Report: Microsoft to make Halo video game into movie
Los Angeles - Software giant Microsoft is getting in to the movie business. The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that the company is planning to turn its hit video game franchise Halo into a 90-minute feature film.
The film will be comprised of five web episodes that will debut starting in October, leading up to the fourth installment of the Halo video game. Microsoft will supplement the webisodes with extra footage before releasing the film, the report said.
The film, to be called Forward Unto Dawn, will cost a relatively meager amount of between 5 million dollars and 10 million dollars to make. It is the second attempt to create a big budget movie around the iconic video game after an earlier attempt by 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures fizzled in 2006 over budget concerns.
The movie will be a prequel to the game, portraying an invasion by the Covenant, an alien force that has been the primary enemy in Halo games so far. Set in a military academy, the futuristic science-fiction tale focuses on a young trainee who will also appear in Halo 4 and other upcoming games, the report said.
"We want this piece to do all the things that a game, by virtue of being a game, can't," producer Lydia Antonini told the Los Angeles Times. "When you have real people, you can have real stakes and make connections." The film will star Daniel Cudmore (X-Men, Twilight) as Master Chief and Australian actor Tom Greene as the young trainee.//DPA
