Rupert Wyatt just released his latest movie, Captive State, and was at South by Southwest this week talking about his past and future projects. When the conversation went to the Halo TV series, Wyatt had a chance to reveal why he left the project as the show's principal director.
Wyatt explained to Collider that it was all about the time commitment and the fact that making a television show as immersive as Halo would require him to put any other projects he wanted to make on the sidelines indefinitely. This was especially true considering the schedule that Showtime was demanding for the series.
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Wyatt said he knew very little about Halo when he got involved with the prospective TV show. However, he also knew very little about Planet of the Apes as well before he signed on to direct Rise of the Planet of the Apes. With both projects, he immersed himself in researching the franchises and then saw how expansive Halo really was, not just as a video game but also in books, comics and other modes of world building.
"I kind of steeped myself in the mythology and began to realize how much incredible literature there was and the depth of the storytelling, and it all stacked up for me," Wyatt said. "There was an incredible foundation for the storytelling, so it was gangbusters. I was super excited."
However, while he was excited it also caused a problem. He said that, as a TV show, this was going to be something that could take him years to develop and create and was a commitment he was not willing to make at this time as just the director.
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"So there was a choice made by Showtime which was essentially to push things, and if I had been perhaps been the showrunner then I would have stayed on that journey for two or three years, but as a director of a finite number of episodes, there’s other things I really wanna do," he said. "So I was very sad to leave, but basically it wasn’t within the framework that I originally signed up for.”
Otto Bathurst, who directed Robin Hood, replaced him as the principal director and the Halo TV series for Showtime is progressing as planned. Wyatt feels the series will still work out with the creative direction of the story without him because "there are really many talented people involved in that show who are doing that job.”
Showtime has not set a release date yet for Halo. Kyle Killen will work as the showrunner while Otto Bathurst will serve as the principal director. No cast has been announced yet for the upcoming video game adaptation.