Universal Studios have cancelled the upcoming Halo movie, originally scheduled for release in 2008. Their main reason is the rising costs, rumored to be almost $200 million at this point. In addition, Microsoft wanted 10% of the revenue, which made the stakes even higher for Universal Studios and Fox, who were co-financing the movie.

Universal and Fox studios also expressed their doubt in the young director, South African Neil Bloomkamp, who has never done a feature film before. So far it’s only been one short film, in addition to being a 3D animator on Smallville and Stargate. The producers however, including Peter Jackson, are confident in Neil, and say that they will be looking for other production companies interested in doing the movie. Microsoft is said to be in talks with other distribution companies already.

Read (Variety)