‘Halo’ Showrunner Steven Kane Exiting Paramount+ Series Once Season 1 Is Complete

One of the more interesting video game adaptations is a new live-action series based on Microsoft’s Halo franchise from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television, the project having multiple production shake-ups from losing director M.J. Bassett and even one of it’s showrunners Kyle Killen.

Well, even before it has aired on Paramount+ after switching from Showtime, the sci-fi series has lost a second showrunner. Variety reports that Steven Kane (The Last Ship) is exiting once Season 1 has been completed, star Pablo Schreiber (plays Master Chief) had teased on Instagram that filming in Budapest, Hungary, was wrapping-up and has since been travelling with family.

Halo’s cast also consists of Bookem Woodbine, Charlie Murphy, Olive Gray, Kate Kennedy, Yerin Ha, Jen Taylor, Shabana Azmi, Bentley Kalu, Natasha Culzac, and Danny Spani.

Otto Bathurst, Jonathan Liebesman, Roel Reine, and Jessica Lowery are directing various episodes.

Amblin could certainly find a new showrunner to handle Season 2, but there hasn’t even been a sign that Halo is even going to get a second season. The show I imagine is extremely pricey as it filmed in Budapest where other high-profile sci-fi projects have shot such as Blade Runner 2049, Terminator: Dark Fate, and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune remake. It’ll be interesting to see how audiences react to the series when it debuts on Paramount+ in 2022 and if it becomes their flagship series at Paramount+ or they simply finish with a single season.

In the meantime, it was announced that Amblin would partnering with Netflix on a wave of new feature films and The Ronin revealed that Halo director Otto Bathurst is attached to helm/produce an Aurthian show Warlord Chronicles for Epix based on the Bernard Cornwell novels. This development came after his period gangster series Peaky Blinders has ended it’s run. So, it might be difficult to coax Bathurst to return as well.

It’s been an abnormally long production for everyone involved with Halo due to the pandemic that started back in the fall of 2019 and only recently wrapped, which likely has exhausted a lot of people involved with Halo. It’s crew includes production designer Sophie Becher (Mars) alongside cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub (Stargate, Independence Day, Black Book, Ninja Assassin) handling the bulk of the show’s episodes. There is also the expectation the action will be great after hiring stunt coordinator Tom Struthers, who has a laundry list of credits such as The Dark Knight, Dunkirk, Dune, Inception, and The Dark Knight Rises.

SOURCE: VARIETY

‘Halo’: Pablo Schreiber Teases The Paramount+ Series Has Finally Wrapped Filming

A few months back, it was announced that a brand new live-action Halo series from Amblin Television would be moving from Showtime to Paramount’s streaming service Paramount+, formerly known as CBS All Access.

An epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant. Halo will weave deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure and a richly imagined vision of the future.

The sci-fi streaming series will see Den of Thieves and American Gods actor Pablo Schreiber (younger brother of Liev Schreiber) playing Master Chief in the 10-episode run.

The Canadian actor has been posting regularly on his Instagram account giving fans updates on Halo’s shoot. Cameras eventually started rolling again last November as announced by the actor and it looks like things have wrapped or are about to, thanks to the latest Instagram post from Schreiber teasing he’s about to leave Budapest, Hungary.

Budapest stages have been previously used for high-profile sci-fi projects such as Blade Runner 2049 and Dune.

We should expect some high-level action sequences as stunt coordinator Tom Struthers worked on the first season before recently moving on to Season 3 of Jack Ryan at Amazon. Struthers’ impressive feature film credits include Dunkirk, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, X-Men: First Class, Terminator Salvation, John Carter, and Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming Dune remake.

Halo’s cast consists of Bookem Woodbine, Charlie Murphy, Olive Gray, Kate Kennedy, Yerin Ha, Jen Taylor, Shabana Azmi, Bentley Kalu, Natasha Culzac, and Danny Spani.

Otto Bathurst, Joanthan Liebesman, Roel Reine, and Jessica Lowery are directing various episodes.

At one time, director Neill Blomkamp and producer Peter Jackson were developing Halo as a feature film for 20th Century Fox before the project was killed as Blomkamp and Jackson pivoting to make District 9 instead.

Halo will officially debut on Paramount+ in 2022.

SOURCE: PABLO SCHREIBER

‘Jack Ryan’ Season 3 Adds ‘Dunkirk & ‘The Dark Knight’ Stunt Coordinator Tom Struthers

John Krasinski is having a pretty good week as his second feature film as a director made a mint at the domestic box office this past Memorial Day long weekend, with A Quiet Place Part II taking in around $57 million surpassing both the original film and Godzilla Vs. Kong’s pandemic record breaking domestic opening. Krasinski is also the main lead of the Amazon spy series Jack Ryan, of course, based on the Tom Clancy series of novels that spawned five studio movies previously led by actors such as Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, and Chris Pine.

The Ronin can confirm that veteran stunt coordinator Tom Struthers has joined the production team of the Amazon Prime Video series. Something that should get action fans like myself hyped about the third season taking steps to elevate the show’s action sequences.

The stunt coordinator isn’t a stranger to the Jack Ryan franchise as he worked on Chris Pine’s Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Struthers’ other credits include The Dark Knight, Dunkirk, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, John Carter, Terminator Salvation, and X-Men: First Class. He most recently worked on Denis Villeneuve’s first Dune installment and the Paramount+ streaming series Halo starring Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief, both sci-fi projects had been primarily shot in Budapest, Hungary.

Filming is reportedly still underway as Deadline says they added Betty Gabriel (Get Out) to the cast last month and mentioned the plot synopsis of the next season. She joins Krasinski alongside others such as Wendell Pierce, Mark Kelly, James Cosmo, Peter Guinness, Nina Hoss, and Alexej Manvelov.

Season 3 of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan finds Jack Ryan (Krasinski) on the run and in a race against time. Jack is wrongly implicated in a larger conspiracy and suddenly finds himself a fugitive out in the cold. Now, wanted by both the CIA and an international rogue faction that he has uncovered, Jack is forced underground, crisscrossing Europe, trying to stay alive and prevent a massive global conflict.

Season 3 is said to debut sometime this year.