The Halo phenomenon has conquered most parts of the globe in the last decade. A few years ago Peter Jackson (of Lord of the Rings fame) was supposedly heavily involved in numerous Halo projects, including a big budget movie which was rumored to be based on the novel “Fall of Reach”, and a game set in the Halo universe titled Halo: Chronicles.
The former project got embroiled into financial issues between Microsoft, the movie publisher and Peter Jackson, who went onto eventually make District 9, which was supposed to rise out of the ashes of the Halo movie. Apparently, part of the team from Bungie worked with Peter Jackson on what was called “Halo: Chronicles” assumed to be ODST. This is however may only be a part of the bigger picture, for Halo Chronicles is supposedly the convergent point of Halo Reach, ODST and Halo Legends.
Microsoft had apparently invested heavily in the project and had expected this investment to pay off in the long run. Hence while Bungie went back to creating “Halo 4”, the sequel to Master Chief’s exploits, as they have mentioned in numerous interviews, Microsoft was apparently working on this project called Chronicles which would eventually add into the whole experience – a fully downloadable Halo title, a movie based on the franchise and a fleshed out Halo game from the masters of Halo.
However since things did not work out as planned, Microsoft it seems, decided not to wreck the entire project, instead salvaging it into the format we see today. If you remember the leaked concepts of the Reach movie, you will be surprised to find similarities between some of the concepts of the upcoming game and the cancelled/now-in-limbo movie.
Apparently Microsoft and Bungie took the reins of the Halo: Chronicles project and transformed it into what you see today. It seems to have begun with an experimentation of ODST which was initially supposed to be DLC setting the context for Reach.
Hence in staying true to the initial idea of creating a universe that could be propagated and sustained without the presence of the iconic Master Chief and in using a style of narrative that was evocative of memoir rather than being centered around the present, Reach satisfies the basic concept of a “chronicle”. Halo Legends similarly crafted a universe which chronicled the events of the soldiers and Spartans that had taken part in the war against the vile and vicious Covenant fleet.
So fans who feel they have missed out on a Halo project might not be entirely correct, since they now have the entire package in different formats. Halo: Reach is slated to hit store shelves on September 14, 2010 and is going to be the biggest Halo title to date, according to Microsoft.