Frank O' Connor Talks Halo: Reach and a Halo Movie

Posted by Chris Lansdell on 02.04.2010

What did he have to say?

The man behind Halo, Frank O'Connor, spoke to IGN recently about the possibility of a Halo movie, Halo: Reach and more. Some highlights:

On a Halo movie: "It's important to say that the partners that we were connected with before were great – they were awesome to work with; I talk to those guys almost daily – and you can go read the details about studios grappling with each other. I do work every week connected to when a movie, or if a movie, is eventually made, are we ready to go? And the answer is very much so, yes. But we can afford to bide our time and wait for the exact perfect time and the exact perfect partner."

On production problems:"One of the most depressing things as a fanboy is the example of Dune. Peter Berg was going to remake that film. I love the original, so I'll just keep consuming it, but I thought, 'Okay, maybe Berg could do this.' So either he pulls out or they don't accept his script or they don't like the direction. Whatever. I don't know. I'm not a Hollywood gossip. And then it goes away. All big films do this. Look at Avatar. It's heading for the biggest grossing film of all time and it was mired in production hell. Ours was heavens compared to what they've gone through. You have a guy like James Cameron who just sits there, tenaciously saying, 'I'm going to make this and I'm going to make it right,' or he moves on to the next one. And we're Microsoft. We're muscular. We can afford, much like James Cameron, to sit here and wait for the best opportunity…And by the way, can you print, right after I said that, I do not think that Halo is going to be the next Avatar? Cuz I will be dragged through the streets, bleeding, unless I caveat that!"

On Halo: Reach and Halo 4: "If you don't think that Halo: Reach is Halo 4…When you're in the boots of another Spartan, in Reach, in what is plainly, at this point – and obviously, I get to see it frequently – the biggest, best Halo that Bungie has ever made, there won't be any shadow of a doubt. We won't be having conversations like we did about ODST. "How long is it? Who are the characters? Blah, blah blah…" You'll get it. You'll understand that you're in a giant epic here. One of the things about Master Chief's nature is that he's a vehicle for the player. As such, he's defined by the people and the events around him. So in a way, it's almost easier to expand the universe into other locations and scenarios…Reach will prove that once and for all. Easily. You'll have to take my word for it and wait until Fall, but I just realized that I haven't really been excited about a videogame for a really long time in terms of waiting for it to show up in stores. And I just realized last week as we were going through some of the Reach stuff that I'd become a fanboy again."

Screenshots
All 20 Halo: Reach Screenshots