Halo TV series gets green light at Showtime

Halo is finally going Hollywood. Variety today is reporting that cable network Showtime has given a series order for a 10-episode TV adaptation of the franchise.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes director Rupert Wyatt is on board to direct a handful of episodes and serve as executive producer alongside Kyle Killen, who will be the showrunner. Killen has handled creative duties on a handful of TV shows before, most recently 2014's Mind Games starring Christian Slater and Steve Zahn.

"Halo is our most ambitious series ever, and we expect audiences who have been anticipating it for years to be thoroughly rewarded," Showtime Networks president and CEO David Nevins said. "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."

Production is expected to begin in early 2019. Variety first reported that Microsoft and Showtime were in talks for a live-action Halo series more than four years ago, and even by that point the project had been in development for over a year. At the time, the intent was for the show to air on the network, with Xbox Live subscribers able to watch it through that service at a later date.

Efforts to adapt the Halo franchise have been on-and-off for well over a decade. Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson was confirmed to be executive producing a Halo film at one point, with a then-unknown Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium) on board to direct. Other filmic iterations of Halo were rumored to have attracted the likes of Alex Garland (Ex Machina) and Ridley Scott (Alien).