The film adaptation of the Halo video game franchise dropped dead on its feet due to studio politics, acclaimed filmmaker Peter Jackson told an audience at San Diego Comic-Con.

"Which is a pretty horrible thing," said the man who adapted Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and remade King Kong.

Neill Blomkamp, who had been selected by Jackson's production team to direct the Halo film, had moved his family to New Zealand and had spent six weeks prepping for filming. The solution, Jackson said, was to turn the creative energy from Halo to a new project.

"We woke up in the morning making Halo," said Jackson, "and went to bed making District 9."

"It's a film I'm very proud of," said Jackson in introducing the extended trailer that aired during the Comic-Con panel. "It was a new experience for me because the film was improvised. [Blomkamp] wanted to make it spontaneous, even though we were filming a storyline."

Blomkamp wanted to cast Sharlto Copley, a friend from South Africa, to play the lead role, despite the fact that he had little experience. But finding actors who can improvise isn't easy, said Jackson, who added that, "when you see the movie, you'll be blown away by his performance."

District 9 is inspired by a short film that Blomkamp and Copley made in South Africa, about a massive alien space craft that becomes stranded on Earth, and hovers over Johannesburg. "The idea," explained Blomkamp, "is that the aliens are like an insect hive and they've lost their queen. They are drones."

The feature film, which releases into theaters on August 14, is an action drama filmed as a documentary.

Blomkamp said he used a documentary style to help ground the film and make the science fiction aspects feel real.

As for Halo, Blomkamp said that he still feels wounded, and he's now more interested in developing his own film ideas.
 
Jackson said that the rights to a Halo film have likely reverted back to Microsoft and that he's not involved in any plans at the moment.

He added, "I'm as excited about Halo now as I was then."