Never BornFILM & TV

Halo film

The Peter Jackson and Neill Blomkamp project

Microsoft brought Halo to Hollywood with Jackson and Blomkamp, built test material, and watched the studio partnership collapse before filming.

HOW CLOSE TO REALITY45/100
CATEGORYFilm & TV
LIFECYCLE2005—2006
00

Quick facts

Existence state
Never Born
Peak stage
detailed preproduction
Research confidence
high
Last verified
01

What it was

A planned live-action Halo feature produced by Peter Jackson and intended to be directed by Neill Blomkamp.

A screenplay circulated, Universal and Fox partnered on financing, Weta developed physical and digital material, and Blomkamp directed live-action tests. The proposed feature never began principal photography.

02

Existence timeline

Feature announced

Microsoft brings the game property to studios.

Screenplay circulated

Alex Garland's script becomes the basis for studio development.

Director and design team attached

Neill Blomkamp joins while Weta produces visual tests.

Studios withdraw

The financing partnership collapses before principal photography.

Landfall survives

Related live-action shorts reveal part of the visual approach.

03

Why it ended

The studio partnership broke down over financing and deal terms in 2006, postponing the film indefinitely until the team moved on.

04

Last confirmed trace

Concept work, props and the Halo: Landfall shorts preserve the clearest sense of the production's visual direction.
05

What it left behind

The failed feature introduced Blomkamp to a wider audience and helped lead Jackson to support District 9.

06

How we classified it

The proposed archive unit never reached ordinary public access in the form being documented.

The strongest verified milestone maps to detailed_preproduction under Arrival Score V1.

07

Sources & verification

Last reviewed 2026-08-01. Sources are linked so readers can inspect the evidence directly.

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