This post is about the Halo Movie Project. I put it here in the General Section since we are talking about a movie, not a game.

I just got the new Official Xbox Magazine and they had an article on the Halo Movie. Talks and negotiations are moving along slowly. There are very few details, here is what we know:

Unfortunately not a lot of movie studios are excited about the project. Here are Microsoft’s demands according to the June 10th New York Times. Microsoft demanded $10 million for the rights to the film, cast and director approval, 15% of gross box office, a production budget of no less than $75 million (that’s before hiring a director and actors), and they want creative control over filming, topped off with 60 first class plane tickets to shuttle Microsoft representitives to the film’s premiere.

On June 6th Microsoft sent out actors dressed in full Master Chief gear to deliver movie scripts to all of the movie studios. While the studio executives read the scripts the Master Chiefs stood there watching the executives every movements. When they were done reading the Master Chiefs took back the scripts and then left in place a movie proposal. Could you imagine that, reading a script nervously as a group of Master Chiefs stares at you. After all of that only Fox and Universal are interested in the project and now everyone is in the negotiating talks.

Microsoft says that they want to be so involved because they do not want the movie to suck. They do not want the movie to be a different idea than what they have already put in place through the games. By being involved they can be assured that the movie will be what they and all of the fans want.

So, who wrote the scipt for the Halo Movie? None other than Alex Garland. He was rumored to be paid around $1 Million to write it. So, who is Alex Garland? Well, he was born in London, England in 1970. He is a writer and on the Internet Movie Database website he currently has five films to his name: The Beach, 28 Days Later, The Tesseract, Sunshine, and then Halo. I don’t know about you but I haven’t seen any of these movies so I don’t know how good of a job he might do.

As for the Official Xbox Magazine, they put together a list of people who they could see as being Master Chief. Vin Diesel, Jason Statham, Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Viggo Mortensen. I will leave that discussion up to someone else for a different time.

Well, it happened again. Yesterday lightning killed one Boy Scout and it injured three others while they slept in a shelter at a mountain scout camp in Utah, just East of Salt Lake City.

In case you didn’t know this is another in the long line of Boy Scout deaths this year. Last Thursday a Scout Master and a 13 year old scout were killed by lightning in the California Sequoia National Park.
On July 24th four Scout Leaders were electrocuted in front of all of their Scouts at the National Boy Scout Jamboree in Virginia, when the tent pole they were using to pitch their tent accidently fell and hit a power line. That’s not all folks, the day before at the Jamboree a Scout Master died of an apparent heart attack.
The best moment at the Jamboree had to be everyone waiting outside in the scorching heat for President Bush to arrive to address the scouts. But wait he postponed his visit because of the threat of thunderstorms. So what of all those scouts waiting for the President. Well, sun-sick Scouts began collapsing and more than 300 people were treated for heat-related illnesses.

I know that this is a sad matter at the Jamboree but what was everyone thinking? I thought their motto was “Be Prepared”. There are going to be a lot of law suits filed against the Boy Scout Organization, namely for putting tents under power lines (which I remember from my days as a Scout is a big NO-NO), and not keeping everyone properly hydrated.

I use to think that Scouting was a safe and postive activity. I am starting to worry when I have kids and what will happen to them when they go out to Scout Camp.