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Microsoft will adapt its “Halo” game franchise as a premium live action series exclusively for Xbox Live. Steven Spielberg will produce the series with gamemaker 343 Studios.

"The Halo universe is an amazing opportunity to be at that intersection where technology and myth-making meet to produce something truly groundbreaking," Spielberg said in a pretaped video.

Series was announced during the launch of the Xbox One videogame console on Tuesday from the Xbox campus, in Redmond, Wash.

Project comes from Nancy Tellem, who heads up Xbox Entertainment Studios.

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Showtime has given a 10-episode series order to Halo (working title), an hourlong live-action scripted drama based on the award-winning Xbox video game franchise, from Awake creator Kyle Killen, Rise of the Planet of the Apes helmer Rupert Wyatt and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television.

Killen serves as writer, executive producer and showrunner of the series. Wyatt will direct multiple episodes and also executive produce. Halo (wt) is produced by Showtime in association with Microsoft/343 Industries and Amblin TV. Production is slated to begin in early 2019.

The Amblin TV project was originally announced in 2013 as one of the big series to launch XBox’s original content effort. It moved to Showtime shortly after XBox Entertainment Studios was shut down in 2014 and has been in discussions at the premium cable network for almost four years, with various creative auspices in talks for it over the years.

Halo has grown into a global entertainment phenomenon, having sold more than 77 million copies worldwide and grossing more than $5 billion in sales. In its adaptation for Showtime, Halo will take place in the universe that first came to be in 2001, dramatizing an epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant. Halo will weave deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure and a richly imagined vision of the future.

“Halo is our most ambitious series ever, and we expect audiences who have been anticipating it for years to be thoroughly rewarded,” said David Nevins, President and CEO Showtime Networks. “In the history of television, there simply has never been enough great science fiction. Kyle Killen’s scripts are thrilling, expansive and provocative, Rupert Wyatt is a wonderful, world-building director, and their vision of Halo will enthrall fans of the game while also drawing the uninitiated into a world of complex characters that populate this unique universe.”

In addition to Awake, Killen created and served as showrunner of the TV series Lone Star and Mind Games, and also wrote the Jodie Foster-directed feature The Beaver. In addition to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Wyatt’s film and television credits include the upcoming sci-fi feature Captive State, as well as The Exorcist, The Gambler, Turn: Washington Spies and his debut feature film The Escapist, which was nominated for a British Independent Film Award.

Killen, Wyatt and Scott Pennington will executive produce, along with Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank for Amblin Television. The series will be distributed globally by CBS Studios International.

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Halo isn’t envisioned to be Showtime’s Game of Thrones. “It’s our Halo,” counters network programming chief Gary Levine.

Appearing at the Television Critics Association summer press tour on Monday, Levine and Showtime Networks president/CEO David Nevins reiterated their stance that the recently announced, live-action adaptation of the Halo videogame — the killer app for the original Xbox, as Halo: Combat Evolved — is no less than the premium cabler’s “most ambitious series ever.”

As a TV series, Halo will dramatize “an epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant,” weaving “deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure and a richly imagined vision of the future,” the network previously said.

At TCA on Monday, Nevins further described the Halo series as “futuristic, space-based science-fiction” in the vein of Star Trek. “It’s not fantasy.”

Kyle Killen will serve as executive producer (as will Steven Spielberg), writer and showrunner, which on the surface seems like a curious fit, given his previous TV credits: Lone Star, a drama about a Texan con man leading a double life, and Awake, in which a widower toggled between two realities.

Nevins, though, said that he feels about Killen the same way that he felt about Homeland‘s Alex Gansa before that series became a hit (and is now entering Season 8). “His moment is coming,” the exec avowed.

Plus, Showtime made “a conscious decision” to enlist for Halo writers “not known for sci-fi, not known for big-battle movies,” so as to “get under the armor of the Spartans” aka the supersoldier space Marine characters.

Meaning, yes, franchise front man Master Chief will be a character on the series, Nevins affirmed.

On track to premiere in 2020, Halo is not in production yet, though Showtime brass have seen scripts, Nevins said. And at first blush, he believes the ambitious series “will have enormous appeal to Halo fans and also appeal to the Showtime drama fans.”

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NOVEMBER 01, 2018 8:15am PT by Patrick Shanley
Showtime's 'Halo' Series Will Feature Master Chief

The network is looking for a leading man with a large build for its upcoming action series based on the popular video games.

Suit up.

Showtime's Halo television series, based on the massively popular video game franchise, is looking for actors to fill out its roster of Space Marines — and one of them will catch diehard fans of the franchise by surprise.

According to casting notices obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, the Showtime series will feature a live-action version of John/Master Chief, who is described as a Spartan-like warrior of large build. Fans of the franchise are of course familiar with the role, as Master Chief (aka Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy John-117) is the primary protagonist of the Halo games.

The revelation is interesting in that Master Chief's face is never fully shown in the games. Instead, the character — an imposing, genetically enhanced supersoldier — is almost exclusively seen in his iconic green armor and helmet. It is unlikely the television version of their character will keep his face hidden under a helmet at all times, particularly as he is listed as a series regular.

Other characters poised to be featured in the series are Dr. Halsey — likely the Dr. Catherine Halsey who appears in 2010's Halo: Reach and 2012's Halo 4 and 2015's Halo 5: Guardians; and Jenny, listed as an Asian woman between the ages of 18-20. There is no major character by the name of Jenny in the games, but Dr. Halsey is a prominent figure in Halo lore.

Dr. Halsey is the creator of the SPARTAN-II program which produced the elite corps of supersoldiers and their Mjolnir Powered Assault Armor. The casting notice for her character calls for an actress between the ages of 55-65, so it is likely that the series will focus on the later stage of her life when she worked to protect her Spartan creations rather than simply raising them for war.

Halo does not have a premiere date set, but production is slated to begin in June 2019 in Budapest. Kyle Killen will serve as exec producer, writer and showrunner on the premium cable network's series.

Showtime declined comment.

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Showtime's long-gestating Halo TV series has found its new director.

Otto Bathurst (Black Mirror, Robin Hood) has taken over helming duties two months after original director Rupert Wyatt departed.

Bathurst will direct multiple episodes and exec produce the live-action drama from showrunner Kyle Killen. Showtime made the announcement with a press release Thursday that also announced the series will now consist of only nine initial episodes — that's down one from its original order of 10.

Bathurst's credits include directing last year's Robin Hood, starring Taron Egerton and Jamie Foxx, and the upcoming HBO/BBC America co-production His Dark Materials, Peaky Blinders and Criminal Justice.

Wyatt (Rise of Planet of the Apes) exited Halo in December, citing scheduling conflicts. At the time, it was unclear what Wyatt will do next. His sci-fi thriller Captive State, starring John Goodman and Vera Farmiga, is due March 29 in theaters.

Showtime announced in June that its long-in-development take on Halo was officially picked up to series, with Killen and Wyatt attached to the 10-episode live-action scripted drama. Wyatt was poised to direct multiple episodes and serve as an executive producer on the project from Showtime, Microsoft/343 Industries and Amblin Television. In making the order, the pay cabler called Halo its "most ambitious series ever."

"Showtime's adaptation of Halo is evolving beautifully with rich characters, compelling stories and powerful scripts," the network's co-president of entertainment Gary Levine said in December. "Obviously, the production demands of this series are enormous, and we have had to add time to the schedule in order to do it right. Sadly, this delay has created a conflict for Rupert, whom we warmly thank for all he has brought to the project."

The Halo TV series was first unveiled in 2014, with Xbox Entertainment Studios nearing a deal to develop the take on its wildly popular video game. At the time, the plan called for the effort to bow first on Showtime before moving to Xbox consoles. It's unclear if that is still in the cards.

The Halo video game franchise has sold more than 77 million copies worldwide and grossed more than $5 billion in sales.

The Showtime series will take place in the same universe that launched in 2001 and will dramatize an epic 26th century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant. Halo will weave deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure and a richly imagined vision of the future, Showtime said. A casting notice obtained by The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that the series would feature a live-action version of John/Master Chief, whose face is never fully shown in the games. Instead, the character — an imposing, genetically enhanced supersoldier — is almost exclusively seen in his iconic green armor and helmet.

Bathurst is repped by WME and Bloom Hergott.

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The long-awaited Halo TV series has cast its Master Chief.

Showtime has cast Pablo Schreiber (First Man, Orange Is the New Black) in the lead role based on the iconic Xbox franchise.

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Natascha McElhone (Californication) and Emmy nominee Bokeem Woodbine(Fargo) are set for lead roles opposite Pablo Schreiber in Halo, Showtime’s anticipated series based on the Xbox video game franchise. Rounding out the cast are Shabana Azmi (Fire), Bentley Kalu (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Natasha Culzac (The Witcher) and Kate Kennedy (Catastrophe). The castings were announced Friday during Showtime’s presentation at the TCA summer press tour. Produced by Showtime in partnership with 343 Industries, along with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television, the series will begin production later this year in Budapest and is slated to air in the first quarter of 2021.

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