G.I. Joe Screenwriter Stuart Beattie Has Written Halo Spec Script
Note: This is a not an April Fool’s Day joke. Screenwriter Stuart Beattie, whose script is behind the $170 million G.I. Joe that’s currently filming, has written a full spec-script for a potential Halo movie according to Latino Review. Moreover, his script is based on Eric Nylund’s first book tie-in, the prequel Halo: The Fall of Reach, and carries the same name.
For those not in the know, a “spec script” means a script that’s written without the screenwriter being paid or contracted to do so. Apparently Beattie (Spy Hunter, Pirates of the Caribbean 1) is a fan of Bungie’s ginormous video game franchise and wishes to get the first film off life support, where it’s been since last summer when producer Peter Jackson and hotshot director Neil Blomkampf once again threw in the towel after an eruption of distribution differences.
Not only does Beattie’s Halo: The Fall of Reach deliver a worthy action film according to LR’s inside source but it sets up a trilogy of films to coincide with the three Xbox installments. Here’s what the source said…
“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 source goes on to compare the script to Jaws, in that the Covenant (the series’ cunning alliance of aliens) isn’t seen until the half-way point, thereby making the first film financially attractive. In 2005, a script by Alex Garland (28 Days Later) that went through several rewrites was set to be used for Blomkampf’s film. Of note, Beattie also wrote the Gears of War video game adaptation that is now reportedly scheduled for 2010.
Kurt Wimmer to Write and Possibly Direct Metal Gear Solid Movie?
Coming Soon had a chance to speak with producer Michael De Luca (21, Ghost Rider) and he passed along news that a Metal Gear Solid movie, based off the long-running hit espionage video game franchise, is once again going ahead. The project has been in the very early stages for sometime (see eerily similar Slashfilm post from Feb ‘07), and faced a set back from the writer’s strike. Moreover, De Luca says that a meeting will take place in the “next few weeks” with writer/director Kurt Wimmer about adapting a screenplay for the film.
Though De Luca didn’t directly state it, this probably means that Wimmer is also up to direct the big budget affair, as his previous films, Equilibrium starring Christian Bale and Ultraviolet starring Millo Jovovich, were similar fanboy-intensive, kinetic action/genre flicks. Neither one of those films connected at the box office, however, so MGS would be the director’s closest shot at bagging a sure thing, the whole video game curse notwithstanding. Wimmer’s next screenplay to hit the big screen will be April’s LAPD thriller Street Kings with Keanu Reeves.
Video game synopsis: Metal Gear Solid follows Solid Snake, a retired soldier who infiltrates a nuclear weapons disposal facility to neutralize the terrorist threat from FOXHOUND, a renegade special forces unit.