Halo Movie - imperative aspects for the production teams.

Community Halo Universe
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Before I give my opinion; this thread is to be just a general discussion/opinion thread, and I believe I have some vital info.

I cannot stress how important some of this information is to Microsoft, Bungie or any other affiliated production teams for a Halo movie, please let me know if you agree so you can somehow allow this post to reach someone with an input. I will address this message as if it is towards an individual from Microsoft/Bungie.

Every single Halo fan has the consummate desire to witness an epic style Halo movie hit the world, however, it would be suicide to the franchise and the box office to not give the plot, script and budget to this movie everything Microsoft can. This disaster must be assiduously avoided.

It is imperative to not just make the assumption that Halo players only want what they experienced within the game to be conveyed onto the big screen. I have no constructive reason to be angry, and it simply must be my anxiety of this possibility of such a calamity to occur, but it frustrates me to picture a Halo movie set in Halo 1, 2 or 3. What made the games is the impeccable gameplay with an intrinsic plot; it had a rhythm with the environment reinforced with music and a perfect culmination of colours, sounds and plot objectives. An intrinsic plot must be explained, Halo 1, 2 and 3 has no real content that can be pushed onto a screen in less than 2-3 hours. It is simple yet however marginally understood that if there were to be movie it must be a prequel, a follow of the Spartans journey and specifically 117/John from his adoption into the UNSC, to his childhood and training on Reach. The book, “Halo: The Fall of Reach” encapsulates this precisely. [Plot link below]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo:_The_Fall_of_Reach

When I read this book, I gained such a heartfelt, passionate insight into the Halo universe and the story behind the action. That was where my interest was, in this plotline. It would be fantastic to follow, excluding only some material yet mainly focusing on John’s childhood/training. A script should be written basing around key elements of interest, focusing on the structure of an in-depth plotline with meaning yet progressively displayed in an epic style film.

Please do not make the assumption that everyone in the world is a Halo fan, and/or simply desires to see a bunch of guys in shielded armour fighting some aliens in more shielded armour. An example of how the general image could be altered by not using the title ‘Halo’ in the film, and calling it “Reach”, however the way the film could be marketed towards the same demo/audience. Despite this, the Halo film would need to be an exceedingly high budget epic, similar or even more so in budget than the highest recorded in my opinion, this is necessary to reach such graphic detail in conveying Eric Nylund’s epic sci-fi plot across. Microsoft certainly would have the capacity to fund this, and with the number of Halo fans in the world they are guaranteed to nevertheless earn quite a great deal of money.

IDEAS:

This movie could be incredible, if the focus were shifted to the greater more comprehensive and generally captivating plot of John’s training, and his experiences with his friends/Spartans. It would be wise to exaggerate the characteristics of each individual Spartan, like in the Reach game, snipers or knifers etc. A plot device could be integrated with a ‘Top Gun’ style competitiveness between the Spartans, as that is all they have – like in the book. Also, despite my prevalent agreement with the plot structure of the novel written by Eric Nylund; I believe a film isn’t an epic without a brilliant score, perhaps the ‘jungley drums’ of Halo 1 could only be a small part of the soundtrack, althoughvital – and a more passionate John Williams style score could dominate the film, similar to tracks within Halo 3. Another potential idea could be an integrated initial scene panning in black space as to show captions (again, ‘Top Gun’ style) except with not music, - to explain the situation;

e.g… “On January 2514, traveling faster than the speed of light became possible through slipspace, another dimension where special relativity does not apply. Humans were allowed to colonize hundreds of other uncharted planets and progress technologically even more so, the order of these planets are controlled by the necessary United Nations Space Command. However; feeling repressed by the UNSC’s heavy-handed rule, some oblivious colonies revolted; fearing rebellion will tear the UNSC apart, military leaders approved the SPARTAN II Project.”

… then perhaps the score could slowly ease into a highly epic style with the black show pans upward to display a planet in utter chaos with fire etc, it would be Reach. Then the plot could then jump back to the start of Eric Nylund’s novel.

Please help fathom the intense necessity of the core of this information, because from what I have come to imagine, and many other Halo fans have envisioned from reading ‘The Fall of Reach’, there is one of the most spectacular film opportunities in the history of film.

Do it right. Make a great film. Evolve the franchise.

  • WillR001, a Halo fan.

…please discuss you’re opinion in this thread.

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Microsoft or any of its employees do not accept or consider unsolicited ideas, including ideas for new advertising campaigns, new promotions, new products or technologies, processes, materials, marketing plans or new product names. The sole purpose of this policy is to avoid potential misunderstandings or disputes when Microsoft’s products or marketing strategies might seem similar to ideas submitted to Microsoft. So, please do not send your unsolicited ideas to Microsoft or anyone at Microsoft. If, despite our request that you not send us your ideas and materials, you still send them, please understand the Microsoft makes no assurances that your ideas and materials will be treated as confidential or proprietary.

This information can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/About/Legal/EN/US/IntellectualProperty/Copyright/default.aspx Just don’t want you to be too hopeful of them paying any attention to your ideas, or if they do something similar you getting angry that they “stole” your ideas.

Also hasn’t the Halo Movie been off for like 3 years now?

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> Also hasn’t the Halo Movie been off for like 3 years now?

Actually, latest news is that it will happen, just “at the right time”. :stuck_out_tongue:

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haha please understand that i simply wanted to voice the obvious in the earlier parts of my post… like i said, there is the potential for a great film and im just worrying that they won’t write the basis of the film on the blatantly necessary story of ‘Reach’.
the rest of what i wrote is just some of my personal ideas and opinions, i dont care if they use or already have planned similar ideas, because in my opinion that is how they should do it.

id like people to give there opinions and ask them if they definately do agree with my core ideal that the movie should be based on ‘The Fall of Reach’ plot.

  • also; any facts or info you have about the potential script/film production team would be greatly appreciated to help ease my anxiety about the issue. so anything about directors, plot etc… thanks.
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According to IMDb, the “Halo” movie is slated for a 2012 release, will follow the Halo: C.E. story, has a script and screenplay already written, has a budget of $100,000,000 and will be shot primarily in New Zealand. It looks like Peter Jackson is the Exec. Producer but sine he’s working on The Hobbit, which is also slated for a 2012 release for part 1 and 2013 for part 2, I doubt “Halo” won’t release until 2014, that is if the world doesn’t end on 12/12/12.

I’d go into some more research and dig up more of the production crew, but the computer I’m on is crappy.

It goes to show that finding out information like this is easier than you think. I’m sure if someone looked, they could find more of the crew, such as director.

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> According to IMDb, the “Halo” movie is slated for a 2012 release, will follow the Halo: C.E. story, has a script and screenplay already written, has a budget of $100,000,000 and will be shot primarily in New Zealand. It looks like Peter Jackson is the Exec. Producer but sine he’s working on The Hobbit, which is also slated for a 2012 release for part 1 and 2013 for part 2, I doubt “Halo” won’t release until 2014, that is if the world doesn’t end on 12/12/12.
>
> I’d go into some more research and dig up more of the production crew, but the computer I’m on is crappy.
>
> It goes to show that finding out information like this is easier than you think. I’m sure if someone looked, they could find more of the crew, such as director.

Ok, what you said scared the crap out of me, but I did some research and I just found this:
http://www.latinoreview.com/news/exclusive-halo-movie-has-reach-4305
It says that Stuart Beattie (successful script writer) wrote a speculative script (without being paid) for a Halo movie entirely based on Eric Nylund’s: Fall of Reach novel. I came. This could mean a good plot, involving John etc etc… Lets hope that it gets accepted, hope that its a good script, hope for a good team and hope that the film’s treated well!!

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Is it me or is anyone else tired of Reach?

First off The Fall of Reach the book barely goes into any detail about what happens, the most action you see is when John-117 does his space mission to blow up the station to prevent data from falling into enemy hands and you know nothing about what happens on the planet. So making a movie based on that book is dumb.

If you want a good description of what happens on Reach, read First Strike you actually see/read what happens when the Sparatans got groundside. The other resource is Halo: Reach the game but that is a whole month of operations…but we have the game. Personally I think (not reading the comics yet [waiting for the hardcover issues]) the fall of Reach has been told to death and not that really important when it comes to the Halo Universe. Yes we lost our most important military asset/base but where is the victory wherecan you end the movie on on a good note? You can’t…oh yeah MC is running away like a coward to fight another day.

No what this movie needs to focus on is probably the most important battle of the war…Harvest.

Yup you heard me Harvest is probably the most important battle of the war before Earth for many reasons. First it was the site of first contact with the covenant. And this battle lasted for 5 years, the longest engagement during the entire war. WE lost millions, it was the first to be glassed, but we wouldn’t let them have it and we needed a moral victory something says we won’t give up. Harvest is that battle and the perfect plot for a battle. Not only do you see us get defeated, but we come back and take it planetside, and lose it again, and take it back. Then you will see an epic Space battle with the greatest non-augmented human during the war, Admiral Cole, ()which I think we need a story or see him in a movie rather then just what we got in the short story) a battle we actually win and one of the few. What happens to Reach, are entire fleet is almost destroyed and we still lose the planet.

You will get to see Spartans, aka Homecoming, and maybe all 33 Spartans in action, because you know those Spartans had to have some missions on Harvest during those 5 years.

Personally the movie needs to focus on Humanity and not reallythe Spartans even though Halo the story is all about the Spartans. If I was writing a script I would open with a terrorist attackwith explosions and Halsey going through a military check-in at a base with these reports going on. And then you hear her voice about the Insurrection and how there is a plan to put it to a stop and you see her writing in her journal (same one we got for the game) and then you see her going to a kid to check outand field test but I prefer it not to be John have it as another kid, one that we don’t know about to introduce a new character/spartan, and to give John a little more mystery. And then you see the training of the Spartans. You see all these kids doing the obstacle course, going to class and then you have maybe a montage of all the different training/instructions and during one of these training you see Halsey with Mendez and Mendez sees something impressive and wonders out loud which Spartan that is and Halsey says John, but still you don’t see John’s face or its blurred because its in the distance but whatever you just saw you know that is John before Halsey even says it. And then you see the augmentation to random Spartans and that entire part of the movie should last no more then 40 minutes. Then you cut to Halsey reading reports or in a briefing about teh Covenant and about their new offensive on Harvest to take it back. Here you show action/scenes mostly on the Marines and ODST. Have a few missions with Spartans or you see Spartans coming in for support but the Spartans is not the focus it should be the other soldiers since they are the face of humanity not the Spartans (remember the Spartans are still a secret) or you can have it where most the movie you focus on the marines/odst and the last partsof the movie you finally see the Spartans do a mission that is vital to the taking of Harvest. BEcause the longer you go without seeing the Spartansthe more anxious/epic it will be when you finally see them. And then you have the 2 big Space battles between Cole and the Covenant fleet. The first in 2526 with 40 ships against one large Covenant ship in which Cole lost 13, but that can be near the middle of the movie when you see UNSC try to take Harvest over for the first time and they succeed but then the Covenant just take it over again then the 5 Year battle montage can happen during this part of the movie. Then you see another epic Space battle (or just this one to save time and redundency) and then the ground battle which takes the rest of the Covenant off the planet (except for a couple of brigades still trying to get into the forerunner structure that is in Halo Wars, which you might show a glimpse of on a screen or something to add a teaser about forerunners into the story).

So with a script like that you have, the creation of the Spartans, you see the creator of the Spartans, and the you have a total defeat of humanity at Harvest, the destruction of the planet, but from the ashes we rise upo and fight to take it back with epic ground battles and a space battle in which we win…but this is a small victory that cost millions and the outlook is not good but we have hope.

The Battle of Harvest is the way to go, the Fall of Reach has nothing but death and defeat and NO HOPE/victory to end a movie on…only John-117 hightailing out of the system on the Pillar of Autumn to save his skin. Not a ending I want to pay 10 bucks for to see in a movie…give me some kind of victory/hope of being a human.