They're Not Dolls! They're Action Figures!
20th Century Fox scrapped a plan to make a movie based on Microsoft's smash hit Halo series of video games, but they've inked a deal with Redmond to become the primary licensor for the Halo franchise anyway. They'll sell books, clothes, and various other collectible stuff, and probably cash in big in September when Halo 3 is released.
Though the unsuccessful film development helped bring the two companies closer together, Fox's licensing division has a longer relationship with Microsoft. It handled similar duties for "Perfect Dark Zero" and "Kameo: Elements of Power," two Microsoft-published games that came out in late 2005 in conjunction with the launch of the Xbox 360.
"Those two games established our relationship with them as a licensing agency, and those conversations continued during the same time that a 'Halo' film was in development here," said Elie Dekel, exec VP of domestic licensing for Fox.
He added that Fox's licensing division focuses primarily on teens and young adults instead of kids, as some other studios do, which makes "Halo" a good fit.
20th Century Fox: saving the universe, one mother's basement at a time.
