ROTTEN TOMATOES: Peter Jackson Discusses "Halo" World, Script Progress, MPAA Rating, and Director

Peter Jackson Discusses "Halo" World, Script Progress, MPAA Rating, and Director

by Senh Duong | September 15, 2006

In an interview with AICN about the film adaptation of the popular video game "Halo," Peter Jackson, as executive producer, discusses why he chose first-time features director Neill Blomkamp, creating the "Halo" world, the progress of the script so far, and the MPAA rating.

In regards to the director, Jackson and his creative crew had a few requirements: that person had to be an "absolute" "Halo" fan, bring a "unique vision" to the project, and "excite" them with his/her version of Halo. Neill Blomkamp obviously met all of those requirements.

Blomkamp has been working fulltime with Jackson's effects house WETA for the last two months to design and built the Halo world. Jackson reveals there'll be the Covenant, Warthogs, Ghosts (ships), Scorpions (tanks), and the Pillar of Autumn. What Jackson has seen so far is "fantastic," and it gets him "excited" about the film.

Regarding the script, they’re on the third draft. As far as Jackson's concerned, "it should take as long as it needs to take until it's a good script."

Because of the huge budget of the film, Jackson and his team are shooting for a PG-13 rating, but he'll ask the studio to consider an R version for the DVD release to please the hardcore fans.

Click here for the full interview by Quint at AICN.

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(1-20 of 23 posts) | Reply

blorenze writes:
on Sep 15 2006 12:26 PM

BONER!!!

(Reply to this)

Brodie14 writes:
on Sep 15 2006 12:34 PM

In reply to this comment (#844297)
A PG-13 RATING??? aww this is going to suck! why can't they just release an R rated version that will actually be like the game?

(Reply to this)

Satoris writes:
on Sep 15 2006 12:39 PM

Goddammit. No 'R' rating????

(Reply to this)

Merlin235 writes:
on Sep 15 2006 01:16 PM

Why does it have to be "R"? There are plenty of movies that are rater "R" just for the sake of it, and totally suck.

(Reply to this)

nogard64 writes:
on Sep 15 2006 01:39 PM

OH MAN me and my buddies were so gonna watch the movie and then afterwards have a 16 player lan party with 4 flat screen LCDs all night long! Can't wait!

(Reply to this)

Runawayrunaway! writes:
on Sep 15 2006 01:42 PM

Halo isn't exactly the most violent game in the world. It was rated Teen until it was changed to Mature arbitrarily after 9/11, if I remember it correctly, so an R film isn't absolutely necessary. Considering its association with Jackson, they'll probably be able to get away with a lot in a PG-13. (see: massive LotR body counts, Kong spider pit sequence)

(Reply to this)

Ashron writes:
on Sep 15 2006 01:58 PM

Besides, he said he was going to see if the studio would let them do an R version for DVD, so that should suffice. And Runaway is right, the majority of violence is directed at the aliens. You can get away with splattering a lot more alien blood than you can human, so the splatter quotient should still be impressive.

(Reply to this)

Bystander09 writes:
on Sep 15 2006 05:15 PM

Hell yea. LOTR had a ton of battles and bodys, I'm fine with a PG-13 as long as they get the feel of the game and the atmosphere right. Anyone know if they are gonna use the score from the game? I love the opening music. PETEY J ROCKS!

(Reply to this)

FireflyFan4evr writes:
on Sep 15 2006 08:16 PM

"it should take as long as it needs to take until it's a good script." and "Jackson and his team are shooting for a PG-13 rating".

wow. as a big fan of the video game series, I have to agree that the first Halo should have been rated Teen, this movie seriously is gearing up to be a pile of crap. Still re-writing entire drafts to get a "good one"? You would think for spending $1 million on Alex Garland to write a draft, it would warrant quality. I guess not.

Another example of the profit-fixated Hollywood studios only going in to please parental groups and teenagers. This is a story made by adults FOR adults. Make a version that is not geared towards retarded middle school kids (and yes, I was there 5 years ago, I admit I was partially one too) who only care about style and no substance.

I do have to give Universal credit though, they did bring back "Firefly" as "Serenity", so Halo may be good. Besides, most of us should realize that the MPAA are useless, only rate according to conservative groups wishes, and force great film makers to change their art. Peter Jackson and Universal should be the first to actively speak out and tell them and the country to shove PG-13 and R up their collective ass.

(Reply to this)

jeremyd4 writes:
on Sep 15 2006 09:39 PM

Serenity was crap... i don't get why there's so much obsessing with it around these parts!!

It didn't do well at the movies and only hardcore fans of the tv show went to see it... it was a failure.

(Reply to this)

dylan21484nj writes:
on Sep 15 2006 10:23 PM

please Mr. Jackson, PLEASE don't make this as some shitty prequel or sidestory to the games. i'm tired of the bullshit mindset of "Well we don't want to make a movie about the actual game because the viewer can just go play the game instead." and i guess all comic books or novels adapted into movies shouldn't be based on the novel or comic book when you can just go home and read them, right? the creator of the Lord of the Rings trilogy should know that better than anyone else. how much would they have sucked if the movies weren't about the books but about some shitty prequel (ignoring The Hobbit, of course) or some made-up sidestory?

screenwriters and filmmakers should stop making excuses because they're not talented enough to adapt a game into a movie so they have to create their own little prequels and sidestories to cover their asses. yeah, i know a lot of games are long and it's hard to condense them into a 2-hour movie, but a lot of novels are long too yet they manage to make movies of them. writers and filmmakers with TALENT can find a way.

so in short, WE DON'T WANT PREQUELS! ENOUGH WITH PREQUELS! MAKE THE MOVIE ABOUT THE ACTUAL GAME OR DON'T MAKE IT AT ALL!

(Reply to this)

TheIceGhost writes:
on Sep 15 2006 10:42 PM

Serenity wasn't crap good sir. Yes it didn't do well at the boxoffice, but when I ask someone if they've ever seen the movie 'Serenity', they tend to look at me with a funny look so it isn't too far-fetched to believe that the marketing campaign for the flick was terrible (which it was).

Halo can go either way. Personally I see it heading more towards being a crapfest but maybe (and hopefully) I'll be surprised. You can get away with a lot in PG-13, if anything the biggest difference between PG-13 and R is language. Gore to a degree, but like it's been stated alien gore is different than people gore.

(Reply to this)

jeremyd4 writes:
on Sep 16 2006 01:30 AM

I agree the marketing (for serenity) wasn't fantastic - I basically went and saw it because of hearing so many RT users praising it. I had never seen the show Firefly so judging the movie on it's own merits as a stand alone film... I'd have to say... it was crap and boring. It didn't "feel" like a movie. Even if Mr. Whedon had been given more financing for effects and whatever else, I doubt it would've swayed my opinion.

Anyway... Halo I have more hope for. I'm finding all this "alien gore" vs "human gore" conversation kinda funny too.

(Reply to this)

Elixir writes:
on Sep 16 2006 01:38 AM

i hope this movie is darker than the game, its the only way it will work.

i have faith in it.

(Reply to this)

bluefalcon writes:
on Sep 16 2006 09:33 AM

Why the hell is everybody ragging on this movie because of a pg-13 ratting? Since when did a movie have to have blood and guts to make it more adult? No, what makes a movie suitable for more mature audiences is a great plot, with good character development and an inteligent storyline. Was The Hills have Eyes a good, mature film for adults just because it had lots of blood and violence? If you consider that to be the hallmark of a good adult film, then yes, it was, but if youre like me and look for more in a movie than blood and guts, then no, it wasnt. You can make a really dark movie without it being R rated. Plus, its Peter Jackson were talking about!!!!! He did Lord of the Rings and King Kong with a
pg-13 rating, and they were all terrific, mature movies! All of this bickering over a movie being crap without an R rating is riddiculous. And spending alot of time trying to get the perfect script is not a bad thing!!! Why the hell would you use that as an argument against the movie being good?!? Oh and, Serenity did not suck, it was one of the most well thought out sci-fi movies in recent years.

(Reply to this)

FireflyFan4evr writes:
on Sep 16 2006 10:31 AM

In reply to this comment (#844307)
well jeremyd4, being that I had never heard of Firefly before I saw Serenity, I was NOT a hardcore fan of the series. I only became a fan of the series after I saw the show, along with many other people.

(Reply to this)

TheIceGhost writes:
on Sep 16 2006 09:33 PM

I thought Serenity's effect's were very good...the space battle was amazing in my opinion (it certainly felt more 'real' to me than say, EP. III's space fight). I will concede that if you saw the show prior it made the movie a lot more enjoyable (especially when it comes to the deaths), but I guess to each their own....plus this thread isn't exactly about Serenity, so I'll leave it at that.

I think one of my biggest concerns with Halo is the issue of if they'll show Master Chief without the suit on or not. I personally don't think they should, keep him Vader-like (pre-prequels and return of the jedi). Maybe a little hint of what he looks like but never a full on view of him.

Also...they better keep the damned score or there will be hell to pay.

(Reply to this)

killermonkey8822 writes:
on Sep 16 2006 10:21 PM

a PG-13 theatrical version and an r rated extened dvd is fine with me, lord of the rings trilogy and king kong had some pretty bloody sequences for a PG-13 movie so i think this will be bloody enough and it's not like it will be "PG canada and PG-13 america" it will probably be 14a in canada so yeah, peter jackson is a great director but i don't understand why he is making all these PG-13 rated movies after what we saw with his gory horror movies oh well whatever i want to see this movie so bad, and i don't think that halo was ever rated teen it's actually pretty bloody sure it's not as bad as grand theft auto or manhunt or something but it's pretty good, this is kindof off the subject but does anybody know why driver 3 was rated M, that didn't have one drop of blood, anyway yeah this is gonna be great

(Reply to this)

Mikeal420 writes:
on Sep 17 2006 04:41 AM

[b]I Trust Jackson[/b]
If there is one thing that should make you trust Jackson to head this project, is that he is a serious gamer. His last four films have been turned into games, and while all of the games were not the best, Jackson was alsways serious about it, heavily involved in transfering his films into play. I trust him to do the opposite this time, and take transfering a game into film very seriously

(Reply to this)

Thundaar writes:
on Sep 17 2006 05:50 AM

As long as there are no silly dinosaurs hanging from vines fighting apes, I'm in.

(Reply to this)

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