Ready for an earth-shattering shock? The Halo film has been shoved into limbo. What do you mean you saw that coming?
Yes, it’s hardly much of a surprise that, since both Fox and Universal pulled out of the Halo development following money worries, Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films has announced that the film is now on hold.
The text of the company’s statement does its best to remain upbeat about the situation, but it can’t avoid giving off a serious whiff of trouble: “As was previously confirmed, we deeply regret that both Universal and Fox did not choose to move forward with financing the Halo film under the original terms of the agreement. At this time Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, along with their partner, Microsoft, have mutually agreed to postpone making a feature film based on the Halo video game universe until we can fulfil the promise we made to millions of Halo fans throughout the world that we would settle for no less than bringing a first class film to the big screen. We are fully supportive of Director Neill Blomkamp's vision of the film. Neill is a tremendously gifted filmmaker and his preliminary work on Halo is truly awe-inspiring. While it will undoubtedly take a little longer for Halo to reach the big screen, we are confident that the final feature film will be well worth the wait.”
Halo was supposed to invade our screens in 2008. When can you expect it now? Er… We’ll get back to you on that.