Eric Trautmann's latest (lengthy) blog update is a hoot to read and is even on-topic, as his new neighbors disclose his location to the neighborhood Halo fans.

Stosh at Bungie.net pointed out an article by Pat Miller in the latest issue of The Escapist. (If you're not familiar with the format, like I wasn't, the magazine issue itself is the downloadable PDF file linked at the bottom of the page--Ed.) The article is about Bungie's pre-Halo heritage, the Marathon Trilogy, and even includes a sidebar on the Haunted Apiary (ilovebees) alternate reality game.

Following closely on the heels of yesterday's prognostications in Variety about the Halo motion picture project, none other than Bungie's own scriptwriter extraordinaire, Joe Staten, penned part of a piece to try and calm the nerves of Halo fans everywhere, and give them every possible assurance that Bungie is engaged and enthusiastic about this project-- about Alex Garland's script and about the attitude of producer Peter Schlessel.

Spotted by HBO, an article by Variety says Halo is hitting the big screen in 2007, and while Microsoft (and thus, we assume, Bungie) will be "guaranteed extensive consultation on the project" it will not have final approval on anything.

[image:9673 align=left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0] Halo blog Tied The Leader today has an eighteen-minute telephone interview with Steve "Master Chief" Downes, on-air personality for Chicago's WDRV and the voice of the terse protagonist of Halo and Halo 2.

The voting booths are open for the 2005 Rockets on Prisoner awards presented by That Weasel Television.

Brian "Amaroq" Towne of the Mythica filehosting services has been interviewed by the guys at Halo Arena. Check it out.

Stosh has written at Bungie.net that Rooster Teeth will be continuing their Red vs Blue machinima series, with season 4 set to debut on August 29, 2005. (I can't find confirmation of this on the RvB website as stosh seems to indicate, but perhaps I'm not looking in the right place--Ed.)

Bungie Sightings has a new post up today on their observed progress of Wideload's upcoming Halo engine game, Stubbs the Zombie, as well as an offer of $5 to the person who can guess their answer to this question:

"Stubbs the Zombie is based on a previous Bungie engine. In the history of Bungie (and now Wideload) technical sequels, what sets this game apart from past attempts?"

The official website for the Rockets On Prisoner 2005 video contest is up; awards for Halo and Halo 2 videos produced using the Xbox or PC versions of the game may now be nominated in one of nine categories.

This week's... ahem.. blogcast by Major Nelson features an interview with Bungie's own Brian "SketchFactor" Jarrard. It's the second interview, the first being with a Boeing engineer about the Connexion in-flight Internet service.

Over at Halo Arena, irc.bungie.org and HBO forum admin KP is interviewed about his playing style, the Halo vs Halo 2 debate, and life before Halo.

Bungie's original Halo title, first shown to the public running on a Mac at MacWorld in New York in 1999, subsequently re-targeted for the Xbox and released in 2001, then ported to the PC by Gearbox and then re-ported to the Macintosh again by Westlake Interactive and published by MacSoft Games, has now come full circle: the Macintosh Demo of Halo is now available. You can download it from these locations:

Players who want to compete in Major League Gaming's Philadelphia events in Halo or Halo 2 need to register online.