It’s rare that a filmmaker is pleased when a project falls apart, but then Neill Blomkamp isn’t your normal director.

The man behind District 9 and new sci-fi film Elysium was once lined up to direct the movie adaptation of Halo, however, the Peter Jackson production died, and Blomkamp sees it as a stroke of luck.

Blomkamp says: “The luck is the fact that Peter and Fran [Walsh] let me make District 9 out of the ruins that were Halo. What happened out of that was learning to trust my ideas.

“If Halo had come out and succeeded or failed, I wouldn’t have learned that.”

District 9 cost $30m to make and generated a massive $210m worldwide, and Blomkamp proceeded to turn down the subsequent flood of offers to direct big-budget
franchise movies.

He explains: “It’s not because I think I’m better than any of that stuff. There are many franchises out there I would love to participate in. The problem is when you agree to do that, you take a lot of the control that you have over your own creative destiny away from yourself.”

Blomkamp has now said that he’d be happy to reconsider Halo if he was given control of the project creatively – I get the feeling he might get a bit more freedom now.

In Hollywood, never say never. Despite an acrimonious break-up back in 2004, Bob and Harvey Weinstein are to work with Disney once again.

The Weinstein Company is teaming with Disney for the adaptation of the Artemis Fowl children’s books, written by Eoin Colfer. The first film will be produced by Robert De Niro and based on the first and second installments of Colfer’s eight-novel series.

Disney and the Weinsteins haven’t worked together since a row over the release of Michael Moore’s documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004. At that time, the studio owned the Weinstein’s company Miramax, and the refusal of Disney boss Michael Eisner to release the anti George W. Bush film pushed the sibling producers to form a new company for the release.

However, Disney in 2013 is very different to the Disney of a decade ago, so it has been possible to smooth things over.

Harvey Weinstein said: “If you would have told me five years ago I would be producing a project with Disney I would have thought you were crazy. I feel as though everything is coming full circle.”

So far, there is no director on board, no casting details and no release date. Good news for Artemis Fowl fans though.

David Yates, director of the last four Potter films, is in final talks to head-up the remake of Scarface.

Originally filmed in 1932 and then again, more famously, in 1983 by Brian De Palma, Yates has been “refining” the script for the film, and Universal is said to be very enthusiastic about the current draft.

This new Scarface will take place in the modern day and will involve a new spin on the iconic character played by Al Pacino.

In other Harry Potter-related news, Warner Bros is keen to fill the void left by the boy wizard cash cow with a new youth-orientated franchise based on Merlin.

Game of Thrones writer Dave Hill is teaming up with Hanna’s David Farr to work on a screenplay, with the films pitched at the Potter/Hunger Games audience.

There has been speculation that films could be based on author T.A. Barron’s five-novel series The Lost Years of Merlin, which were optioned by Warner a couple of years ago and are full of giants and ogres and delectable tarts.