Blockbusting video game Halo is to be adapted into a 10-part live-action series, which will aim to succeed where a doomed film project and a poorly received web series failed.
In an announcement, David Nevins, the president and CEO of premium cable network Showtime, creators of the show, said that it would focus on “an epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant”.
Since its Xbox debut in 2001, the game dubbed “the first-person-shooter-to-end-all-shooters” has become one of the most popular franchises ever, selling more than 60m copies.
It has struggled, however, when film-makers and TV executives have tried to adapt it for the screen. A mooted film was to be directed by Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro and then Neil Blomkamp, with a script from Ex Machina’s Alex Garland, but it failed to materialise.
Halo 4 followed a “TV structure” with daily mission episodes free to download for players. In 2012, there was Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, an online only project that could be watched on YouTube and Xbox Live, becoming “effectively the first Halo feature film”.
Halo: Nightfall, which featured Luke Cage star Mike Colter, came in 2014 and served as a prelude to the game Halo 5: Guardians. It was critically mauled when it arrived, despite having Ridley Scott as an executive producer.
Rise of Planet of the Apes director Rupert Wyatt will helm the new project, which will be written by showrunner Kyle Killen. Shooting will begin in 2019, and will join Altered Carbon (Netflix), Westworld (HBO, Sky) and Expanse (Amazon) as a new breed of big-budget sci-fi epics.
