14 DAY TRIAL // Considering the turmoil that the Halo movie project recently went through, the news that the project was terminated comes as no surprise. Just last week, Microsoft was planning to finance the movie themselves.
But they slept on it (for a week that is) and decided to "postpone" it. The postponement decision was taken as a result of a mutual agreement between Peter Jackson, Fran Wals and Microsoft. The Halo movie scandal started a short while ago, when the main funds providers, Universal Studios and 20th Century Fox, decided to back out of the project. Their withdrawal came as a result of arguments with Microsoft over financial issues.
The movie budget, no more than US$ 135, was exceeded and although Fox and Universal wanted to cut back on expenses, Microsoft declined. You can put a price on art, huh? Yes you can! Microsoft requested for a US$ 5 million upfront, money that would come out of the film's budget and also 10% of the movie's gross earnings.
At first, Microsoft declared that the Halo franchise was way too popular for it not to be exploited and that they would look for financing elsewhere. And so they did, announcing that they will finance the movie themselves. Finally, as it looks, we won't see a Halo movie because Microsoft themselves backed out of the project.