14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft revealed what legendary director Ridley Scott's contribution to the upcoming Halo: Nightfall mini-series really was, and apparently it goes beyond just having his name pop up in press releases.
However, the project is also not entirely his, which should probably be written right next to the director's name on the Halo: Master Chief Collection box and all related marketing materials.
The man who brought us Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator is credited as an executive producer, which means that he gets to see what the people actually doing the work are up to, and vet their choices.
Although Scott's name means good PR, his involvement with the project is nebulous at best, but fortunately, Microsoft revealed more on the subject at the recent Tokyo Game Show.
Not just a name on the box
"He's there when we're building the story, he's there when we're breaking the script, he's there when we're picking locations, he helps with casting," Frank O'Connor, the overseer of the Halo franchise, told Eurogamer.
"I don't want to get into this but he has strong opinions about things - most directors do. [Nightfall] is our director Sergio Mimica-Gezzan's vision but Ridley carries a big stake and gets input on things. I'm not going to pretend [Scott's] footprints and fingerprints are all over it but it's a small organization with a lot of collaborative creatives," he explained.
The creative team working on the live-action project is made out of O'Connor, Scott, and Mimica-Gezaan, a director with a lot of TV show experience, including notable series such as Battlestar Galactica, Heroes and Prison Break.
Microsoft reportedly shopped around for a while before settling on Ridley Scott's very own Scott Free Productions, a studio with plenty of experience carrying forward TV mini-series and sci-fi projects, such as the recent feature film Prometheus.
Actual involvement
"Scott Free Productions, it's easy to think of them as a large organisation, but it's actually quite small. Every knows each other, it's not like a licensing tier where Ridley is disconnected with the day to day operations," O'Connor explained.
He further pointed out that while Scott doesn't have his hands directly in the creation process at every level, his contributions are invaluable to the final quality of the product.
"One of [Scott's] ideas of where we could film it completely changed one aspect of the story which I won't go into. It sounds a bit weird but he's a huge fan of the environments in terms of how they help tell stories. His thoughts on where to film it to make it look alien - and he had a great experience with the last Alien movie in Iceland - actually affected the story quite dramatically," O'Connor concluded.
The upcoming Halo: Nightfall mini-series will tell the story of Agent Jameson Locke (played by Mike Colter), who will play a major role in the story of Halo 5: Guardians. The series will debut with the launch of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, headed to the Xbox One on November 11.
