An adaptation of the popular video game series Halo has been in the works since 2005. It was originally going to be a movie written by Alex Garland; a pre-Game of Thrones D.B. Weiss was involved at one point, as were Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro. But in 2013, Showtime announced that the Halo movie would now be a Halo show with Steven Spielberg attached as executive producer. It’s been in creative limbo ever since, including multiple showrunners and an episode count reduction. It’s also moved from premium cable to a streaming service, as ViacomCBS revealed on Wednesday that Halo will premiere on Paramount+, the soon-to-be former-CBS All Access.
Deadline reports that the Halo show “will take place in the universe that first came to be in 2001, dramatizing an epic 26th century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant. The show will weave deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure and a richly imagined vision of the future.” The Wire and Orange Is the New Black actor Pablo Schreiber stars as Master Chief, the video game’s supersoldier hero.
Halo, which had filmed 55%-60% of its first season when the coronavirus pandemic shut down all production last March, had been floated for months as a possibility for Paramount+ at the ViacomCBS Content Council and in conversations between Nevins and ViacomCBS president and CEO Bob Bakish.
Halo has a lot working against it, but if the box office success of the cursed teeth movie has taught us anything, it’s that you should never count out a video game adaptation. Halo is expected to premiere next year, as is (hopefully) HBO’s The Last of Us series.
(Via Deadline)