Halo: Faith – Exclusive Screen Shot & Interview With Director Jared Pelletier

Jared Pelletier, award-winning director at just 21 years of age, is vying for the director’s chair of the elusive Halo full-length feature with his short rendition, Halo: Faith, of the beloved video game franchise.

We sat down with the director, and student of entertainment law and business, to talk about Halo: Faith; Halo in general; a new, badass gun used by the Blue Spartan; and female Spartans. Now, if Jared combined Blue Spartans with female Spartans James Cameron might be interested… but we’ll settle for some of that Avatar technology being used in Halo: Faith.

Jared was also kind enough to let us show you the first screen shot of Halo: Faith. It’s a close shot and you can’t make much out, but Jared explains it in the interview. See it, read it, exclusively on Yell! Magazine.

1. Were you a big Halo fan prior to taking on this project?

I was probably more so back when I played the fist game; I was probably 11 or 12 at the time. I definitely wasn’t as into it as the cast and crew were, but I was always more into the story than into the game and I always thought that it would translate really well to the screen. So, about five months before we started shooting I started researching a lot; not so much playing the games as researching the whole history Bungie created and that got me back into the universe. Unfortunately, I haven’t really played any of the more recent games; I want to.

I like to approach it with a more objective point of view rather than as a fan of the game; I think some creative liberties had to be taken in places where, perhaps, more dedicated fans wouldn’t take those liberties.

I hope [a lot of people are looking forward to it], the pressure is definitely there, but that not only helps myself, but everyone who’s a part of it as well.

2. Is the short picking up where Halo 2 starts out?

I believe it’s more just before where the more recent one, Reach, begins. I wanted to start somewhere the games hadn’t really gone, and I wanted to start at the beginning of the war for the people who aren’t as familiar with the franchise, so it begins not really at the beginning of the war, but at the beginning of the first major Covenant offensive, so I guess it starts at the beginning of the war.

3. Is there no Master Chief in this?

There might be. Master Chief might make an appearance. We’ve been in talks with Steve Downes who voices him for the games.

4. And you’ve said that not everything from the game is going to make it into the film; does that include the Flood?

That does include the Flood, yes. We talked about it and that was actually one of the ideas, but I didn’t think it would be exactly what all the fans would want. It was in consideration, but, no, we’re not going that way.

Jared talks about a fear that he addressed in the making of Halo: Faith after the jump…