In what Showtime is calling its “most ambitious” series to date, the cable network has placed a 10-episode order for a live-action adaptation of the Xbox video game phenomenon Halo. Kyle Killen (Lone Star, Awake) will serve as EP, writer and showrunner of the series, with Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) directing multiple installments. Both will serve as EPs alongside Steve Spielberg. Production is slated to begin in early 2019.
If this all sounds familiar, it’s because back in 2013 MSN announced that it was moving forward with a live-action Halo adaptation, which would have streamed on Xbox Live. That version died when XBox opted against entering into the crowded original content space.
“Halo is our most ambitious series ever, and we expect audiences who have been anticipating it for years to be thoroughly rewarded,” said Showtime president David Nevins in a statement. “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.”
The series will dramatize “an epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant,” per Showtime. “Halo will weave deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure and a richly imagined vision of the future.
