Will we ever get to see “Halo” on the big screen? If we do, there’s little reason to believe “District 9” director Neill Blomkamp would be a part of it.
His latest film, “Elysium” stars Matt Damon and Jodie Foster and will hit screens later this year, but, it wasn’t so long ago that the helmer was attached to bring the mega-successful video game franchise “Halo” to the big screen.
In 2005, 20th Century Fox and Universal partnered up to buy the rights from Microsoft, Peter Jackson was onboard as executive producer, and such noted writers as D.B. Weiss (“Game of Thrones”), Josh Olson (“A History of Violence”) and Alex Garland (“28 Days Later”) took a shot at the script.
After a number of false starts, however, Blomkamp bailed, and he and Jackson instead teamed for “District 9.” Now, the director has opened up about his reasons for walking.
“I actually still really like the universe and the world of ‘Halo” and the mythology of ‘Halo”,” he told us at yesterday’s press event for the film. “If I was given control, I would like to do that film, but that”s the problem. When something pre-exists, there”s this idea of ‘I have my interpretation of what that is,’ but along with it comes like 150 other people involved with the film”s interpretation of the same intellectual property and then the entire film-going audience has their interpretation that you can live up to or fail in their eyes. And that part of it isn”t appealing to me. But the original pieces are appealing.”
The first “Halo” game appeared in 2001, and so far the series has grossed nearly $3.4 billion.
In the interview, Blomkamp also discusses the possibility of sequels to his own films. sequels to his own films, specifically the long-rumored “District 10.”
“In terms of sequels to my own stuff, I think a lot of it just comes down to if there”s just more to say. I think the world of ‘District 9″ has a lot of very interesting race and oppression-based ideas that I would still like to explore in that world,” he explained. “Again, I have zero problems… I”ll make my own stuff or whatever you want to call it, sequel-ize my own stuff.”
Meanwhile, “Elysium” opens August 9.