Peter Jackson and Master Chief Come Together

Microsoft is holding an E3 of sorts specifically for their Xbox video
game console. The party in Amsterdam was expected to have further
details of their new console, the XB360, and the first games to be made
available for it.

During a conference this morning though, Microsoft announced their
menage a quat with Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Pictures and Weta
digital to bring Halo to theatres. The unique team has Academy Award
winners Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh
as Executive producers, but no director has been chosen. Jackson’s FX
house, Weta Digital and Weta Workshop will create the pre-requisite
effects for such an undertaking.

This will mark the first
time Jackson has collaborated efforts with any studio, let alone 2 of
them at once, on a film he is not directing. Alex Garland (28 Days Later, The Beach) is bringing the screenplay to light and the production will be shot entirely in New Zealand.

You may remember several months ago, Bungie and Microsoft sent fully
armored Master Chief actors with scripts in hand to several studios in
a presumptious, “hey! look at us!” effort to win one over. Rumor had it
that the software giant had a choke hold on the rights and that any
studio willing to take it on would have little creative control or
profit share. Despite that, Fox and Universal acquired them and are
shooting for a Summer 2007 release. Universal is burdened with domestic
distribution, Fox with international release.

We expect a
director to be announced within days, but the promise of Jackson’s
involvement, a fan himself of the game, gives us hope of a good summer
action flic.

Unlike a certain other first-person-shooter-turned-film out this fall.