Earlier this year, acclaimed director, producer and screenwriter JJ Abrams said that he was developing movies based on Valve's phenomenally popular gaming series, Half-Life and Portal. Abrams began working with Valve three years earlier, but while he revealed that he had writers working on the new movies back in March, nothing more has been heard since then.
But at the launch event for Abrams' new HBO show Westworld, based on the 1973 cult movie of the same name, IGN asked him about the Valve movie projects. He said that both the Half-Life and Portal movies are "still very much in development".
And there was more good news, as Abrams said: "We have a meeting coming up next week with Valve; we're very active. I'm hoping there will be a Portal announcement fairly soon."
So it appears that Portal will be the first of the two games to make it to the big screen, but until that announcement comes, there's no indication of how long the wait might be for either movie to be released. The events of both Portal and Half-Life take place within the same 'universe', although it's not yet clear how closely the movies will be linked.
Abrams didn't give anything away when asked if the movies will be tied to the events depicted in the games:
We are having some really interesting discussions with writers, many of whom...once you said you’re doing a movie or show about a specific thing that is a known quantity you start to find people who are rabid about these things. As someone who loves playing Half Life and Portal, what’s the movie of this, it’s incredible when you talk to someone who just ‘gets’ it, it’s like, oh my god, it’s really the seed for this incredible tree you’re growing.
Not much to go on there, clearly, but with any luck, it won't be too long before we find out a bit more about the Portal movie, at least.
It's worth noting that Abrams has been working with Dan Trachtenberg, who directed Abrams' movie 10 Cloverfield Lane, which was released this year. In 2011, Trachtenberg created a live-action short film called Portal: No Escape, which earned huge respect from the gaming community, and has been viewed over 18 million times on YouTube.
It may be a while before we get to see Abrams' new Portal and Half-Life movies in all their glory, but for now, check out the glorious goodness of No Escape:
Source: IGN
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