It's been 2 long years since we heard the news that director/producer Steven Spielberg would be in the process of developing a live-action Halo film. The is a film most of us would love to see happen, but who knows if it ever will.

A recent French press release was released for the new Halo: Cryptum book, and in the press release it mentions a film adaptation of the epic franchise with director Steven Spielberg attached. it also says that the film adaptation is set for 2012. Here's a translation from the article,

A film adaptation is set in 2012 . It will be conducted jointly by two heavyweights of American cinema: Steven Spielberg and studio Dreamworks.

That seems like a pretty clear straight forward couple of sentences. Either someone has their facts screwed up when writing the press release, or there's a Halo film in the development process, and some information leaked out that wasn't supposed to. Here's a screenshot of the release,

Back in early 2011 Microsoft's franchise lead Frank O'Connor said that "There will be a Halo movie. We don’t need a movie. But we’d like a movie. We’d like the moms of gamers to see the movies because they would love our characters. Maybe we’ll even fund it ourselves."

I just hope to hell this is true, but with how crazy it's been trying to get this movie made, I wouldn't get my hopes up. This may just be one of those things where someone was misinformed. I hate when I see stuff like this that gets my hopes up! What are your thoughts?

As we previously reported, Stuart Beattie's script based on the book Halo: Fall of Reach, made it into Spielberg's hands, and he was blown away by it. On top of that DreamWorks is looking for a tentpole film franchise to help launch their newly independent studio with distribution over at Walt Disney Pictures.

Latino Review gave us a little description of the script.



The script is, first and foremost, a character-driven story about a soldier named John who was kidnapped or "conscripted" by the UNSC when he was just six years old, and then brutally trained to become an elite Spartan warrior known as Master Chief 117.



The script then takes us through the horrific first contact with the Covenant hordes on the doomed colony world of Harvest, and then climaxes with the spectacular fall of the UNSC forward base on Reach, during which every other Spartan is slaughtered.



The script also gives detailed outlines for the second movie, HALO: RISE OF THE FLOOD, which takes place entirely on the Halo ringworld, and the third and final movie, HALO: BATTLE FOR EARTH, which roughly follows the events of Halo 3, the game.



One cool advantage of this first script is that (like the shark in JAWS) you don't even see the Covenant until halfway through the movie. And because all the creatures are CGI creations, this cuts the budget down dramatically and makes a first Halo movie that much more viable. For Halo fans, it's like the prequel that provides all the answers to questions they've thought about for years. For non Halo fans, it's an exciting action movie that provides a clear, concise introduction to a world five hundred years in the future with relatable characters and a terrifying alien menace.



From the sound of it this is all going to work out! We are going to see a Halo movie come to life and we can all thank screenwriterStuart Beattie for not giving up on the project and pushing his idea forward! Now it will be in the hands of one of the great filmmakers of the world as a producer, for now. Who knows, maybe and hopefully Spielberg himself takes the directing chair for this one. How feakin awesome would that be!