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Showtime exec Jana Winograde addresses Halo’s move to Paramount+, calling the upcoming video game adaptation a “good fit” for the streaming platform.
An executive for Showtime has addressed the premium cable network’s planned Halo adaptation jumping ship to the Paramount+ streaming service, saying that the move is ultimately a good thing for the upcoming sci-fi series.
“Look, we love Halo, and we have great affection for it, and [Paramount+ is] a good fit because we continue on as the studio so we’re going to be intimately involved with the creative and the production of it,” Showtime Networks President of Entertainment Jana Winograde said at a TCA summer press tour panel (via GameSpot).
“But the truth is that it was always a bit of an outlier for us in terms of its fit in the Showtime universe,” Winograde continued. “We did an amazing job of imbuing into the series, the character drama that we’re so well known for. But at the end of the day, it is a big, broad, big-tent show. So when Paramount+ came into being, it really was a natural fit there.”
To Winograde’s point, Showtime is far better known for character-focused dramas like Dexter and Ray Donovan than it is for sci-fi epics. In contrast, Paramount+ has made sci-fi a major part of its image, as the streaming platform is the currently the spiritual home of the Star Trek franchise. Though, interestingly, CBS All Access — Paramount+’s predecessor — was planning an adaptation of The Man Who Fell to Earth that ultimately moved to Showtime.
At any rate, giving up Halo couldn’t have been easy for Showtime, given the amount of time and money it invested into the project. However, it should also be mentioned that the process began long before Paramount+ even existed.
“We started developing Halo seven years ago when there was no Paramount+ or even the glimmer of an idea about it, and it was always a bit of an odd fit, you know?” said Winograde’s co-President of Entertainment Gary Levine. “What is Showtime doing taking a video game — a first-person shooter video game — and putting it in their dramas?” Levine appears to have changed his tune on the matter a bit, as the exec previously said he thought the Halo adaptation would “definitely satisfy the fans of Halo, as well as “satisfy the drama audiences of Showtime.”
Addressing The Man Who Fell to Earth, Levine added, “I think this is a one-time thing, and we did a one-time trade. ‘You can have Halo, we’ll take Man Who Fell to Earth.’ We’re happy, they’re happy. I think both shows will thrive in their new environments.”
With a television adaptation of Xbox’s premier first-person shooter franchise having been in development for years, the ViacomCBS-owned Showtime officially gave Halo the green light in 2018. In mid-2019, it was announced that Pablo Schreiber had been cast in the lead role of Master Chief, with production on the series beginning by the end of that year. In February of this year, it was confirmed that Halo had moved to ViacomCBS’ Paramount+ streaming platform.
In addition to Schreiber, Halo stars Natascha McElhone as Dr. Catherine Halsey, Yerin Ha as Kwan Ha, Charlie Murphy as Makee, Shabana Azmi as Admiral Margaret Parangosky and Bokeem Woodbine as Soren-066, among others. The show also stars the voice of Jen Taylor, who reprises her role as Cortana from the original video games. Paramount+’s Halo does not currently have a premiere date, though is expected to debut on the platform early next year.
Source: GameSpot
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