Dear 343 and MS: A Cinematic Universe!!!

Community Halo Universe
1

Halo is one of the biggest franchises of all time. For over a decade people have talked about it, played the games and read the novels/comics. However, one thing that it hasn’t done yet is a movie. Well over a decade ago, a movie was supposed to be made, but complications occurred and the project was dropped by Microsoft. With Star Wars back, along with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC Extended Universe, this idea came to my head. A Halo Cinematic Universe!!! What it would be is the games and novels/comics adapted and brought to the big-screen in all it’s glory! Yes, pretty much all video game movies have sucked really bad (Mortal Kombat is a guilty pleasure). However, Halo is a multi-media franchise that has told some incredible stories that would be amazing to see at the theater. Also, the brand recognition of Halo would bring butts to the theater, despite the bad track record. It would make money, especially if word of mouth is good (following the source material 100%, would result in positive feedback). Ubisoft, Blizzard, Sony (already in the industry), and even Nintendo are coming into the movie business, which I like. I like that the people behind the games are the ones behind the movie, they’re not handing it to someone else and saying “Here you go, do what you want with our baby.”, they more like “We created this, we’ll handle this ourselves”.

People ask, “what studio would MS/343 partner with to make these movies?” I say no one, MS can fund/finance themselves. MS is one of the biggest corporations in the world. They make billions so quickly that it’s not even funny. Putting money into their biggest IP isn’t too much of a stretch/risk, considering Halo makes them buttloads of money. Next is a big one i think most people agree would be the right way to make these. I would have them be completely CG, with work done by Blur Studios and Axis Animation!! Everyone can agree that these 2 groups do some of the best, and their CG work in Halo is extraordinary. Take a look at some of their work here, here, here, here, and here!! Their work looks like a movie, and would be so amazing to have them work together on movies on making look as good, and probably better than all of these. Doing so would also break ground, and finally have the 1st convincing CG movie that looks as good as it does. As for cast, I would keep the in-house voice/motion capture cast as well as newcomers/unknowns. These big A-list celebrities already have big enough egos and are in a million movies, they don’t belong in Halo. People will argue “you need big names to get people in the seats, people like seeing famous actors/actresses in movies.” Well, look at Star Wars. It pretty much always stars unknowns/newcomers with some well knowns sprinkled in. Plus, it’s Star Wars, people will go no matter what.

In terms of movie releases, I was debating whether it would be a better idea to release 1 or 2 a year. If I had to choose, I would say 1 a year. We’re getting 1 Star Wars movie every year forever, and I’m fine with that as long as they keep up the quality like they have with The Force Awakens and Rogue One. Also, 1 a year gives the CG to look even more amazing than if they had to get 2 out a year. Frankie and Bonnie have both expressed in making movies, and I wouldn’t be shocked if Phil Spencer and his boss, Bill Gates would like the idea as well. Each movie would be around 3-3 and a half hours and rated R (especially ones based on novels). Theatrically, they would be cut down to 2 and a half hours and edited to be PG-13. The movie would be released on Blu-Ray with 2 editions; the whole movie in the Legendary Edition and the theatrical cut. I’m currently writing scripts for First Strike and Ghosts of Onyx word for word the same. As a Halo fan, this idea seems like it would be the coolest thing, and as a movie-goer, knowing Halo is coming to the movie theater would be exciting.

RELEASE ORDER IDEA
Halo: The Fall of Reach
Halo: Contact Harvest
Halo: The Cole Protocol
Halo Wars
Halo: Combat Evolved/The Flood
Halo: First Strike
Halo 2
Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
Halo 3
Halo: ODST
Halo: Cryptum
Halo: Primordium
*Halo: Silentium (*including Rebirth, Promises to Keep, and untitled epilogue)
Halo: Glasslands
Halo: The Thursday War
Halo: Mortal Dictata
Halo: Last Light
Halo: Broken Circle
Halo: Hunters in the Dark
Halo 4
Halo: Escalation (Spartan Ops, Escalation 13-16, 19-24)
Halo 5: Guardians
Halo Wars 2
FUTURE

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Yes to all!! I know it’s been years with no progress, but still not giving up hope to seeing this franchise on the big screen someday.

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If they create movies, I would rather it expand upon what we already know.

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> 2533274961806222;2:
> Yes to all!! I know it’s been years with no progress, but still not giving up hope to seeing this franchise on the big screen someday.

Dude! Imagine getting to see all those amazing moments finally on the silver screen!

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> If they create movies, I would rather it expand upon what we already know.

Nah, there’s so many amazing moments from the novels and games that deserve to be seen on the big screen

6

I wouldn’t want movies based off of pre existing material because so much would have to be cut out and rewritten to make it work, essentially changing the story and making the idea of an extended universe irrelevant.

Take me the games for example, so much of the story is shown through visually traversing the locations, but there is also endless amounts of just shooting up aliens. Essentially there are 3 ways you could approach them.

  1. You show everything, turning a 2 hour movie into a 10 hour shoot em up action fest, which would become boring after watching the first 20 minutes of Chief running down corridor she of the PoA.

  2. You cut out most of the boring endless shooting and basically just stitch together the cutscenes like some of the ‘movies’ you get on YouTube. However, these movies sometimes feel disjointed, with characters instantly hopping from location to location, and you may as well fade in and out from black with a title saying “20 minutes of running and gunning later…” which would be awful. Which brings me to number 3.

  3. You would basically show most of the cutscenes with some of the main events from the middle of missions, but the script would have to be reworked and the story rewritten to make a 10 mission/8hour game fit into the time slot of a 2:30 movie.
    The problem with rewriting them is just that. You now have a movie that, while could be a cinematic marvel, is inconsistent with the other books and games that were built around the original game the movie is based on.

Its the the same with adapting books into movies. So much of the book has to be left out in order to keep the movie at a barebale length, and to keep the pacing of the movie engaging to the viewer. Think of Game of Thrones. So much of the book so has been skipped over, characters cut out, plot line so given to other characters, that the show is pretty much a separate universe to the books. It’s the same with all movie adaptations of novels.

My my point is, that no movie adaptation of any of the pre existing Halo material can be translated into a movie and still be100% canon accurate, which will inevitably lead to certain material trumping others which will lead to a downfall within the universe.

This isn’t to say I’m against instead MS making Halo movies, I’m totally for it. They just need to make movies that exist ‘within’ the Halo universe that fit with the preexisting material. Similar to how the Fantastic Beasts Saga will fit into the Harry Potter movie universe. The movies could confuse on a band of characters that mainly stick to their own stories in the movies while having cameos in the game so and books, while the game and book characters can have characters cameos in the movies. But you have to remember that not everyone that watches the movies is going to play the games, let alone have read all the books and comic, so the movies need to be somewhat self contained so that the viewer isn’t left with a million questions and no answers.

just my thoughts.

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> 2533274810945725;6:
> I wouldn’t want movies based off of pre existing material because so much would have to be cut out and rewritten to make it work, essentially changing the story and making the idea of an extended universe irrelevant.
>
> Take me the games for example, so much of the story is shown through visually traversing the locations, but there is also endless amounts of just shooting up aliens. Essentially there are 3 ways you could approach them.
>
> 1. You show everything, turning a 2 hour movie into a 10 hour shoot em up action fest, which would become boring after watching the first 20 minutes of Chief running down corridor she of the PoA.
>
> 2. You cut out most of the boring endless shooting and basically just stitch together the cutscenes like some of the ‘movies’ you get on YouTube. However, these movies sometimes feel disjointed, with characters instantly hopping from location to location, and you may as well fade in and out from black with a title saying “20 minutes of running and gunning later…” which would be awful. Which brings me to number 3.
>
> 3. You would basically show most of the cutscenes with some of the main events from the middle of missions, but the script would have to be reworked and the story rewritten to make a 10 mission/8hour game fit into the time slot of a 2:30 movie.
> The problem with rewriting them is just that. You now have a movie that, while could be a cinematic marvel, is inconsistent with the other books and games that were built around the original game the movie is based on.
>
> Its the the same with adapting books into movies. So much of the book has to be left out in order to keep the movie at a barebale length, and to keep the pacing of the movie engaging to the viewer. Think of Game of Thrones. So much of the book so has been skipped over, characters cut out, plot line so given to other characters, that the show is pretty much a separate universe to the books. It’s the same with all movie adaptations of novels.
>
> My my point is, that no movie adaptation of any of the pre existing Halo material can be translated into a movie and still be100% canon accurate, which will inevitably lead to certain material trumping others which will lead to a downfall within the universe.
>
> This isn’t to say I’m against instead MS making Halo movies, I’m totally for it. They just need to make movies that exist ‘within’ the Halo universe that fit with the preexisting material. Similar to how the Fantastic Beasts Saga will fit into the Harry Potter movie universe. The movies could confuse on a band of characters that mainly stick to their own stories in the movies while having cameos in the game so and books, while the game and book characters can have characters cameos in the movies. But you have to remember that not everyone that watches the movies is going to play the games, let alone have read all the books and comic, so the movies need to be somewhat self contained so that the viewer isn’t left with a million questions and no answers.
>
> just my thoughts.

I’ve written scripts on novels that follow them 100%. It’s completely possible, just give the 1st movie a LOTR like prologue. Audiences are smart enough to follow.

8

Yes, but a script that follows an entire novel word for word, showing every scene would end up being several hours long, and cost a small fortune if you include all the CGI action sequences that would be required.

Not it to mention the fact that most of the first game involves a scilent green man with no face being told what to do by a voice. Great for a video game, terrible for a movie.

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> 2533274810945725;8:
> Yes, but a script that follows an entire novel word for word, showing every scene would end up being several hours long, and cost a small fortune if you include all the CGI action sequences that would be required.
>
> Not it to mention the fact that most of the first game involves a scilent green man with no face being told what to do by a voice. Great for a video game, terrible for a movie.

The whole movie would be long, the theatrical cut would be around 2 and a half hours. And his face would be revealed in the 1st movie. He talks more than people always assume.

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> 2533274840469109;9:
> > 2533274810945725;8:
> > Yes, but a script that follows an entire novel word for word, showing every scene would end up being several hours long, and cost a small fortune if you include all the CGI action sequences that would be required.
> >
> > Not it to mention the fact that most of the first game involves a scilent green man with no face being told what to do by a voice. Great for a video game, terrible for a movie.
>
> The whole movie would be long, the theatrical cut would be around 2 and a half hours. And his face would be revealed in the 1st movie. He talks more than people always assume.

So a theatrical cut of 2 hours with an extended edition of 6 hours long?
And if your going to show his face and have him talk a lot more in the movie, then you are essentially changing the source material, creating a canon dispute. And I know he does talk in the games, but not enough to work as the lead character in a movie where he is present in every single scene.

Dont get me wrong, I’d love to see a movie adaptation of something like The Fall of Reach, I just don’t believe you can do It while being completely canon and tell the whole story, which leads to the obvious conclusion that MS, and the Halo Universe, would be much better off creating movies based on new stories, stories which they can write to fit the perfect pace of action, suspense and exposition, rather than being confined to the pacing of the books or games.

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> 2533274810945725;10:
> > 2533274840469109;9:
> > > 2533274810945725;8:
> > > Yes, but a script that follows an entire novel word for word, showing every scene would end up being several hours long, and cost a small fortune if you include all the CGI action sequences that would be required.
> > >
> > > Not it to mention the fact that most of the first game involves a scilent green man with no face being told what to do by a voice. Great for a video game, terrible for a movie.
> >
> > The whole movie would be long, the theatrical cut would be around 2 and a half hours. And his face would be revealed in the 1st movie. He talks more than people always assume.
>
> So a theatrical cut of 2 hours with an extended edition of 6 hours long?
> And if your going to show his face and have him talk a lot more in the movie, then you are essentially changing the source material, creating a canon dispute. And I know he does talk in the games, but not enough to work as the lead character in a movie where he is present in every single scene.
>
> Dont get me wrong, I’d love to see a movie adaptation of something like The Fall of Reach, I just don’t believe you can do It while being completely canon and tell the whole story, which leads to the obvious conclusion that MS, and the Halo Universe, would be much better off creating movies based on new stories, stories which they can write to fit the perfect pace of action, suspense and exposition, rather than being confined to the pacing of the books or games.

In the novels he talks a lot more than in the games, and his face is shown several times. In adaptations o the games, I would add more scenes that add to his character that would fit in canon. New stories could be done later down the line. I thought most people would be over the moon with this idea.

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> 2533274840469109;11:
> > 2533274810945725;10:
> > > 2533274840469109;9:
> > > > 2533274810945725;8:
> > > > Yes, but a script that follows an entire novel word for word, showing every scene would end up being several hours long, and cost a small fortune if you include all the CGI action sequences that would be required.
> > > >
> > > > Not it to mention the fact that most of the first game involves a scilent green man with no face being told what to do by a voice. Great for a video game, terrible for a movie.
> > >
> > > The whole movie would be long, the theatrical cut would be around 2 and a half hours. And his face would be revealed in the 1st movie. He talks more than people always assume.
> >
> > So a theatrical cut of 2 hours with an extended edition of 6 hours long?
> > And if your going to show his face and have him talk a lot more in the movie, then you are essentially changing the source material, creating a canon dispute. And I know he does talk in the games, but not enough to work as the lead character in a movie where he is present in every single scene.
> >
> > Dont get me wrong, I’d love to see a movie adaptation of something like The Fall of Reach, I just don’t believe you can do It while being completely canon and tell the whole story, which leads to the obvious conclusion that MS, and the Halo Universe, would be much better off creating movies based on new stories, stories which they can write to fit the perfect pace of action, suspense and exposition, rather than being confined to the pacing of the books or games.
>
> In the novels he talks a lot more than in the games, and his face is shown several times. In adaptations o the games, I would add more scenes that add to his character that would fit in canon. New stories could be done later down the line. I thought most people would be over the moon with this idea.

And by adding more scenes into the game adaptation, you are creating a movie that would supersede the game in terms of canon, not to mention making the movie even longer that it would already have to be.

Also, you’ve been listed 23 items to be converted into movies, and at even just 1 a year, I would be well into my 40’s before we saw movies about new stories which I’d much rather see. Not to mention that by the time they were making movies about the Reclaimer saga, the games will have finished that and well into the next saga if not the one after that. Or Halo could be completely dead by then, who knows.

I dont get get why we can’t just let the games be the games and the books be the books, and have movies that tell new stories.
For instance, if they were going do do a movie based around The Fall of Reach, throw the book out of the window and have a movie based around a new group of characters on Reach that have some interaction with Book and Game characters, with the climax of the movie being the invasion of the planet and then new characters having some role to play in the PoA getting off the planet and escaping to Halo.
That way, movie goers get a decent movie, while gamers get a look at a big event from the universe told in a new perspective that keeps them entertained.

Look at Rogue One, imagine the 7 Saga movies are the games, and Rogue One is a movie. It tells its own story and is pretty much self contained, but links in beautifully with the preestablished canon.

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> 2533274810945725;12:
> > 2533274840469109;11:
> > > 2533274810945725;10:
> > > > 2533274840469109;9:
> > > > > 2533274810945725;8:
> > > > > Yes, but a script that follows an entire novel word for word, showing every scene would end up being several hours long, and cost a small fortune if you include all the CGI action sequences that would be required.
> > > > >
> > > > > Not it to mention the fact that most of the first game involves a scilent green man with no face being told what to do by a voice. Great for a video game, terrible for a movie.
> > > >
> > > > The whole movie would be long, the theatrical cut would be around 2 and a half hours. And his face would be revealed in the 1st movie. He talks more than people always assume.
> > >
> > > So a theatrical cut of 2 hours with an extended edition of 6 hours long?
> > > And if your going to show his face and have him talk a lot more in the movie, then you are essentially changing the source material, creating a canon dispute. And I know he does talk in the games, but not enough to work as the lead character in a movie where he is present in every single scene.
> > >
> > > Dont get me wrong, I’d love to see a movie adaptation of something like The Fall of Reach, I just don’t believe you can do It while being completely canon and tell the whole story, which leads to the obvious conclusion that MS, and the Halo Universe, would be much better off creating movies based on new stories, stories which they can write to fit the perfect pace of action, suspense and exposition, rather than being confined to the pacing of the books or games.
> >
> > In the novels he talks a lot more than in the games, and his face is shown several times. In adaptations o the games, I would add more scenes that add to his character that would fit in canon. New stories could be done later down the line. I thought most people would be over the moon with this idea.
>
> And by adding more scenes into the game adaptation, you are creating a movie that would supersede the game in terms of canon, not to mention making the movie even longer that it would already have to be.
>
> Also, you’ve been listed 23 items to be converted into movies, and at even just 1 a year, I would be well into my 40’s before we saw movies about new stories which I’d much rather see. Not to mention that by the time they were making movies about the Reclaimer saga, the games will have finished that and well into the next saga if not the one after that. Or Halo could be completely dead by then, who knows.
>
> I dont get get why we can’t just let the games be the games and the books be the books, and have movies that tell new stories.
> For instance, if they were going do do a movie based around The Fall of Reach, throw the book out of the window and have a movie based around a new group of characters on Reach that have some interaction with Book and Game characters, with the climax of the movie being the invasion of the planet and then new characters having some role to play in the PoA getting off the planet and escaping to Halo.
> That way, movie goers get a decent movie, while gamers get a look at a big event from the universe told in a new perspective that keeps them entertained.
>
> Look at Rogue One, imagine the 7 Saga movies are the games, and Rogue One is a movie. It tells its own story and is pretty much self contained, but links in beautifully with the preestablished canon.

The scenes would not fly in the face of canon, they’d be like Palace Hotel, where it adds something new to John, as well as fitting into canon. I see where you’re coming from. But if that’s the case, what’s the point of the Harry Potter movies or The Lord of the Rings movie (my favorite book and movie of all time)? The point was to bring these incredible stories to the big screen for a larger audience to experience and enjoy. If you’ve read the novels, then you would know that you’d love to see these scenes finally visualized by Blur and Axis. And dude, that would mean you’d get Halo on the big-screen into your 40s? What’s not to love?

14

The difference between Halo and the likes of HP and LotR is that they are novels only, and are limited run spectacles, 7 books and 4 books respectively.
Halo is a multitude of games, novels, comics, ARGs, etc, and they are continuous, who knows when they are going to end?
I just don’t see the point in rehashing every scrap of Halo lore into a movie. Yes I would love to see some of the action scenes played out on screen, but I wouldn’t justify making a movie about a 20 year old book in a continuously evolving universe just to see it.
And not to discredit Blur or Axis’ work, but they are already making scenes for the games, why would I want to rewatch those in a live action movie, I want it to be live action.
The problem with being in my 40’s is it’s 20 odd years away, I don’t want to have to wait that long for new stories in the Halo lore.

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> 2533274810945725;14:
> The difference between Halo and the likes of HP and LotR is that they are novels only, and are limited run spectacles, 7 books and 4 books respectively.
> Halo is a multitude of games, novels, comics, ARGs, etc, and they are continuous, who knows when they are going to end?
> I just don’t see the point in rehashing every scrap of Halo lore into a movie. Yes I would love to see some of the action scenes played out on screen, but I wouldn’t justify making a movie about a 20 year old book in a continuously evolving universe just to see it.
> And not to discredit Blur or Axis’ work, but they are already making scenes for the games, why would I want to rewatch those in a live action movie, I want it to be live action.
> The problem with being in my 40’s is it’s 20 odd years away, I don’t want to have to wait that long for new stories in the Halo lore.

As long as the quality of the movies are top notch (following the books 100% would make them awesome), I’m fine with it. The MCU is continuous, with no end in sight. As long as Kevin Feige can keep the quality good, I’m cool it it going for the foreseeable future. For me, it doesn’t matter how old a piece of fiction is that’s being adapted. As long as the piece itself is quality and the adaptation follows suite, I’m cool with it. CG would be far superior than live action, as doing with complete CG, you would be able to have everything look 100% canonical. With the last point, IDK honestly. Let’s just agree to disagree.

16

Yes the MCU is continuous too, but you wouldn’t expect or see them start novelising their movies starting with iron man 1 would you? They’d constantly be playing catch up, just like the Halo movies would be.
And what’s the point in turning the games into CGI movies, they already are CGI.
Again, I just don’t see the point in retelling everything in movie form just to have it on the big screen. I’d much rather have new stories that can be made specifically to fit the genre of film. And as I said before, if they want to show things like the fall of Reach, or the awakening of the Guardians, I’d much rather they tell those stories from new perspectives to keep it interesting for the fans who know exactly how things are going to happen.

Ive pretty much said all I can on the subject and so I’m am just going to agree that we both have different ideas on what MS should do if they ever make a movie.

17

Video game movies are considered a huge risk, they don’t tend to recoup the cost of making them and under perform. Even the best selling one (Warcraft) only made around 450 million dollars from it’s 160 million budget, with most of that being overseas income. I think Halo could buck the trend of poor video game adaptations, and I mean poor in their performance since everyone’s going to have differing opinions on how ‘good’ different ones were.

The biggest hurdle is getting a company to believe it’d be more than a one shot since getting them to make multiple movies will be very dependent on how well the first Halo movie adaptation goes. Picking the right story and the right director/company is utterly paramount. Do they go the more serious route and tackle/rehash a little bit to make sure people are on board or kind of jump in somewhere with thrilling heroics and only get into a little bit of the nitty gritty? Fall of Reach as a novel would be pretty powerful stuff, but then you’re locked into making all future movies based on the Chief (not that that’s a bad thing, per se,) and retelling the game stories in movie format.

It could probably be done but it’d have to be planned out exceptionally well and I’m not sure on how well some of it would translate directly to the screen without some changes. And people aren’t going to like that. I also think that if they didn’t focus on the Chief/Cortana and the Covenant Wars you’d have a much harder sell. Halo is big and grand lore wise, but if people see “Halo movie,” they’re going to want those things. I’d like to see a 4 part movie series covering the timeline of the 3 games, but I definitely don’t want that extensive list that was put in the OP. Egads. Once you have the main story told it’d be nice for them to branch out and tell original stories with the movies to complement what’s being done in game and in other media.

Forward Unto Dawn and Nightfall, while having varying degrees of success, showcased that live action Halo might be best served on the small screen due to it’s size and complexity. It’d also be easier to deal with the more mature ideas and themes if they partnered with someone like Netflix/etc to produce a full length feature show. This would allow a few things to happen, it’d allow the live action adaptations to be closer to the source material in how much is covered AND variety of what is covered without sacrificing for the sake of stuffing Halo into a 2 hour window. You could tell events from the Halo games but also from the lore and areas surrounding it when needed, flesh out side characters/etc.

Considering they’ve supposedly got a Halo TV show in the works this might be the way to go. Having Steven Spielberg attached to it is awesome if the show actually comes to fruition as Spielberg is fantastic with tone and setting especially with stories with heavy war and human focuses.

18

Original story.

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> Original story.

Later on, but let’s see these amazing moments from the games and novels come to the big screen.

20

Yes, video game movies have a very bad track record. For the 1st movie, I would have it be The Fall of Reach. At the beginning of the movie, I would have a LOTR-styled prologue. This would introduce everyone to the UEG, UNSC, Insurrectionists, and the Covenant. Have it be around 6-7 minutes long. Then The Fall of Reach begins. If you put The Fall of Reach out 1st, this would get the public buzzing about it (The Fall of Reach is incredible, of course it would get buzz). In terms of Blur and Axis, they would rotate years. So, The Fall of Reach comes out, in the meantime, Axis has been working on Contact Harvest for the past couple years. Each company would have a couple years to make the movie look as good as possible. I really thought people would be over the moon about this idea, and not being so sour.