FlipBoard
As we all know, every Halo game in recent years has been introduced with a live-action ad campaign. It started with Neil Blomkamp’s Landfall short films, and pretty much has grown in cost and complexity ever since.
Which brings us to this Blu-Ray of the Forward Unto Dawn webseries, which I was provided a copy of for review. The main video content on here is absolutely free online, although for how long may be an open question. But is it worth paying for?
If you like SF war movies, then absolutely.
Taken out of its context (i.e. as a marketing campaign), Forward Unto Dawn is actually a solid movie in its own right. The smartest part of it is that if you know absolutely nothing about Halo, it’s still a watchable movie.
What helps is that it’s focused more on the soldiers than on things blowing up. The plot follows Lasky, a green recruit who manages to royally screw up a training exercise and manages to redeem himself before everything hits the fan. Occasionally, the low budget shows itself; the special effects are sometimes more SyFy than SF. But overall, it’s a solid, if not spectacular, ninety minutes.
Ironically, the extras actually make the movie a lot more impressive. 343 Industries rode the filmmakers hard to ensure the movie felt authentically Halo, and often the behind-the-scenes documentaries betray the stress of being nagged by somebody who doesn’t understand your job when you have a limited amount of resources; the crew had to put together a ninety minute SF war movie with a budget of $10 million. The corresponding inventiveness, however, is pretty fun to watch in action: Most of the armor you see, for example, is literally nothing more than shaped foam.
Ultimately, this is for Halo fans more than anyone else, but if you find yourself with a copy come Christmas from a well-meaning grandparent, take the time to pop it in and watch it.
![[avatar]](https://profilecdn-woven.netdna-ssl.com/photo/569/profile)
So obviously I have no idea how this sort of thing works, but this actually seems like it could encourage a full length film, its exceptional for the budget and it seems as though its reception might make a studio more inclined to try.
Well, it IS a full length film: 90 minutes, to be exact. It’s just lighter on the action and heavier on the interpersonal stuff. Which is a good choice, since it makes the movie more interesting.
The problem with the Halo movie is budget: There’s no way to do it right for less than $250 million, and there’s just no proof the movie would do that kind of business.
I guess I’m surprised how cautious studios are being when it comes to something that seems very well established, certainly more so than something like John Carter for instance (regardless of how it turned out it seems like that would be a much bigger risk than a Halo film and they decided to try that)
Studios always play it safe. Keep in mind that according to their bean counters, video game movies don’t make money unless Milla Jovovich is in them.
Now if they could convince Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Tricia Helfer and Adam Baldwin to reprise their roles in a Halo:ODST live action movie, that movie would make some serious nerd money. :)
As I understand it, there’s also some weirdness regarding the Halo film rights- one studio owned the rights and was sitting on them after the attempt to get Blomkamp to direct fell through (the same production that resulted in the WETA Workshop Warthog), and an attempt at a different studio was working from a license to just use the books as source material, but I don’t quite remember the specifics.
If I’m not mistaken, Microsoft’s asking price for the rights/share of gross to make the movie made the budget untenable to any studios.
Have you been watching “Blood and Chrome”? I’d like to hear your thoughts on that. I loved “Forward Unto Dawn” and really like the direction Machinima is taking its programming. Less “Let’s Play” videos and more genuinely good content.
Yep, we did an early look at it: [www.uproxx.com] We’ll check back in once the whole thing is up.
I’m curious if this will shift YouTube back to the idea that content creators are essentially auditioning for jobs on these bigger series through their channels. I don’t know if that ever came to fruition with YouTube, but I know a lot of people treat it that way. “If I just make something good enough, Hollywood will notice.” Maybe these web format but established IP’s can be an opening for creators. Just throwing that out there.
It’s gaining traction, to some degree. Mortal Kombat: Legacy grew out of a short film the director submitted as a pitch reel, and it got a second season and might be the springboard to a movie.
I like it, but I still think you could get away with a budget of about $120 million (remember, District 9 was done for 30 million).
Oh, and I just checked and it looks like the only episodes still on Youtube are parts 1 and 2.