Master this!It’s a game beloved by CHUD honcho Nick Nunziata, the Atlanta contingent and a kazillion other gamers, but not me, who got bored halfway through the single-player game, have no interest in fighting others on 1/4th of my television, and feel first-person shooters are meant to be played with a mouse and keyboard instead of two coordinated thumbs. 

The game is Halo, of course, and everyone in Hollywood wants to turn it into a movie.  But Bungie, the game’s developers, are wisely clutching the property tight to their collective bosom (an unappealing image if you know any programmers).  Supposedly the boys behind the biggest Xbox franchise are only keen on getting the creative minds behind Alien on the prospective movie adaptation of a fairly generic plot (space Marines fight aliens on a big mysterious hoop), but Ridley Scott was not interested when presented with the proposition. 

So, basically, there’s no actual movement on the film project. But is there still hope?  Alien co-creator Ron Shusett is apparently a fan of the material, and with the staggering success of the recently released game sequel as a springboard, may be trying to convince Ridley (putting the finishing touches on his Crusades epic Kingdom of Heaven) to give it another glimpse.  Uwe Boll has also publicly declared an interest in securing the film rights to the game, but you have to assume that at least one person at Bungie has seen House of the Dead.   

Whoever does finally convince the architects of the Halo franchise to relinquish their game goodies, expect a colossal amount of money to change hands for the privilege.