If you've been waiting for the Halo movie this whole time, you might find this news disappointing. After being "on hold" for years, it seems that whatever is holding the whole thing together is finally loosening its grip.

There's a lot that went on for Microsoft this week. Not only did they game assets/ data revealed, they also have movie adaptations of their games to look forward to, as well as new online features for the XBL. And what's this? A hundred bucks' worth of price cut on the Elite unit? Maybe that's why they're not too worried about the rumored PS3 price cut, cos they're gonna get a headstart on it? We'll see when it happens. But in the meantime, catch all of that and more in this issue of the Xbox 360 Weekend Warrior.

There have been a lot of talks about video games making their silver screen appearances, and it seems the lot has been dancing Cha Cha as if they're still trying to make up their minds about it. The latest video game movie to hold its dancing shoes is the Halo movie, with Microsoft making the confirmation that it's still "on hold."

Ok, so Hollywood didn't bite with the first Halo movie proposal, but the second one's the charm. Unless it's the third one. At any rate, a new Halo movie proposal is out, this time with a script based on the best-selling novel, Halo: Fall of Reach. Will this one actually make it to the Silver Screen? Details in the full article.

While the Halo movie project may be slowly teetering into limbo, its still good to know that the possibility of making the Halo movie a reality is still being thought of by some directors, such as Guillermo del Toro. Check out his thoughts in the full article!

Despite Fox and Universal's pullout, it seems that work still continues on the much-awaited Halo film by Microsoft. This much was picked up during an inquiry with Peter Jackson's representative Ken Kamins, who states that MS was currently in the middle of talks with other distribution projects to continue the film.

Kamins further stated that the Halo movie's pre-production was moving along thanks to exec producers Jackson and (Fran) Walsh. The pair are reportedly having the film's pre-prod visual effects done at their studios in New Zealand, Weta Digital and Weta Workshop. Kamins also shed some light on the transaction that caused Universal and Fox's pullout:

What happened was this: Universal, on behalf of both studios, asked for a meeting with the filmmakers just prior to the due date of a significant payment. Basically, they said that in order to move forward with the film, the filmmakers had to significantly reduce their deals. They waited until the last minute to have this conversation. Peter and Fran, after speaking with their producing partners and with Microsoft and Bungie, respectfully declined.

Look on the bright side - at least we know the film hasn't been completely scrapped. We'll let you know if any related info gets picked up in the near future.

Some of you may remember the series of short Halo films made by Neill Blomkamp to promote the well-known series by Bungie Studios. There was even talk about having him direct an actual full length feature set in the Halo universe, but with the decision to drop the project, the Halo movie fans were anticipating for a long-time has brought to a screeching halt.

In an interview with the man himself, Blomkamp talks about the demise of the proposed film and what he's been doing since then. The idea of a mythological space war has always fascinated him and he wanted to bring a more realistic approach to the science fiction involved with the idea of a Halo movie.

It was rather unfortunate that the two studios involved, Universal and Fox, weren't getting along with the processes in creating the film. However, Blomkamp has since then moved on in setting up his own project in Wellington, New Zealand. When asked what he felt after the decision to drop the film, he had this to say:

What happened once it collapsed is it made me turn inward and figure out what exactly I felt like doing. In other words, That film is gone, what do I feel like doing? And I realized what I felt like doing pretty quickly, like within thirty seconds. And promptly moved on to that. So you're right, I guess if the film collapsed and I was hell-bent on wanting to do whatever I could to try and get it back up I probably would have done something different than what I did, but I moved in a different direction, and no one knows what that is because I've never spoken about it before, and it's taken eight months or ten months to get to where it is now, sooner or later I'll start revealing in piece what I've been doing.

So far he's been pretty tight-lipped about the new project he's working on, but he assures everyone that given a few months they'll be able to take a peek at what's been keeping his attention since then. For fans who are still interested in seeing a Halo movie brought to life, not to worry. The highly-acclaimed director, Peter Jackson, is still working in collaboration with Bungie in a future project set in the Halo universe. So, who knows? Master Chief just might be coming to a theater near you someday.

Back in October, we shared with you the not-so-good news that the Halo movie was put on hold after it failed to seal a movie franchise deal with 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures. After this development, not much has been said about the planned movie which is supposed to be directed by Neill Blomkamp (who directed Alive in Joburg). But recently, Peter Jackson (the movie's would-be producer) talked to Stuff website about it.

Jackson believes that since Halo 3 is going to be released later this year, 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures would again be interested with the movie project. If that's the case, then Halo 3 sure does have a lot of weight on its shoulders since analysts also believe that the game's sales performance would bring Microsoft's Xbox Division out of constant losses.

The Lord of the Rings director also said that he and partner Fran Walsh will only choose to be involved with the Halo movie project if Blomkamp would be the guy calling the shots. Jackson said, "We wouldn't want to do it with anybody else. It'll be Neill's call".

Well, that's all we have for now but we'll surely give you updates about this as soon as we get more info. For now, you're free to speculate if the movie would push through or be forever shelved.

One of the many joys of the internet is trolling through Petition Online to find out what crazy thing it is that people are asking for lately. Seriously. You run into weird things. However, this bit we ran into isn't exactly that farfetched. In fact, to some of you loyal Xbox 360 fans it may make sense. We ran into a petition for the continuation of the production of the Halo movie.

Yes. People are that passionate about these things. Read the petition below (as seen on the site) and see for yourself:

To: Fox Studios and Makers of the Halo Movie

As some of you may know, the Halo movie has been cancelled recently and any chance of a studio taking it now are slim to none. Now, I know that video game movies aren't often good but Halo isn't any other game. Halo could easily be made into a movie by todays technology and excellent writers at Fox. Fox Backed out because of a US$ 135 million budget. Thats pocket money for FOX! With the team that was with the Halo movie would have made it an excellent movie. Fox I ask to take a challenge with this movie. What have you got to lose?

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Now, if you folks are wanting to see a Halo movie and are willing to believe that your participation in this Online petition will aid whatever fandom gods out there in getting a Halo movie "good to go," then feel free to head to the actual petition via our "read" link below.

Remember the Halo movie that didn't push through? According to parties concerned, it was just a simple case of both sides not agreeing on specific terms and conditions. While that could be true, it is definitely not that simple.

Halo, as you are all might be aware of, is not the first videogame to have a film adaptation. In fact, there have been a good number of those kind of films already in the past: Resident Evil, Doom, Street Fighter, Double Dragon and even the Super Mario Bros.

Unfortunately for the genre, most titles mentioned above didn't rake in a lot of revenues. Could it be that movie studios Fox and Universal backed out of the project because they know their movie history quite too well? While there are some successful hits such as Pokemon and Mortal Kombat, history and statistics dictate that videogame adaptations rarely do well in the big screen.

This could be attributed to a good number of reasons actually. First of all, no matter how a title  becomes big in the gaming industry, the scope of the film genre goes farther and broader than that. Whenever you make a film, you're actually targetting specific groups in a society. Consider it a bonus if you encompass more than one group and cross overseas.

Another reason is that the adaptations, to be quite frank, are sometimes just bad. What studios do is that they buy the rights to a certain title, then they turn it into a movie. How many titles we've loved got butchered in the films? How many love triangles were forced in the actual storyline, how many sappy endings just to make everything all right in the end? What they have to do is work closely with the developers and the publishers of videogame titles.

The Halo movie could still be a reality, if you really think about it. Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division is currently worth US$ 3.8 billion. What then is a US$ 200 million Halo movie budget for them? Practically nothing, just spare change, so to speak. What if they fund the film themselves and look for a distributor afterwards?

Now, it could be possible that no distributor would take the chance. What about the new movie download the Marketplace offers? Or why not just release it in CD format? Microsoft could definitely circumvent this bump, provided that they really want a Halo movie out.