There have been rumors for some time of a live-action production in the works adapting the popular action video game franchise Halo. What precise form that project was taking has been unclear until now. Halo is not coming to the silver screen, or even the small screen—though I wonder what a television serial could look like, perhaps with HBO?
Microsoft has this week announced that they have partnered with internet video distribution company Machinima to produce serial webisodes based on the Halo properties. The series will be called Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, and will air in the weeks approaching the release of Halo 4 from 343 Industries, who are taking the franchise over from previous developer Bungie Studios.
We don’t have any real figures, but Variety reports that, according to their unnamed source within Microsoft’s Xbox gaming division, the company is “putting considerable coin behind” the project. We also have no word yet as to the composition of the cast and crew for the series, as Microsoft is keeping these details under wraps for now. We do know that the series will serve as a plot bridge between Halo 3 and 4, and is intended to serve as a stepping on point for potential fans of the video game franchise, who perhaps never played the games before. The main characters will be Master Chief from the games and an as-yet unnamed UNSC cadet. “We wanted to do something unique from a narrative standpoint that’s big in scale,” said Matt McCloskey, director of franchise business management at 343 Industries, in the press release.
“Every time we do a live-action commercial the audience says, ‘We want to see more so that we can explore the ‘Halo’ universe a little bit more,” added Frank O’Connor, franchise development director at 343 Industries. “Demand grew more and more out of the two little vignettes we’d previously produced [for television].” However, he continued, the company “needed a way to ensure there was a way for people to get onboard this universe without feeling intimidated. [The web series will be] an origins story that teaches you about a lot of different facets of the [Halo] universe.”
Forward Unto Dawn will be a weekly serial with longer episodes than past similar Machinima productions, like Mortal Kombat: Legacy, clocking in at 15 minutes apiece—nearly as long as a US sitcom episode.
Halo 4 is slated for a November 2012 release, and Forward Unto Dawn will run on Machinima in the weeks leading up to the release. If this is successful, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more live action Halo projects crop up in the future.
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