10 Pitched Movies Hollywood Wasn't Ready For

9. Neill Blomkamp's $135 Million Halo Adaptation

In the mid-2000s, Microsoft made a concerted effort to get a movie adaptation of their hit FPS franchise Halo off the ground, even drafting in Alex Garland (Ex Machina) to write a script, while Peter Jackson was aboard as producer, and Neill Blomkamp (District 9) was set to direct in his feature debut.

By most accounts, Microsoft's aggressive approach to shopping the movie rights around town and demanding a massive cut of the profits caused many studios to walk away from the table.

Though Microsoft did eventually come to an arrangement with Fox and Universal to co-produce the film with a $135 million budget locked in, Halo ended up cancelled early in post-production due to various business and legal disagreements, not least a budget skyrocketing to a reported $200 million.

Given that this was 15 years ago, where video game movies had a poor rep and nobody had ever mounted one at this price point before, it's totally understandable that Hollywood was bullish, even with an IP as instantly iconic as Halo.

Not until 2010's Prince of Persia did any studio go all-in with a tentpole-level pricetag - estimated at $150-200 million - and subsequent big-budget video game movies have only entered production sporadically.

But it's safe to say that in a world where a pricey video game movie like Rampage can turn a solid profit, a Halo movie is in no way the risk Hollywood deemed it to be 15 years ago.

It could still happen one day, but back in 2005 it was just too "risky" and ambitious for the suits to get their heads around.