DB Weiss Talks Halo Screenplay

Posted on July 19, 2006

Author and screenwriter DB Weiss is busy with several projects. In an iinterview with GameSetWatch.com, DB Weiss, the author of 2003's Lucky Wander Boy, discusses these new projects: he's writing a new script for Halo, the film version of the hit XBox game, which will be produced by Mary Parent, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh. And if that's not enough, he's also co-writing the script for Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game with David Benioff.

GameSetWatch asked Weiss what made him attempt to combine contemporary fiction and gaming culture in his novel, Lucky Wander Boy. Weiss said, "I think it's probably a natural thing that videogames are a relatively new subject for fiction, being the youngest popular artistic medium. I wanted to write about them because they've permeated my life, along with books, music and movies. As more people for whom this is the case come of age, I think we'll see more videogame cross-pollination."

In the interview, Weiss talks about the challenge of writing the screenplay for a story based on a game, because the fans are so critical of any deviation from the original game. But, surprisingly enough, what he really wants to do is write stories for games.

Weiss says, "I think that games will inevitably up their game in the writing and story departments, they’ll have to, if they really want to be mainstream."

He dismisses talk of games being bigger than movies as ridiculous and says hardcore gamers can influence the direction of games a lot more than film audiences can influence the direction of a movie. We're excited to see what he does with Halo and Ender's Game. Ender's Game is a complex novel that will require clever writing and filming for it to translate properly to the big screen.