Rumours are growing stronger that the Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson will film a movie version of the popular Xbox game Halo next year in New Zealand.

According to the New Zealand Film and Video Technicians Guild, a professional organisation representing the interests of freelance film and video crew and allied crafts in the New Zealand Screen Production Industry, Jackson's film company Wingnut Films will start filming in May 2006.

The site has the following information listed:

“Halo
Format: 35mm Feature Film
Dates: May / June 2006
Location: Wellington
Production Co: Wingnut Films
Director: TBC
Exec Producers: Fran Walsh & Peter Jackson”

While the film doesn't have Jackson down for the director role as yet, imdb.com, the Internet movie database, is also listing him as executive producer of the project.

Apart from Lovely Bones, a film based on the best selling book by Alice Sebold, about a 14-year-old girl from suburban Pennsylvania who is murdered by her neighbor, imdb.com doesn't list any other directing jobs for Jackson potentially leaving him a window to direct Halo if he wanted.

Any film version is likely to draw big crowds from the gaming fraternity. The game, originally released in 2001, has sold in excess of five million copies around the world. A sequel came out last year, and a third instalment is expected in May 2006.