Fans have been clamoring for a film adaptation of Half Life or even its many constituent mods and expansions that have come out over the years. While many have flirted with the idea, it seems that one major fan favorite is loaded and ready to get into development, pending a formal announcement. According to J.J. Abrams, who spoke to IGN, we can likely expect to hear that Portal will be coming to the big screen, the first of Valve’s promised movie offerings from way back in 2013. “We have a meeting coming up next week with Valve,” Abrams said. “We’re very active, I’m hoping that there will be a Portal announcement fairly soon.”
When it comes to the movie’s “faithfulness” to the original game, Abrams was mum (as expected). He did, however, say:
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.
According to IMDb, Bad Robot is overseeing the potential production, hence why Abrams is fielding the question. Whether he’ll direct or not hasn’t been confirmed, but IMDb lists him as a producer. Also listed there is Gabe Newell, founder and creator of Half Life, the game and world on which Portal is based.
Here’s hoping we’ll have an official announcement to share with y’all real soon.
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