Incredibly the Halo has slipped and the much talked about project, which was becoming the best hope for videogame adaptations to date, has been dropped by both financing studios and accusations are flying.

The two financing studios, Universal and Fox, were apparently concerned about the rising cost of production, US$135million - which is a mere US$67.5million each. Whereas the filmmakers are saying that both studios exerted pressure to try and get Microsoft to reduce their deal for a cut of the profits.

It's the same, as soon as a deal goes sour both sides come out blaming the other, either directly or indirectly. Each wants to appear as though they were doing the right thing and neither wants the bad press, but someone was to blame and I don't think the typical Microsoft business operating model would help the matter any.

According to Variety through SciFi Wire:

Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh were on board as executive producers. They denied through representatives rumors that the budget had ballooned to around $200 million...

...Microsoft is already in talks with other distribution partners. Prep work on the film continues. Most of the preproduction is being done at Jackson and Walsh's visual-effects studios in New Zealand, Weta Digital and Weta Workshop.

Well I wouldn't doubt that they would be straight on the phone and moving on with the deal, Halo is a hot property, and despite what people stuck in the old world will say, a videogame can make a good film, if it's adapted right. Martin Scorsese has adapated an Asian movie properly, graphic novels and comics have been adapted properly, even books have. There's nothing specially different about videogames that have a strong plot, and Halo does. Not to mention the fan base.

There's no doubt that this project will happen, and that it will be made, it may take a lot of time to get there but Microsoft have never been ones to give up on a business idea.

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