What Might Have Been: Neill Blomkamp’s Halo Movie

Posted by Dr. Cole Abaius (cole.abaius@filmschoolrejects.com) on August 11, 2009

With the utterly mind-blowing brilliance of District 9 right around the corner, I figured I’d take a look back and lament something that might have been.

Back in 2007, producer Peter Jackson announced that completely untested director Neill Blomkamp would be helming a Halo movie. The result was mixed to negative reactions from the film and gamer community – obviously it would have been impossible to know what the man was capable of, but having a first-timer cut his teeth on something that could have been that important to fanboys seemed irresponsible.

Now, with the release of District 9 and the full spectrum of what Blomkamp is capable of, the movie speaks in a way as a giant cinematic middle finger that anyone doubted him. Blomkamp has pulled off something that most directors work entire careers to realize, and he’s done it with his very first feature. A strong statement to some and a vivid reminder of what Blomkamp could have done with Halo.

Luckily, in conjunction with that announcement and the release of “Halo 3,” Blomkamp created three short films that have all been mashed together into one, seven-minute long film showing off the bare-bones, rudimentary nature of his style. Watch, learn, and imagine what this all could have looked like with a few hundred million behind it.

Yes, the introduction is a little shaky, and there’s a definite lack of a story, but his signature is all over it. Now that we know that Blomkamp can handle intelligent science fiction with intense action scenes, all the criticisms that could be laid on a short film like this seem to fade away.

All that’s left is the hope that Blomkamp might be asked and might say, ‘yes’ to directing if Steven Spielberg can get the project off the ground and doesn’t want the director’s chair for himself.

What do you think?

Read more articles by Dr. Cole Abaius