Denzel As Master Chief?
Such is the way the wild and crazy interweb works that it’s likely this little rumor will be debunked (or confirmed!) by the end of the day. IGN Filmforce is reporting a story that says Denzel Washington could don the Mjolnir power armor for the Halo movie that’s in the works.
For those not in the know, Peter “Lord of the Rings” Jackson snapped up the rights to produce a Halo movie a little while back, rumors peg Guillermo Del Toro of Hellboy fame as director, but as yet no actor had been put forth as a possible candidate to play the Master Chief. The main points that seem to crop up on the net and across message boards are the following:
1) Denzel’s black, do we care if Master Chief is black or not?
2) Denzel Washington’s a fine actor, he can pull the part off.
3) The voice… to many gamers, Steve Downes is Master Chief, so what happens here?
4) Denzel’s a big name actor, so he’ll likely give the project some mainstream appeal… (do we want mainstream appeal?)
5) Denzel’s a big name actor, it’s pretty likely that he’s not going to spend the whole movie behind the mask…so the mask will have to come off right?
6) Is it a bad thing if the mask comes off?
As for my personal feelings? I’m all for it, Washington can be a badass when he wants to be (see Training Day or Man on Fire) and I personally don’t think it’s a big deal whether or not Master Chief turns out to be black. The voice? I love Steve Downes as Master Chief, but Halo: The Movie, is not Halo: The Game, it’s an adaptation as such, as long as the character remains intact, that’s fine, Superman, Batman and tons of other characters in pop culture have gone through numerous interpretations, why not the Chief? Mainstream appeal is something most geeks will roll their eyes at, but the fact is that if the Halo movie is to have any sort of respectably sized budget, we’re going to need it. As for the mask coming off, I can see Peter Jackson being able to talk Denzel into keeping it on the whole movie, but it’s unlikely and probably unnecessary. A part of the reason Master Chief is faceless in the game is probably to allow you to project yourself onto him, film is a different medium, we need a fully fleshed out character to connect with, and you can’t identify with a man behind a mask… but then V For Vendetta and Darth Vader would argue otherwise. What do you guys think?
Via IGN FilmForce
Such is the way the wild and crazy interweb works that it’s likely this little rumor will be debunked (or confirmed!) by the end of the day. IGN Filmforce is reporting a story that says Denzel Washington could don the Mjolnir power armor for the Halo movie that’s in the works.
For those not in the know, Peter “Lord of the Rings” Jackson snapped up the rights to produce a Halo movie a little while back, rumors peg Guillermo Del Toro of Hellboy fame as director, but as yet no actor had been put forth as a possible candidate to play the Master Chief. The main points that seem to crop up on the net and across message boards are the following:
1) Denzel’s black, do we care if Master Chief is black or not?
2) Denzel Washington’s a fine actor, he can pull the part off.
3) The voice… to many gamers, Steve Downes is Master Chief, so what happens here?
4) Denzel’s a big name actor, so he’ll likely give the project some mainstream appeal… (do we want mainstream appeal?)
5) Denzel’s a big name actor, it’s pretty likely that he’s not going to spend the whole movie behind the mask…so the mask will have to come off right?
6) Is it a bad thing if the mask comes off?
As for my personal feelings? I’m all for it, Washington can be a badass when he wants to be (see Training Day or Man on Fire) and I personally don’t think it’s a big deal whether or not Master Chief turns out to be black. The voice? I love Steve Downes as Master Chief, but Halo: The Movie, is not Halo: The Game, it’s an adaptation as such, as long as the character remains intact, that’s fine, Superman, Batman and tons of other characters in pop culture have gone through numerous interpretations, why not the Chief? Mainstream appeal is something most geeks will roll their eyes at, but the fact is that if the Halo movie is to have any sort of respectably sized budget, we’re going to need it. As for the mask coming off, I can see Peter Jackson being able to talk Denzel into keeping it on the whole movie, but it’s unlikely and probably unnecessary. A part of the reason Master Chief is faceless in the game is probably to allow you to project yourself onto him, film is a different medium, we need a fully fleshed out character to connect with, and you can’t identify with a man behind a mask… but then V For Vendetta and Darth Vader would argue otherwise. What do you guys think?
Via IGN FilmForce