Alex Garland Discusses His Halo Movie

The Dredd 3D screenwriter lists his favourite games and talks about his aborted take on Halo.

Having spoken to Alex Garland about his work on the Dredd 3D script and plans for the character's future, we got the lowdown on the screenwriter's love of video games, quizzing Garland on his ill-fated movie adaptation of Halo, and getting his opinion as to why there hasn't yet been a good game-to-film translation.

IGN: You were involved with the Halo movie – can you give us some insight into what your take on the property would have been?

Alex Garland: I was contracted to write it about 10 years ago. The script I wrote was basically the same as the first Halo game. It took an element of the ending of the second Halo game for the ending, and basically, I sat down with those guys at Bungee and Microsoft and said what I would do is a very faithful adaptation. I had bits of imagery in my mind – a lot of them came from the game, but you could also relate that imagery to other things, like Starship Troopers or something like that. A less satirical version of Starship Troopers. But for me it's a different kind of project. On something like Halo, I'm a writer for hire. They have a thing they want to do. I'm not bringing anything to the party as it were. They are saying “we would like you to do this” and I'm trying to do it as well as I can. It's a completely different kind of project to Sunshine or 28 Days Later or Dredd or Never Let Me Go, because those things are essentially personally projects. I can't get sacked, put it that way. So the dynamic is different.

IGN: Why do you think there hasn't been a great movie adaptation of a video game yet?

Garland: There are very few good movies full-stop. Most movies are crap, just like most video games are crap. So statistically, the chances are you're unlikely to get a good video game movie. I know that there are people who have been trying to do it who are very serious. Who are not contemptuous of their subject matter, who want to do a good film and who try hard. Silent Hill – the film version of that I thought was tonally pretty accurate. The short answer is I don't know, but I don't think there's any particular reason for it. I think the more important thing, though, is that video games don't need film adaptations. You wouldn't add anything to Grand Theft Auto by making a film of it. The games good enough, and I don't think I'd want to see a film of it. I'm happy with the game. I think games are probably the single most interesting, evolving medium around at the moment so they should just focus on making themselves as good as possible. And they'll obliterate everyone soon, and I'm sort of looking forward to that.

IGN: Finally, what's your favourite game?

Garland: I've got a bunch, and it varies as time goes by. A few years ago I'd have said Tempest 2,000, which was on the Atari Jaguar. I was obsessed with Tempest 2,000, I really loved it. It's got a special place in my heart. I really liked the first Bioshock. I really love the Half-Life games. I really love Portal – Valve are kind of amazing. The best game I've played recently is Dark Souls. And I thought Fez was very good too. It made me feel like I did when I was a kid and was playing Jet Set Willy. That sense of accessing a very idiosyncratic imagination – so it was Mattew Smith back then and the guy [Phil Fish] who does Fez now. You're sort of accessing someone's brain. You're also exploring this world which is sort of a pleasant place to be. It can be hard and things can kill you, but it's also fun to be there. And I thought the graphics were just beautiful. I loved the way you flipped between the 2D and the 3D... I could just go on about games forever.

Dredd 3D is in cinemas now.

Chris Tilly is the Entertainment Editor for IGN in the UK and would love to read that Halo script. You can follow him on both Twitter and MyIGN.

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