MS "still eager" to make a Halo film

Microsoft still wants to make a movie based on the Halo franchise, but is said to be "intently watching" the TV landscape as a potential outlet for a TV series.

"We're still interested in making an excellent Halo movie," Frank O'Connor, Halo head honcho at Microsoft, told Variety.

"We've created an awful lot of documentation and materials to support a feature film. We have a good idea of what kind of story we want to tell, but won't move on it until there's a great reason to do it. We're in no particular hurry."

Microsoft has suffered a number of high-profile problems as it has attempted to turn Master Chief into a Hollywood star.

A planned summer 2007 film, to be produced by Peter "Lord of the Rings" Jackson and Neill "District 9" Blomkamp was scrapped after Universal and Fox turned their noses up at the whopping $135 million budget.

According to Variety, film studios were "also irked by the perceived arrogance of Microsoft at the time".

Despite the setbacks, "Microsoft retains the film rights to any future Halo movies, and is still eager to produce a film when a budget and plotline can be worked out," says Variety.

It's still developing scripts by Garland, Stuart Beattie, D.B. Weiss and Josh Olson as potential blueprints.

Any film would likely serve as a standalone story and not be "a verbatim retelling of the game," O'Connor said. Microsoft is also "intently watching" the TV landscape as a potential outlet for a "Halo" series. Who's the bloke who plays Edward in Twilight? He's be a good Master Chief.

Halo: Reach, Bungie's last Halo game, will be released on 14th September. That's next Tuesday, soldiers.