by The Matt
No.7 Halo
The plot:
Spartan super-soldier Master Chief, along with sexy A.I. Cortana, fight off alien invaders on a gigantic ring-shaped planet. Thus is born a franchise with a license to print money.
Why it could work:
The Halo movie keeps attracting top-tier Hollywood talent like flies to shit. Peter Jackson wanted to make the movie, but then settled for producer duties. Neil Blomkamp, director of District 9, was attached as director, but backed out. Then Hellboy/Pan’s Labyrinth visionary Guillermo Del Toro expressed interest, but had to back out to concentrate on directing the Lord Of The Rings prequels, which he ended up leaving as well. With the project generating this much interest from the best and brightest directors in Hollywood, it’s only a matter of time before somebody competent signs on.
Why it might not work:
You would need a budget that would make Avatar’s look puny in comparison to shoot a Halo movie. There isn’t a single scene that wouldn’t require some amount of CGI. Alien creatures, massive battleships, the very landscape of the Halo world itself… not to mention Master Chief. Covered head to toe in heavy battle armor, it would be very hard to achieve the Chief’s overall look using practical effects. No, the Spartan would pretty much have to be a computer-generated character, motion captured by an actor a la Avatar. We’re talking upwards of $300 million in effects here. That’s a hell of a gamble for any studio.
Who should be involved:
Wait a second… massive budget… risky gamble… Paging Mr. Cameron, Mr. James Cameron? The erstwhile King Of The World showed with Avatar that he could create a brand new world from out of nothing and make it look believable. And as far as interstellar war is concerned, Cameron’s action credentials are well established. Sign him up, right now! Heck, why not get his Avatar leading man to motion capture and lend his voice to Master Chief? Sam Worthington playing a Spartan? Yes, please.
Plus he’ll get to make out with yet another blue chick.
The potential:
Off the charts. Brand-name recognition alone is a major asset, everybody and their mother knows of Halo. Single day profits of most Halo games have outperformed the gross of major Hollywood movies during their entire theatrical runs, so the movie’s fortunes look bright.
Who said Leviathan was dead in the water?
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