Los Angeles - Hollywood studios Fox and Universal are wrangling with software giant Microsoft in a bid to bring the blockbuster video game Halo to the big screen, industry media said on Friday.
The studios are interested in bringing the characters from the game, which was developed by Microsoft for its Xbox game console and has notched up $600-million in worldwide sales, to life.
But, Daily Variety and Hollywood reporter said, the negotiations between the Hollywood giants and Microsoft are tough going, not least because the software firm's rich demands.
Microsoft, which proposed a script based on its game featuring a warrior battling extra-terrestrial invaders to all the top studios, initially demanded a $10-million upfront payment and 15 percent of the movie's gross, Variety said.
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But five studios, including Steven Spielberg's SKG DreamWorks studios, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros, immediately dropped out, feeling the slavish devotion to the game's rigid story-and-character criteria killed the story.
However, Universal Studios and Twentieth Century Fox stayed in the game and Universal is now leading the way on a deal that would divide the film's cost on a 50-50 basis between itself and Fox, Variety said.
The industry bible said Microsoft had also agreed on only a $5-million upfront payment for the film that could hit screens in 2007. - Sapa-AFP
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