s a gigantic waste of time," says a Vulture source, as Microsoft "doesn’t want anything to happen in any other media that could screw up a multi-billion dollar franchise. Somebody has to be in control of a movie; it’s a director’s medium."
"But they’re completely averse to that. Because if Steven Spielberg f*cks it up, what’s your recourse? So the rule is: ‘First, do no harm.’” Will Halo ever get that movie? At least the live action trailers have always impressed but then they're not 90 minutes long...
