Spielberg producing Halo TV Show

[Ickorus]

Sounds interesting, I may give it a look even though I've only played Halo 1 due to the others not being on the PC.

But I regress...

>>

Surely you mean digress.

Not being sarcastic, just trying to help; feel like I need to say that lest I be lumped in with the Grammar Nazis.

I'm more of a Grammar Buddhist.

 

[Puzzlenaut]

...expanded universe.

If Halo's story was any damn good, it would be in the games... not the DAMN books.

They could write 10,000 novels to explain to me the expanded details of how the story in the SW prequels worked... I wouldn't care. It wouldn't change the fact the movies still SUCKED!

So...how exactly is reading a Halo book different from reading the Mass Effect Codex? It's all still words on a screen.

Actually, I didn't even read much of the codex. I didn't need to. And doing so would have just been another, plus.

I was already taken in by the games themselves, the characters and world created in it. Listen, I'm not saying there's any room for polish, but the main games behind Halo only existed to get you from one shoot out with jabbering aliens to another, that and multiplayer. You can say the same about Mass Effect, but between gunfights they sure did cram a lot of dialogue and exposition.

Halo works so well with audiences because it is so simple. It's like Star Wars when it was first released in the 70s. One reason people loved it because it was so cut and dry. A story about freedom fighting rebels and a fascist evil empire out to blow up worlds.

This is just my opinion.

yes, but obviously the TV show isn't going to be about the more "simple" (or at least ambiguous) plots from the games, it's going to focus on the expanded universe material. You can't say "Oh a Halo tv series will suck because the universe isn't interesting" without including the expanded universe canon into it

 

[VoidWanderer]

...expanded universe.

If Halo's story was any damn good, it would be in the games... not the DAMN books.

They could write 10,000 novels to explain to me the expanded details of how the story in the SW prequels worked... I wouldn't care. It wouldn't change the fact the movies still SUCKED!

So...how exactly is reading a Halo book different from reading the Mass Effect Codex? It's all still words on a screen.

The Codex was built by the developers of the game, so it's authenticity is unquestionable. Books based on the expanded Universe are less so, as they are written by authors with varying goals and reasons for expanding the universe.

I am not saying either one is better or worse, but there is a distinct difference.

In regards to the OT, I honestly don't care because I don't play on buying a TV received that incidentally plays video games.

 

[IBlackKiteI]

Epic snip

Yeah, but that's the expanded stuff. The games themselves are very much a Good guys vs Bad guys vs Badder Guys affair. That's not necessarily a bad thing and if you tried to present it as a much grayer affair it likely wouldn't work very well, but without the background the games themselves really aren't that deep.
And even if the UNSC were portrayed as the worst kind of corrupt, manipulative, fascist, xenophobic militant evil empire, their biggest enemies are still genocidal religious fanatics, a parasitic hive mind that wants to eat everything and more genocidal religious fanatics.

While I've never read any of the books, the stuff Halo has behind the games is quite interesting. There's a lot of potential there for a ton of different things and perspectives to explore. I say potential. We have no idea what this series will be about exactly, if it follows the chief, some other character/plotline or a bunch of different ones, or to what degree Spielberg's involvement actually is. This could be like, bigger than Halo: Landfall levels of mind-blowing, or it could be Starship Unto Daw-... Forward Unto Dawn levels of suckage.

 

[Morsomk_v1legacy]

This was one of the more interesting things that came out of the conference. Me and my friend were both sort of ignoring the conference, when suddenly "Steven Spielberg is going to direct a Halo Tv Show" and then instantly both of us looked at the screen and went "Wait what?!"

The idea is really funny to me for some reason, but this is also a bit interesting. We've got one of the best(if not the best) directors on the planet and he is going to be making a tv show based on a video game. This is both intriguing and terrifying. Who knows what sort of creature this tv show is going to be?

All I know, is that I am looking forward for more updates on this project ol' Steve is doin.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I refuse to watch anything Halo period.
Oh, who am I kidding, I'm probably still going to watch it. I would have rather seen Spielberg put his efforts into a more interesting IP like Bioshock, Fallout, or Mass Effect. But I regress...

>>

Ah come on, Forward Unto Dawn and the Spartan Ops vids are the best thing to come out of Halo in years, easily the best thing about 4.

 

[Reaper195]

All I want this year is a Halo series made similar to Band of Brothers/The Pacific on HBO. Because it's not hard to make a fuckin' deep and fantastic series based in the universe. Unfortunatly, I kind of expect it to be a standard 22 episode a season show on FX or Scy-Fy. Which annoys me.


Still, I hope for the best, but don't expect it to be good.

 

[Yelchor]

Halo is a linear FPS, you get to shoot dudes. You get hints of a bigger and wider universe in the games but it's not the game's focus, nor it should be the game's focus.

Why not? I understand that you'd need to keep the gameplay and mission setting pretty simple, but what's wrong with atleast trying to add depth to the experience beyond fun gameplay?

Halo 2, I would say, did a good balance between these. While all missions could basically be summed up as "go from point A to B" with some varying degree of exprementality allowed (which was tons of fun), the cutscenes helped establish why I should care to any extent without being mandatory if it didn't interest me. I could skip the story factor without it hindering the rest of the experience.

Personally I was really immersed in the Arbiter's storyline by the end, so much so that I found Master Chief's sections to be a long bore. To the Arbiter's, and rest of the Covenant's perspective, there were a lot of things involved in terms of philospohy, character, faith and reason (with the effect of their execution being up for debate). Master Chief was just doing a routine job, the Arbiter was forced to question everything he had venerated along with so many others. It was intriguing, and I was looking forward to see how they could expand it with the sequel.

Which they didn't. The Arbiter was given a mere background role with hardly any dialouge. It could have been an opportunity to flesh out not just him and the Covenant further, but also Master Chief, having to work together with the one personally responsible for bombarding countless colonies and their populations into glass.

 

[Korten12]

Why not? I understand that you'd need to keep the gameplay and mission setting pretty simple, but what's wrong with atleast trying to add depth to the experience beyond fun gameplay?

Halo 2, I would say, did a good balance between these. While all missions could basically be summed up as "go from point A to B" with some varying degree of exprementality allowed (which was tons of fun), the cutscenes helped establish why I should care to any extent without being mandatory if it didn't interest me. I could skip the story factor without it hindering the rest of the experience.

Personally I was really immersed in the Arbiter's storyline by the end, so much so that I found Master Chief's sections to be a long bore. To the Arbiter's, and rest of the Covenant's perspective, there were a lot of things involved in terms of philospohy, character, faith and reason (with the effect of their execution being up for debate). Master Chief was just doing a routine job, the Arbiter was forced to question everything he had venerated along with so many others. It was intriguing, and I was looking forward to see how they could expand it with the sequel.

Which they didn't. The Arbiter was given a mere background role with hardly any dialouge. It could have been an opportunity to flesh out not just him and the Covenant further, but also Master Chief, having to work together with the one personally responsible for bombarding countless colonies and their populations into glass.

Well Halo 4 tried that, and then people complained about the story not being simple enough. I mean I guess a real complaint was that you needed to read the books to understand the story but at the most basic level, it was more then easy to follow.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I wouldn't call Spielberg the 'perfect' choice but rather a safe and profitable one.

Band Of Brothers and The Pacific would like to have a word with you. Speilberg can do War series like no other.

Band of Brothers does have a word with me, everyday actually as it sits comfortably and proudly on my shelf. The difference to be noted is that Halo is not WW2 and the only similarity it has is a war-based setting. Spielberg has proven time after time he can do WW2, refer to Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan as well, but can he do it again with a science fiction setting? Yes he did E.T. but E.T. isn't MiFi. I'm not saying he's a bad choice, I'm just saying that Spielberg is an overly safe choice. I have no doubt he can provide a good war-series but can he make a good Halo war-series? I suppose I can't really complain with Band of Brothers in space, with aliens!

He did Minority Report too.

 

[voltair27]

The biggest reason that I can find to dislike Halo is relativity. When the covenant attacked Harvest, the survivors should have limped back to human space only to find that humans had advanced massively in terms of technology. By the time the covenant had actually attacked a planet after Harvest, they should actually be outgunned.

You know. Cos science, right? Time dilation would happen, right?

Also, Starship Troopers, the book (some people have mentioned how awesome it was), was nauseating. It was a conspicuous rant for patriotic military service and individualism, to the point of outright stupidity. No, you do not hit your children and train them like dogs, you do not invade a country and start a war because of a handful of trained soldiers being captured, corporal punishment doesn't make a utopian society and soldiers are not the epitome of moral righteousness. Better than The Forever War, though, which was downright unsettling in terms of conscripting women and then forcing them into becoming the sexual relief for sex starved military men (and they're not allowed to complain, too) and then, again, somewhat unsettling in terms of the author accepting in his own head that in the future people might be forced into work camps for being straight.

... Ah. I remember why I like Halo now... desperate struggle to hold out against extinction from a genocidal religious collection of advanced alien races for as long as possible? No rants? That I can get behind.

Well, shit. I haven't addressed the topic yet. Spielberg really needs to earn my love again after The River. The Pacific was not that great, either. But, y'know, hope for the best, right? Just leave the Spartan IIs out of it, they're supposed to be rare super soldiers, not everywhere there's trouble.

First things first, they explained in lore that they Travel Faster than Light in Halo by shifting between dimensions and therefore ignore Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Secondly, Covenant tech was so esoteric that it took Humanity decades to reverse engineer anything from them.

Thirdly, the entirety of Starship Troopers was a parody. Heinlein didn't believe in anything he wrote in that book and was mocking Conservatives when he wrote it.

The more you know and all that jazz.

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

Here's hoping it will be something to do with Harvest and the early bits of the Human-Covenant War from the perspective of marines, in the vein of Band of Brothers. It could work well, given Spielberg's track record of war films. However, it's most likely going to revolve around Spartans (well Master Chief), the Foreunners (post-Bungie), or other such boring things since those will be what sell the show, as opposed to actual drama and tension of fighting a nigh unwinnable war against a vastly superior enemy. I CAN DREAM!

 

[Korten12]

Here's hoping it will be something to do with Harvest and the early bits of the Human-Covenant War from the perspective of marines, in the vein of Band of Brothers. It could work well, given Spielberg's track record of war films. However, it's most likely going to revolve around Spartans (well Master Chief), the Foreunners (post-Bungie), or other such boring things since those will be what sell the show, as opposed to actual drama and tension of fighting a nigh unwinnable war against a vastly superior enemy. I CAN DREAM!

I think there is three possibilites...

1. Pre-Human-Covenant War, this shows the fighting against the insurrectionist or even possibly earlier then that. Rain Forest Wars, Jovian Moons Campaign...

2. Like you stated, the start of the Human-Covenant war showing the average marine trying to survive and sometimes showing a Spartan-II or III. Something similar possibly to FuD.

3. Probably the most likely of the three - Taking place after or just before Halo 4 and follows the exploits of some Spartan-IV squad.

 

[Yelchor]

Well Halo 4 tried that, and then people complained about the story not being simple enough. I mean I guess a real complaint was that you needed to read the books to understand the story but at the most basic level, it was more then easy to follow.

If this is the case (which I already knew since Halo 3's execution), it would seem the creative forces behind the setting's story have widely different interests from my own. Which is why my relation to the franschise has grown into nonexistence this past decade.

 

[Orks da best]

Halo is a linear FPS, you get to shoot dudes. You get hints of a bigger and wider universe in the games but it's not the game's focus, nor it should be the game's focus.

Why not? I understand that you'd need to keep the gameplay and mission setting pretty simple, but what's wrong with atleast trying to add depth to the experience beyond fun gameplay?

Halo 2, I would say, did a good balance between these. While all missions could basically be summed up as "go from point A to B" with some varying degree of exprementality allowed (which was tons of fun), the cutscenes helped establish why I should care to any extent without being mandatory if it didn't interest me. I could skip the story factor without it hindering the rest of the experience.

Personally I was really immersed in the Arbiter's storyline by the end, so much so that I found Master Chief's sections to be a long bore. To the Arbiter's, and rest of the Covenant's perspective, there were a lot of things involved in terms of philospohy, character, faith and reason (with the effect of their execution being up for debate). Master Chief was just doing a routine job, the Arbiter was forced to question everything he had venerated along with so many others. It was intriguing, and I was looking forward to see how they could expand it with the sequel.

Which they didn't. The Arbiter was given a mere background role with hardly any dialouge. It could have been an opportunity to flesh out not just him and the Covenant further, but also Master Chief, having to work together with the one personally responsible for bombarding countless colonies and their populations into glass.

there's a reason as to why the Arbiter is a side character: fan base reaction. Apparently many people hated the Arbiter bits, while I liked them, and so did you too. But no to many fans said they hated it and therefore he becomes ya sidekick in Halo 3.

And this is why we can't have nice things, Gamers are so, so, ugh...

 

[Korten12]

there's a reason as to why the Arbiter is a side character: fan base reaction. Apparently many people hated the Arbiter bits, while I liked them, and so did you too. But no to many fans said they hated it and therefore he becomes ya sidekick in Halo 3.

And this is why we can't have nice things, Gamers are so, so, ugh...

I found the Arbiter levels to be okay, had a better story but the Master Chief levels imo were more fun even if the story wasn't as good for them.

 

[Nomanslander]

...expanded universe.

If Halo's story was any damn good, it would be in the games... not the DAMN books.

They could write 10,000 novels to explain to me the expanded details of how the story in the SW prequels worked... I wouldn't care. It wouldn't change the fact the movies still SUCKED!

So...how exactly is reading a Halo book different from reading the Mass Effect Codex? It's all still words on a screen.

The Codex was built by the developers of the game, so it's authenticity is unquestionable. Books based on the expanded Universe are less so, as they are written by authors with varying goals and reasons for expanding the universe.

Ditto.

Fact of the matter is, I'm not even going to watch Halo because it's Halo. I'm going to do it because Steven Spielberg is involved. The man has almost 40 years worth of reason for me to check it out and see how his production will effect such a flat, one note, uninteresting series.

To all Halo fans, nothing against you guys really, but you're going to despise how I feel about the matter. I mean, for once video games get the attention of someone talented in Hollywood and not just some hack, and it has to be Halo... fucking Halo! Ugh!

What a waste of effort when there so many better properties out there. Oh, and yes! I am being bias, that's why I say don't quote on me... because I really don't care.

:/

 

[Saviordd1]

I refuse to watch anything Halo that isn't directed by Neil Blomkamp.

I refuse to watch anything Halo period.

Why not? I think the Haloverse is pretty damn interesting as far as scifi goes.

What? I said I'll watch it... lol

Anyways... why don't I like Halo?

I don't know. I guess it has something to do with the human and aliens relationships in that universe. For instance in the Mass Effect universe, humans are just another race trying to make it in the galaxy. The universe is grey, some races love us, some hate us. There's nothing special about humans, which is what forces the specious to try and stick out.

In the Halo universe, everything is so black a white. It's us vs. them. Us being good, them being evil. Halo works on a level that a lot of old fiction use to when it came to real war propaganda. In how to inspire a bunch of young men to take arms against the foreign oppressors - reasons for risking their lives for country and kin.

Take the movie Starship Troopers. What's brilliant about that movie is that it works on that level only on the surface. But when you find out that the story is really about fascism and the humans are really the invading force...

Well...

I don't know. Halo is just too dumb for me. It's the story about the human struggle against one dimensional evil... and... yeah!

Fair enough.

You only left out the parts where the aliens are brainwashed to believe what their leaders say.
And that we actually ally with an entire alien race towards the end of Halo 2.
Or that Humanity did some pretty shit things to survive the war.
Or how the ruling government of Earth was fighting a morally subject war with HUMAN rebels and terrorists before the aliens even showed up.
Or that an entire half of a game and countless parts of the Extended Universe were dedicated to put a meaningful face to the alien side of the conflict.


Basically you skipped half the universe.

Yeah, understand the universe before you pronounce it "Too Dumb", especially compared to Starship troopers who's book was basically one super pro-military message and whose movie was basically spouting the same message as "Enders Game" minus the homophobic writer.

OT: I'm excited for this, hopefully they drop the concentration on the chief for a bit and actually explore the universe a bit more.