Filmmaker Neill Blomkamp had been slated to direct Fox-Universal’s feature film version of the videogame sensation Halo but the project infamously fell apart last year. Still, there had been rumblings that Halo could still fight its way onto the big screen. It seems, however, that even Blomkamp has given up hope for the Halo movie.

"The film is entirely dead. In the configuration it was in. Whatever happens with that movie, assuming that movie gets made, will be a totally different configuration," Blomkamp informed Creativity-Online.com. "It’s not so much me as the entire vessel sank. Basically, it was a combination of; there were two studios involved that weren’t getting along in the process of making it, Universal and Fox. That kind of stuff happens, it’s a fragile industry. So the film collapsed at the end of last year, and it’s been dead, ever since then. I’ll be curious to see what happens."

Blomkamp made a trilogy of live-action Halo short films to help promote the release of the Halo 3 game but they were not, contrary to fans’ hopes, meant to rekindle interest in the movie. "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," Blomkamp explained.

But Blomkamp didn’t shut the door on Halo entirely, saying, "As I’m getting older one of the things I’ve realized most about this industry is never say never. That’s the first thing. Right now, I can’t see myself doing that film. But I’m not going to say that I’m not going to do it. So in the present moment, right now, I could take it or leave it. It doesn’t matter to me anymore. There’s too much interesting shit out there. The film has the capacity, if things line up correctly, to be, I think, really cool. But it ended up collapsing, and things happen for a reason."