There’s news all over the net about the Peter Jackson/Halo situation. Tempus Fugit found a small video clip (WMP9, 12 mb) where Jackson, at X05, made a statement about how excited he is, over at Jeuxfrance.com. Spitvalve scanned the front page of the Dominion Post, Wellington’s biggest newspaper, where the Master Chief takes up a HUGE chunk. (There’s an online version as well, at Stuff.co.nz – thanks, Paradice.) And News.com.au has an article that has some quotes Donna Langley, Universal’s production president, discussing how the Halo movie might be easier to bring to the big screen than the Doom movie was. (Thanks, DunnyPanMan.) I always get nervous when ANYTHING gets this much hype – it’s hard to live up to unreasonable hype – but my guess is, things will settle down eventually, and then we’ll see what we see.

Wow. So for those who didn’t notice, the internet broke yesterday. Two of the big boys (Cogent and Level 3) had a falling-out… and much traffic was blocked from getting where it needed to get. If you want to know more about this situation, you can read this Slashdot article (and its comments). Some people STILL can’t get here. Anyway, that’s by way of explanation for why today’s news is coming so late – I couldn’t get here myself until a few minutes ago. So: first up, there’s ANOTHER Halo-based podcast, Halo Nation… they’re already up to episode 3. This episode is just under an hour, and weighs in at 43 mb. Check ’em out!

The Register has a slightly different spin on the ‘Peter Jackson as Exec Producer’ news than other sites have shown so far – they’re wondering if Jackson isn’t just window dressing, ‘more for the poster than the creative input’. While it’s possible that this might have been on Microsoft’s mind, there are a few things to remember: Jackson’s a fan, so it’s unlikely he’ll sit by if a totally crap movie is being made on his watch; with Jackson (and wife Fran Walsh) comes their special effects studios – WETA Workshop and WETA Digital – meaning that the environment, at the very least, will be spectacular; and Bungie themselves are quite excited about Jackson’s involvement – if it were only a publicity stunt, I’ve no doubt that we’d hear grumblings about it from the dev team. The other tidbit of note about this article is that it was written by Tony Smith, a name that longtime Bungie fans might recognize – he’s the man behind the Origin of Species series of maps for Bungie’s earlier game, Marathon, a project that won almost universal acclaim… this is a guy who loved Bungie deeply back in the day. He doesn’t want to see this go wrong, any more than the rest of us do. Thanks to Matt Warner for the heads-up. Update: Reuters has an article on the situation, as well – and it actually includes quotes from Jackson (something most other articles are missing). Jackson says that his excitement let him and his wife to become “creative godfathers” on the film – this would suggest a non-hands-off approach.

“As a gaming fan, I’m excited to bring ‘Halo’s’ premise, action and settings to the screen with all the specificity and reality today’s technology can provide,” Jackson said. “Fran and I are intrigued by the unique challenges this project offers, and we’re delighted to be working again with our friends at Universal, and with our new ones at Fox and Microsoft. I’m a huge fan of the game and look forward to helping it come alive on the cinema screen.”

This doesn’t sound like a guy who’s on board for the poster… thanks, mnemesis.

Halo Underground has posted notes about a couple of FarCry: Instincts maps – Beaver Creek, and now Backwash. There aren’t any screenshots, but there is info in the Backwash post about how to connect and download the map. If you’re playing FarCry – give it a look! Thanks, Rapter Payne.

Okay, this is just scary. Joystiq has a story about a t-shirt design submitted to a T-shirt-selling website that combines Hello Kitty with the Master Chief. (This has been done before, I suppose – there was a SomethingAwful Photoshop Phunnies entry like this, now sadly offline – but this is something you wear.) We’ll see if this one ever gets made… thanks, wheelers.

Chris Hughes is a computer graphics artist who came to Bungie with the Oni team, and stuck around to work on a little game called Halo. He left before Halo 2 development kicked in, and did a bunch of work for Wideload, on Stubbs the Zombie. He’s recently put up a personal website, showing off some of the stuff he’s been a part of… if you’re like me, and love to see behind the curtain, go visit! The site is still under development, but there’s a fun chunk of stuff to sift through already.

What to do when you’re not betraying teammates with a rocket launcher? Check today’s One One Se7en for a suggestion.

Dyslexia, over at MLGPro.com, has written up an endorsement of the upcoming Team Hardcore playlist that Bungie will introduce to XBL Matchmaking later this month. He explains why it’s a good thing, and who will benefit from it, and although I STILL don’t like MLG’s use of the word ‘balanced’ (I think they mean ‘uniform’), it’s a well-written piece with several good points. Thanks, 3Suns.

Reinsoft posted another Halo rap (definitely needs the MPAA Explicit Lyrics rating) on our forum last night – 3.4 mb in downloadable form, or you can stream it from his website. Check it out.

Red vs Blue episode 63 is up now for sponsors – it’ll be up for everyone late Wednesday night. (As Burnie says, it’s either a few days late, or a week and a half early, depending on how you view RvB’s ‘time warp’ database accident of last week.) Tucker gets in a bit of trouble for playing with the wrong toys, Simmons learns to hate value-added communications services, and Tex makes a deal with Andy. Fun stuff all around! Just over 5 minutes long – go grab a copy!

We’ve added yet another Gallery Page – this time for a newcomer to the Halo art scene by the name of Theo Prins. His first piece made it into our last Misc Art update… but since then, he’s been sending quite a bit, and I’m really taken with it. I decided there were enough featured artists that it was time to create an ‘HBO Gallery‘ page, and remove the individual links from the ‘Hot Pages’ list on the right. Hopefully, the fact that the art links are one level down won’t stop people from exploring them! Start, right now, with Theo’s page. There’s some mind-blowing stuff there.

Over at Bungie.net, Frankie pointed out a post by Lorraine ‘Mehve’ McLees, detailing the work behind the Halo Movie Companion, the work put together to help the movie studio understand the Halo universe a bit better. Great read!

That Weasel has posted a second segment for the Rockets on Prisoner 2005 awards – ‘Best Music Video’ nominees… and the winner. Available in 6 flavors (two sizes of 3 separate formats). Go grab the one that works best for you!

There were rumors floating around that Peter Jackson might be directing the upcoming Halo movie – today, Bungie’s posted an article that might just floor you. Jackson is on board – as Executive Producer. That means WETA, the special effects house behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Jackson’s upcoming King Kong, will ALSO be on board, creating the sets and effects that will bring Halo to life. Wow. Just plain… wow. Joe says he and Pete Parsons are headed down to New Zealand next week to meet with Jackson… if you had fears that Bungie would abandon the movie to the heartless Hollywood machine, put them aside.

JW points out a story on Joystiq which discusses a purported leak of the Halo 3 script on a website known as Riches Will Rust. The poster is brand new to that forum, with no personal info shown… and the script itself shows itself to be… well, below Bungie writing standards is a nice way to put it. Anyway – the script is fake (that’s from an official source, not just me), but that fact isn’t stopping it from getting all over the internet today. Spread the word, if you can. Update: Frankie has now posted an official ‘it’s fake’ note on Bungie.net, for those who were skeptical of the unnamed sources.

I’m lovin’ it. Last night, Elnea recorded ‘Blow Boys Away’, a parody of Breaking Benjamin’s ‘Blow Me Away’ in which she stands tall for the fairer sex. It’s hilarious. It’s available in MP3, Real, or WMA formats from her RvB Journal – but if you’re not a member (and don’t feel like becoming one), you’re probably better off grabbing the mp3 from us. Lyrics are also up. I’m still chuckling.

XerxdeeJ stopped by to say he’d posted another couple of entries in his Tied the Leader blog – there’s a great rant about ‘skill’, and what it means in a game of Halo 2, and a plea for advice on how to improve the XBL connection in his new digs. Go read!

The Daily Toreador, a newspaper in Lubbock, Texas, has an article about a Halo 2 tournament held in a local church. It’s a nice general-interest piece, with opinions (that will reach the general, non-game-playing public) about the upcoming consoles, and Halo’s place in online gaming.

Dennis Powers wrote to point out a milestone over at the Halo CE Chronicles – over 50,000 downloads of the series (and counting). Nice! If you haven’t seen it, and don’t feel like downloading each episode of Season 1 individually, he’s re-released the season in two chunks; episodes 1-5 in one file, and episodes 6-9 in a second. Go look!

Dan Chosich and Loren Judah, both longtime contributors to the Halo community, have put together Sentient Arts, a website devoted to giving artists a place to display their work. It’s not Halo-specific (though I’m sure they’d accept Halo-related material) – but it’s pretty slick-looking, and it’s definitely a resource that many in this community could make use of. Check it out! Comments can go in this forum thread.