halo

Looking for something good and geeky to watch? Check out this week's new sci-fi home video releases:

Halo Legends (DVD and Blu-ray)
Fans of the popular game franchise won't want to miss this set of anime shorts set in the world of Halo and produced by Japanese animation studios. The rest of us? I think its OK to skip it (and maybe pop in that copy of Batman: Gotham Knight for old times sake). There's a ton of new anime hitting stores today, including Claymore: The Complete Series on Blu-ray, the second half of Bleach Uncut: Season 4, and the Heroic Age complete series set, also on Blu-ray.

Small Wonder: The Complete First Season (DVD)
A scientist creates a creepy little Cylon girl and brings it home to live with his family. Instead of killing it with fire, they're charmed by her monotone computer voice and her ability to shoot sparks out of her ears. Hey, it was the '80s. How were they supposed to know that she'd grow up to start a war and wipe out humanity in the name of the one true god?

What if you were sitting around with your dorky, overweight gamer friends when all of a sudden the characters from your favorite video games came to life and wreaked havoc on your hometown? Would it suck? Would it kind of be really super awesome to watch your friends be eaten by giant crabs or stomped on by Mario? The answers to these questions and more are at the center of this pretty funny 20-minute short film called Cloverbrawl from Seakitten Collective. Inspired by the film Cloverfield, the short -- which is broken up into two parts (both of which you can watch after the jump -- follows a group of friends who go from falling asleep while listening to James Cameron talk Avatar at E3 to watching their favorite video game characters destroy the world in spectacular fashion.

Sure, the graphics aren't exactly big-budgeted Hollywood-type stuff, but these folks definitely deserve some kudos for managing to fit in a whole ton of cool characters from games like Halo, Bioshock, Half Life, etc ... According to the description on YouTube, this will become episodic if enough people dig it.

Watch Cloverbrawl after the jump and let us know what you think.

I'm sorry Neill Blomkamp, but you've just been topped. The District 9 director's test runs at a big budget live-action Halo film by way of commercials for Halo 3 were interesting for fanboys, but they have nothing on this new commercial for a Halo 3 standalone expansion game, ODST.

I wish I could tell you who directed this truly awesome promo, but my Google skills are failing me right now. Considering how outstanding of a commercial this is, I'm sure it won't be long before the mask is pulled off. All I know is if there is still a Halo movie being considered, the powers that be need to get whoever did this on the line ASAP.

Remember back when Peter Jackson and Neill Blomkamp (the team behind this week's much buzzed-about District 9) were going to make a Halo movie? Unfortunately, studios got cold feet -- and didn't want to risk such a high budget on an unknown filmmaker -- which eventually led to Blomkamp being given the reigns on something a lot smaller ($30 million) and a lot like the short film that got him noticed in the first place. Should District 9 turn into a summer sleeper hit (and it should), look for Blomkamp to be the next go-to guy for smart science fiction.

In the meantime, though, IESB claims via their secret inside sources that Steven Spielberg may be looking to pick up where Jackson left off and produce a big-budgeted Halo movie. This is all due to screenwriter Stuart Beattie's (G.I. Joe) pitch-heard-around-the-web some months back, when the writer actively pursued the non-existent Halo gig by coming up with his own concept art alongside a story that he feels could be "this generation's Star Wars," according to an interview with Sci Fi Wire from back in January.

IESB claims Spielberg is in active discussions to produce a Halo movie based on Beattie's script, titled Halo: The Fall of Reach. We're not sure why Spielberg -- who's working with Jackson now on their joint Tintin adaptation -- would want the project after Jackson quit it, but perhaps he sees the potential of the next great sci-fi franchise. Either that, or another failed video game adaptation.

What do you think of Spielberg possibly getting behind a Halo adaptation?

Last night Comic-Con was put on pause while we attended a screening of the Peter Jackson-produced District 9. We were prepared for massive amounts of CGI, but we were definitely not prepared for the huge amounts of awesome that were dumped into our eyes and brains. Honestly, I haven't been this moved by a film or a performance in quite some time. Lead actor (and relative unknown) Sharlto Copley brings such a dynamic human performance to the role while going through an extremely satisfying character arc. And in a sci-fi movie to boot.

This movie has flown under the radar for a lot of people, and Jackson himself said that no one contacted them during filming to try and get interviews and set visits, so they just quietly worked on churning out a movie that you'll definitely want to see when it opens on August 14.

Read on for some impressions, and expect a full review from us closer to the opening date.

Not long after 20th Century Fox announced they'd be making an Alien prequel, word got out that producer (and Alien director) Ridley Scott had assigned newbie Carl Rinsch to direct what could potentially be a very big film. Rinsch is a commercial director with RSA Films (Scott's company) who specializes in a sort of futuristic style (watch his Saturn commercial here). At the time I thought it'd be a strange move for Fox to hand what could potentially be a franchise reboot (even though they're calling it a "prequel" as to not piss off fans) to an unknown director -- one who, sources say, is also dating Ridley Scott's daughter. Hmmm ...

Well according to Entertainment Weekly (via The Playlist), Fox is definitely thinking long and hard about this one, and they apparently want Ridley Scott to direct the film himself. Also, they might stick to their guns on this and not make the film at all unless Ridley returns to the franchise. Fans, of course, will probably side with Fox on this one -- I know I'd kinda love to see a new Alien prequel from Ridley Scott, especially one that went back to the franchise's earlier roots and focused on one single alien onboard a ship.

This whole thing sort of reminds me of when the studios ditched the planned Halo film when Peter Jackson wanted to put his apprentice Neill Blomkamp on as director. Outcome: The movie was never made, though Blomkamp wound up directing the very cool looking District 9, due out later this summer.

Discuss: Would you be down with an Alien prequel regardless of who directs it? Or must it be Ridley?