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Showtime Close to a Deal to Partner with Xbox Studios on ‘Halo’ Series

statham

statham

Member
Xbox Entertainment Studios is deep in negotiations with Showtime to develop a live-action “Halo” drama series that is a high priority for the Microsoft production unit headed by Nancy Tellem.
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Xbox Entertainment Studios is deep in negotiations with Showtime to develop a live-action “Halo” drama series that is a high priority for the Microsoft production unit headed by Nancy Tellem.

TV PILOTS/DEVELOPMENT SCORECARD: Follow the action during upfront season

Xbox Studios has been developing a drama series spin on the vidgame franchise with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin TV banner for more than a year. It’s understood that the company is close to a deal with a pair of showrunners to steer the series adaptation of the expansive bible developed by screenwriter Stuart Beattie, but the deal is not envisioned as a straight-to-series pickup.

Xbox aims to develop “Halo” and other properties as high-end series productions in an effort to enhance the Xbox platform as an entertainment service for its base of 48 million subscribers.

The deal with Showtime has taken a long time to work out because the sides are charting new territory for a show designed to air on Showtime as well as Xbox, with enhanced interactivity built in for the latter platform. Details are still being hammered out, but sources say the plan is to have episodes bow on Showtime first, followed by the Xbox window.

Tellem talked up plans for “Halo” and a host of other shows earlier this week as part of Microsoft’s NewFront presentation but did not mention the Showtime component. The various companies involved have taken plenty of time to work out the deal because “Halo” is such a prized property for Microsoft.

Reps for Showtime and Xbox declined to comment. Spielberg is exec producing the TV adaptation along with Beattie, Amblin’s Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank. Xbox Entertainment Studios is producing with 343 Industries, which oversees all things “Halo” for Microsoft.
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http://variety.com/2014/tv/news/halo-tv-show-showtime-1201170379/
 
BeforeU

BeforeU

Oft hope is born when all is forlorn.
This better be good. I have faith in 343 storytelling and Microsoft.
 
K

Kevin

Member
I enjoyed the Forward Unto Dawn movie for what it was. Not the epic Halo movie I wanted but it was still enjoyable. Definitely interested in seeing a Halo tv series though I really have no idea how they could do one justice on a tv budget. I would also like if it followed the main Halo characters and not side characters. Or at the very least Spartans.
 
D

Dysun

Member
SFenton said:
Oh shit. I don't watch Showtime but aren't their shows generally good/great/excellent?
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i5RYOCS7SyIRn.gif
 
R

Randolph Freelander

Member
Showtime would be better off doing their own sci-fi space opera rather than tying themselves to the garbage of a story Halo turned out to be. That, or completely reboot it and forget about where the games went. Start off with the premise of Fall of Reach and go from there.
 
S

smileyforall220

Member
Randolph Freelander said:
Showtime would be better off doing their own sci-fi space opera rather than tying themselves to the garbage of a story Halo turned out to be. That, or completely reboot it and forget about where the games went. Start off with the premise of Fall of Reach and go from there.
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I would disagree. The fiction from the books fleshed out the universe in a great way, giving show time a plethora of interesting all ready made fiction to work from
 
C

cuyahoga

Dudebro, My Shit is Fucked Up So I Got to Shoot/Slice You II: It's Straight-Up Dawg Time
Nancy Tellem used to work for CBS, which owns Showtime. That's sketchy.
 
B

blakep267

Member
I think there are 2 different shows at work. The spielberg show and the ridley scott digital feature. The showtime show probably won't be anything till next year. maybe 2016
 
M

Miles Quaritch

Member
Huh, I thought their TV division was in disarray, to the point where studios weren't willing to work with MS?

Or am I thinking of something else?
 
R

Randolph Freelander

Member
smileyforall220 said:
I would disagree. The fiction from the books fleshed out the universe in a great way, giving show time a plethora of interesting all ready made fiction to work from
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The Nylund books, particularly Fall of Reach and First Strike, were great. I stopped reading them, though, after the story of the games expressed not the first bit of imagination. Bungie just wasn't made to tell a good story, I guess. I mean, really, the "great journey" as a plot device with no expressed ulterior motive was just mindnumbingly stupid. I'm supposed to sit here and believe humanity is fighting for its very existence against what is basically an overgrown Hale-Bopp cult?

Bah, Halo's story was set up well, but it was ultimately terrible. At least, as expressed in the games. And I don't even remember what the heck was going on in Halo 4, and don't care to, so I'm speaking strictly of the original trilogy.
 
N

NullPointer

Member
It'll be odd for a Halo series to air on Showtime before the Xbox, but I can't imagine this kind of deal being easy to do at all really.
 
B

btags

Member
Joe_Incognito said:
I actually thought 343 did Halo better than Bungie. There were many cringe worthy moments in Halo 3.
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I do and do not agree. I think Halo 1 and 2 were very good in terms of storytelling, at least in the time period of their release, whereas 3 was somewhat lacking. I know plenty of people think halo 2 was confusing, but I found it easy to follow (I was in elementary school at the time, so it could not have been that confusing) and the covenant side of the story was awesome. I still found halo 3's story to be pretty good in broad terms, but as you stated, plenty of cringe-worthy moments ("to war!").

In the end though, Halo 4 was certainly the best Halo in terms of presentation, closely followed by reach. Although 4 was confusing to many as well, if you understand the lore it is pretty cool.
 
H

hawk2025

Member
Huh, it's much farther from actually being real than I expected.

I thought it would be shooting already for some reason, not still looking for a showrunner.
 
Å

Åesop

Unconfirmed Member
Here comes another exclusive content experience ..
 
B

bishopp35

Member
SFenton said:
Oh shit. I don't watch Showtime but aren't their shows generally good/great/excellent?
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Kinda , they have great first seasons but disappointing later seasons. Dexter went bad after the first three season and Homeland became shit ant the end of the first season due to executives interference. Shameless is the only show that is consistently good but only because that show is so unhinged that any storyline ,no matter how ridiculous, fits the show.

As long as Showtime executives don't meddle too much the partnership can be beneficial.
 
K

Kevin

Member
hawk2025 said:
Huh, it's much farther from actually being real than I expected.

I thought it would be shooting already for some reason, not still looking for a showrunner.
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Yeah I'm beginning to wonder if this show will come out late into the Xbox One lifespan...
 
R

rrc1594

Member
bishopp35 said:
Kinda , they have great first seasons but disappointing later seasons. Dexter went bad after the first three season and Homeland became shit ant the end of the first season due to executives interference. Shameless is the only show that is consistently good but only because that show is so unhinged that any storyline ,no matter how ridiculous, fits the show.

As long as Showtime executives don't meddle too much the partnership can be beneficial.
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That's good stuff right their
 
R

RE_Player

Member
I would love to see how they are going to introduce the average TV viewer to the Halo universe. I've played pretty much every mainline game and I have no idea what's going on half the time!
 
H

hawk2025

Member
RE_Player said:
I would love to see how they are going to introduce the average TV viewer to the Halo universe. I've played pretty much every mainline game and I have no idea what's going on half the time!
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I imagine that it may simply start from scratch?


I agree, by the way. I have played and beat every single Halo game. I freely admit that I understand about half of the story.
 
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