Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl writer Stuart Beattie loves Halo — so much so that he wrote a spec script based on Eric Nylund's book, Halo: The Fall of Reach. This isn't connected to the Peter Jackson Halo film project, which has since been put on ice. Beattie wrote the script between film projects on the hopes that someone somewhere will bring it to the silver screen. So far, it's apparently still only a spec, but making the studio rounds in Hollywood.

Hit the jump for the full art. It's purply.

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Yesterday, we broke that Gearbox Director of Technology Corrinne Yu has been hired by Microsoft Game Studios to be Principle Engine Architect for Microsoft's Halo Franchise Team. Microsoft has confirmed to Kotaku that Yu had in fact been hired by Microsoft. "As the Halo franchise continues to flourish, Microsoft Game Studios is growing its internal team to develop future Halo projects", Microsoft stated.

We've been told by several industry sources that Yu was part of a package deal. She, and her husband, Kenneth Scott are both joining Microsoft Game Studios. Scott is an art director at id Software, most recently working on Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.

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Those Halo wheels are still turning. And from what a Gamasutra job announcement seems to hit at, Peter Jackson's Halo game is moving forward. The Microsoft Game Studios job listing is for "Creative Director - building a new Halo universe" and says this under responsibilities:

Direct the tone and timber of the project with an eye towards compelling character development, visionary narrative progression, and addictive gameplay
Partner with key Hollywood talent to collaboratively craft a masterful game experience
Bridge the gap between storytelling and the interactive experience while delivering on the Halo soul.
Collaborate with game play designers, story writers, game writers, and said external luminary to deliver on a unique game in the Halo universe...

So that might be Peter Jackson — unless Microsoft has roped in other "key Hollywood talent" and not told anyone. Microsoft's been pretty bad about not telling us what's going on with the new Halo games.

Job Listing [Gamasutra via 1Up]

Ah, and finally, the pre-E3 hype train picks up a little steam. Citing both Sarcastic Gamer and their own "sources", CVG are claiming that a new Halo game will be unveiled at E3. This Halo game might be Peter Jackson's game, it might not be, but either way, they say it won't feature the Master Chief. Chew on that for a possibility while we dream of a point-and-click "Where In The World Is Master Chief?"

New Halo game for E3 [CVG]

When the gang at MTV Multiplayer sniffed around some Microsoft job listings earlier this week, confirming that the publisher was staffing up for one of the two Peter Jackon backed "entertainment experiences," some concernedly stuttered "Bu-bu-but, what about Bungie?" Oh, they're fine with it, informs the Bungie Weekly Update. Community man Frankie O'Connor says that "having worked with him already, we are possibly more excited than you are to see what someone of Peter Jackson's imagination, talent and resources can bring to a Halo game experience."

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At least one of the Halo-themed projects helmed by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson is closer to reality, as MTV Multiplayer has dug up job listings that hint heavily Microsoft is hiring for one of its "two new interactive entertainment experiences." A confirmation from the company reveals that it's going to be developed internally and not at Halo 3 developer Bungie.

The job listings, all of which are linked to at the MTV Multiplayer report, are light on concrete details. They look to be intentionally vague, deemed "Not Product Specific" and only mentioning that they take place in the Halo universe. See if you can decipher them with your Master Chief decoder rings!

Is Microsoft Hiring A 'Halo' Team For Peter Jackson This Week? [MTV Multiplayer]

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Doesn't look like he's fighting that hard. Rather than wait around for some studio to agree to Microsoft's unreasonable demands for a Halo movie, Peter Jackson has added to the list of his "things to do before I do a Halo movie". Along with original Halo director Neil Blomkamp, they're apparently working on some movie called DISTRICT 9, with Jackson producing and Blomkamp to direct. DISTRICT 9 should be filming in South Africa, and when you add in Jackson's work on Lovely Bones, as well as rumours of Tintin and Dambusters movies, this all goes a ways towards killing the whole idea of a Peter Jackson Halo project. At least while we're all still young enough to remember what Halo was.
Neill Blomkamp and Peter Jackson getting a new flick off the ground called DISTRICT 9 [AICN, thanks Fernando!]

We already told you that Halo was "entirely dead." But even after losing major partners Fox and Universal, Microsoft and Peter Jackson aren't ready to give up. According to Variety, Jackson has his highly-regarded co-founded studios Weta Digital and Weta Workshop knee-deep in preproduction. You may know them from Lord of the Rings or King Kong. Chances are that Weta's creative assets will make for one hell of a sales pitch, and besides, making a Halo movie with massive amounts of talent* seems like a no-brainer. Shouldn't Hollywood be excited? They're the ones blaming Halo for their lot in life.

*We all know I'm not a LoTR fan, but I absolutely loved Heavenly Creatures.

Halo film hope flickers [play]

*"In the configuration it was in," adds Neill Blomkamp. He's the director hired to helm the Peter Jackson executive produced film adaptation last year and who quickly saw his feature film debut hopes dashed upon the financial rocks by the suits at Universal and Fox. Blomkamp spoke to Creativity Online recently, confirming the film isn't just "on ice", it's chilling at the morgue.

Blomkamp also reveals that the live action Halo shorts that were shown publicly at E3 this year weren't an attempt to jump start production. He tells CO:

There was not even one percent of my mind in doing those short pieces to try and resurrect the film. And I think maybe that's because I'm closer to the film, I know how hard it fell, and I know that doing things like that was not how you're going to get it back on its feet. I never went about making those little pieces like I was trying to resurrect the film.

Q&A: Director Neill Blomkamp on Halo Shorts, Film [Creativity Online via NeoGAF]

I have never played a Halo game. Of the last few generations of consoles, the only one I haven't owned is the Xbox. I live in Japan, so there. Who better then to go attend a private session with the game? (I really am excited about playing Halo 3. Really. I'm pre-ordering tonight.)

Heading up the show were Jonty Barnes, head of production at Bungie, and Jay Weinland, "Sound Monkey" (or if you prefer, sound designer), the whole proceedings taped for Gametrailers.com (you may see a few questions from me). There wasn't anything new that most readers here, reservation ticket in hand, don't probably know. Oh, I know how it ends, but you'll just have to wait to find out for yourself.

A few things though. Downloadable content from Bungie? They'll wait for a while, see how the player-generated content created through Forge works out, but expect some official downloads down the line. Easter eggs and stuff to do after you've gone through the storymode once? Play co-op, as it opens all sorts of new interactions with the AI, and then hunt for the skulls -- collecting them will open up plenty of new hidden modes. Keep looking for terminals as well, since a separate back story is told that way.

The Forge functionality really is something, and the idea of players taking on the role of a 'god', adding/removing stuff from maps on the fly as games are being played -- you can even score points when in edit mode, dropping tanks from the sky on unsuspecting players -- is going to change the way multiplayer is experienced. Add to that the possibility of inventing new sorts of gameplay -- the developers were showing off a game of baseball with rockets -- and you have the recipe for some seriously creative fun.

As far as follow-ups? Mum's the word, although they are really happy about the way things are going with the Peter Jackson project, and details on the game will probably be announced early next year.