Newell: Valve looking to make Portal or Half-Life movie with J.J. Abrams

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

During today's DICE keynote conversation between movie director J.J. Abrams and Valve co-founder Gabe Newell, the latter noted a collaboration he's looking forward to making a reality if possible.

"We're going to try and figure out if we can make a Half-Life movie or a Portal movie together," said Gabe Newell.

[...]

Source: Joystiq

Not a bad choice if you ask me. I really enjoyed Abrams' past movies (Cloverfield, Star Trek, and Super 8).

[Rappy Veteran]

JJ is everywhere :p and it feels so right :p

[TheLegendOfMart]

How about giving Half Life fans what they want and finish off the ******* cliffhanger ending of Episode 2 instead of giving people ******* hats for TF2.

[McKay]

Not JJ Abrams, the whole of the Half Life movie will look like this if he directs it.

How about giving Half Life fans what they want and finish off the ******* cliffhanger ending of Episode 2 instead of giving people ******* hats for TF2.

Gabe said they were waiting to finish their new Engine before they make that, and they're possibly waiting on the new consoles before they finish their engine.

[TheLegendOfMart]

Sorry but its been what, 6-7 years now since episode 2?

The original pitch for the episodes was that they could knock them out every 6 months. Not everyone cares about DOTA2, TF2, etc..

[ensiform]

Not everyone really cares for Half Life either. Would be more interested in a portal movie prob.

[Davo]

I can only take so much low-brow Sci-Fi. It's pretty damn bad when Michael Bay movies have more backstory and thought.

[TheLegendOfMart]

It's their main franchise though, its a bit sh*tty to screw all the half life people over for the sake of selling hats in TF2.

[Max Norris]

Not everyone really cares for Half Life either. Would be more interested in a portal movie prob.

Agreed; Half Life was a fun game, but as a movie? Meh. It's been done, repeatedly, never mind being a flimsy storyline. Portal at least they could possibly get creative with.

[Growled Member]

I think JJ Abrams is spread a bit too thin these days. You can't do a good job like that.

[DocM]

http://m.superherohype.com/news/articles/174895-could-jj-abrams-bring-half-life-and-portal-to-the-screen

Could J.J. Abrams Bring Half-Life and Portal to the Screen?

Feature film versions of Valve's Half-Life and Portal video games may be on the way in the not-too-distant future. Polygon reports that Valve's managing director Gabe Newell joined filmmaker J.J. Abrams on stage at today's DICE Summit and the pair hinted that a creative team-up is underway.

"There's an idea we have for a game that we'd like to work with Valve on," said Abrams.

"We're super excited about that," Newell responded, "and we also want to talk about making movies, either a 'Portal' movie or a 'Half-Life' movie... What we are actually doing here, we are recapitulating a series of conversations going on. We reached the point that we decided to do more than talk."

The first Half-Life game was released in 1998 and follows a theoretical physicist, Gordon Freeman, who opens a dimensional rift between a New Mexico research facility and a world of monsters called Xen.

Portal, meanwhile, is a spinoff of Half-Life released in 2007. In it, a test subject named Chell is forced to navigate a rival research company's laboratories armed with a device that can open portals through space. The game was the subject of a 2011 short fan film by Dan Trachtenberg (now set to direct New Line Cinema's Y: The Last Man) that you watch by clicking here.

Although plans for big screen versions of either game are still nascent, check back for details as soon as they become available.

[Rappy Veteran]

Threads Merged

[spacer]

I wish they would just finish HL3 before they butcher the series with a movie.

[lnmnky]

Is there a point to making a movie? The games are pretty epic as they stand. What could they add / change to make it a worthwhile movie?

Would it be a origin movie? Would it wrap up the whole universe in one story? We already know the story, and it's pretty meh... so why bother?

I know there's an argument that books are made into movies and we already know the story, but a book is not visual or interactive. If we can experience an interactive movie by playing the game, why would I watch a non-interactive version of HalfLife?

[The Teej]

Not everyone really cares for Half Life either. Would be more interested in a portal movie prob.

While this is true, not everyone cares about Portal, TF2, L4D or Dota 2 either. So far, since the release of HL2 Ep 2, we've seen 2 Portal Games, Numerous TF2 updates (big ones), 2 Left 4 Dead games (with a third one being rumoured) and now Dota 2 which will seemingly be doted upon (if you pardon the pun) for the next 3 years.

I think it's about time Half Life came back into the spotlight.