Did you think Hollywood’s scribes just sat on their hands during the 2007-2008 writers strike? Screenwriter Stuart Beattie (Pirates of the Caribbean, G.I. Joe) didn’t. A self-described Halo fan and the writer for an upcoming Gears of War film, Beattie spent his free time penning a prequel to the plot of the original game. Now he’s in talks with Microsoft to get the movie made, GameDaily reports.

Beattie was not involved with the Halo movie that was planned in 2005 and indefinitely postponed in 2006. Gamers who were desperate to see a decent game-to-movie adaptation had high hopes for that film, to be produced by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson.

“The Halo movie in its initial incarnation is dead,” Beattie told reporter John Gaudiosi. “No one is pursuing it any more. When the writers guild strike hit last year I suddenly had three months to write a Halo script.”

He continues:

As a Halo fan what I want to see in a Halo movie is Master Chief kicking alien butt and we have plenty of that. But we’ve also got this great story that goes along with it. I always thought that was the way a Halo story should be so when I got time during the strike I decided to put my money where my mouth was.

Beattie said his script begins with the early years of John, who is kidnapped at age 6 and told he will be a soldier. John’s fate of becoming the hero, Master Chief, becomes apparent as the Covenant begins tearing apart the human race. It’s a story arc inspired by Halo: The Fall of Reach, one of several novels based in the Halo universe.

The next step is to continue discussions with Microsoft. Joe Statton, who wrote all three games and directed the cinematics, “read it and loved it,” Beattie said.