Update on the Half-Life and Portal movies

[[McD] James]

It's been several years since J.J Abrams announced plans to produce films based on two popular video game franchises. Now, we have a bit clearer idea what's going on with them. According to Abrams, films based on both Portal and Half-Life are still in development. What's more, it sounds like the future of the Portal film specifically is looking very good. So good that some sort of official statement may be right around the corner.

"We have a meeting coming up next week with Valve, we're very active, I'm hoping that there will be a Portal announcement fairly soon. ... 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."

Of course "fairly soon" can be a relative phrase when it comes to movie development, but the fact that J.J. Abrams and Valve, the developer of both games, will actually be meeting next week certainly means that these two projects are more than just ideas. He also tells IGN that there have been conversations with writers, that sound like they have been quite fruitful. There could even be scripts already being worked on as we speak, at least for the Portal film, since it appears that project is a little bit further along than Half-Life.

While no video game has quite captured the imagination of movie fans quite yet, studios are committed to making that happen. Both the Half-Life and Portal games are quite popular with fans. Half-Life was a major evolution of the first-person shooter game genre when it was released in 1998. It deals with a world that sees an alien invasion following an accidental (or not) rip between dimensions. Portal is also a first person game, but it focuses on puzzle solving by use of a gun that only shoots portals, allowing the player to better traverse their environment.

Movies may be the best possible thing that fans of these games could hope for at this point. New entries in either game would be incredibly popular, yet Valve seems to have a phobia of the number three. While both games got sequels, neither has seen a full third entry. Half-Life even saw episodic sequels to the second game, which also stalled before the third one was released.

Could either of these titles be the video game movie that changes everything? Who's in your Half-Life dream cast?

http://www.cinemablend.com/news/1561770/jj-abrams-updates-fans-on-planned-portal-and-half-life-movies

[Cupboard]

I think Paul Giamatti could be in the running to be cast as the crowbar in the Half-Life movie. Interesting stuff, though I didn't know JJ was going to be filthy rich by the end of his career. I'd like to see the films, though honestly

[Deleted_Account]

With J.J Abrams involved, it's going to be lens flare galore.

[MrGlide]

If its about chell, I thought she was mute? I don't want to go to much farther then that as to ruin anything for those who'v not played (if you've not I highly advise picking these titles up, they're steller). I don't know, there are so many directions they could go with these plots really they don't have to involve either of the protagonists.

[Gez]

A videogame is not a movie. Having a silent protagonist works in a video game because they're just a puppet of the player; however that protagonist transposed in a movie becomes a character.

A video game is all about the player doing cool stuff with their puppet. A movie is all about the characters doing cool stuff and interacting.

Also if you ever looked at the simplest form of video game movies out there -- "let's play" vids on youtube -- you would have noticed that no matter how mute and silent the character might be, the players are awful chatterbox who are constantly blabbering about everything.

[snapshot]

a Half-Life movie ? Ew I have a bad feeling about this .

[Trycon]

Why do we need movies about Half Life and Portal?

[Jaxxoon R]

Why do we need movies?

[Mr. Freeze]

I lost interest in movies years ago, to the point where I just see the latest comic book movies and leave it at that. They just don't interest me as a medium, especially not when trying to translate a game into a movie.

Why do we even need adaptions anyway? Were there people out there holding bated breath for a Portal movie?

[Jaxxoon R]

Why do we need breath?

[Cacockcansukmycok]

Jaxxoon R said:

Why do we need movies?

because it's Needs a damn sense to it.

[Bauul]

Mr. Freeze said:

I lost interest in movies years ago, to the point where I just see the latest comic book movies and leave it at that. They just don't interest me as a medium, especially not when trying to translate a game into a movie.

Why do we even need adaptions anyway? Were there people out there holding bated breath for a Portal movie?

Go hunt out a copy of The Room and prepare to have your mind blown!

Imo, one thing films will always do better than games is comedy, because you can't rely on the player to execute the necessary comic timing.

[Mr. Freeze]

Bauul said:

Go hunt out a copy of The Room and prepare to have your mind blown!

Already saw it with Rifftrax live. It was fucking extra hilarious with the commentary

[Clonehunter]

Video game adaptions tend to suck, but JJ Abrams has an otherwise decent pedigree, so maybe we're going to get something better. Strangely, I always imagined a Half Life movie being a long winded affair trying to weave together the stories of Freeman, Barney, and Shepard all at once.

[MrGlide]

Imagine Uwe Boll trying to do a portal movie.

[Chezza]

What? I didn't even know this is a thing.

This could be amazing but something about this irks me. I might be concerned that a series I respect is at risk of producing a movie that doesn't do it justice while the world will judge the games based on the movie, OR I'm sorta jealous that Half Life / Portal gets the Triple A sort of love (say what you will about J.J. Abrams he still is quite capable) while games like Doom gets questionable directors with minimal developer involvement.

[[McD] James]

Chezza said:

What? I didn't even know this is a thing.

This could be amazing but something about this irks me. I might be concerned that a series I respect is at risk of producing a movie that doesn't do it justice while the world will judge the games based on the movie, OR I'm sorta jealous that Half Life / Portal gets the Triple A sort of love (say what you will about J.J. Abrams he still is quite capable) while games like Doom gets questionable directors with minimal developer involvement.

I've never actually seen the Doom movie and I don't plan on ever changing that.

[TheWizard]

Chezza said:

What? I didn't even know this is a thing.

This could be amazing but something about this irks me. I might be concerned that a series I respect is at risk of producing a movie that doesn't do it justice while the world will judge the games based on the movie, OR I'm sorta jealous that Half Life / Portal gets the Triple A sort of love (say what you will about J.J. Abrams he still is quite capable) while games like Doom gets questionable directors with minimal developer involvement.

It makes sense. Half Life and Portal have way more potential to be movies than Doom. You're a generic space marine slaughtering the forces of hell, although it's pretty bad they didn't even get THAT right.

[Clonehunter]

Course, even Half Life could just change the aliens to "Weird Mutations Because Scientists Getting Tipsy with their Bio-engineering" and then reveal at the end that Gordon is the G-Man.

(Also, Christopher Walken for G-Man, eh?)