J.J. Abrams and Valve planning on doing movies and a game together

[Trippy]

They announced at the 2013 D.I.C.E. Summit that's going on right now that they'll be collaborating on a game and movies together.

http://techzwn.com/2013/02/half-life-portal-films-announced-by-j-j-abrams-and-valve/

[Ragnoros]

Where does Abrams find the time to do all this stuff? Half Life, Star Trek, Star Wars, a couple of TV shows on top. My life seems empty.

Anyway, Yay!? I'm not sure a portal movie will be easy to do at all though, given the general lack of backstory, narrative or any characterization. At least the normal methods.

[Venkman]

Portal would be hard in that there's only one character against one other voice-only character for the entire thing. But I kinda thought I am Legend the movie worked. Needs a really strong female lead and the world itself needs to be treated as a character.

Half-Life would be curious. Dystopian future with mysterious alien-like stuff and government coverups, kinda passe right now, no?

[Lakov_Sanite]

Portal would be good as a very low key, indie style film. Nothing on a star trek type scale, very much a horror movie in theme.

[eldaec]

The story of everyone dying or escaping at aperture and the rise of glados could be a decent story. Portal 1 and beyond, I don't see.

If you accept the assumption that portal and half life exist in parallel it gets even harder.

Also, J Coulton soundtrack!

[tgr]

So we'll get Halflif: Lensflare and Portal: Lensflare?

Awesome.

[Teleku]

Ok, I think the lense flare jokes have reached the end of their shelf life.

[K9]

Portal would be hard in that there's only one character against one other voice-only character for the entire thing. But I kinda thought I am Legend the movie worked. Needs a really strong female lead and the world itself needs to be treated as a character.

Half-Life would be curious. Dystopian future with mysterious alien-like stuff and government coverups, kinda passe right now, no?

It's not impossible to envision a Portal film, it could be a film very similar to 2001, Moon, or Buried; it would be interesting to see a woman in the role of the person trapped in a claustrophobic environment. I doubt it would be a summer blockbuster, but I could see the outline of a great film in there.

[MahrinSkel]

I used to say that videogames were show business for geeks.  Now, I guess it's all just show business.

--Dave

[Malakili]

I hope they scrap the idea personally.  Half Life and Portal are masterpieces designed for gaming media.  I see no reason to move their stories to the big screen.

[Ironwood]

It's been that way for a good long while.  Where the fuck have you been ?

[schild]

I used to say that videogames were show business for geeks.  Now, I guess it's all just show business.

--Dave

Sure, in 1991.

[DraconianOne]

Frank Darabont already did a film about Half-Life - it was called "The Mist".  I quite liked it.

Edit: a quick google shows I am not alone in thinking this.

[Ironwood]

No.  It pretty much was a film about what happened after a resonance cascade.

If it hadn't been for the awful, awful fucking ending, it would have been a good film.

[HaemishM]

I liked the ending.

But personally, rather than a Portal or Half-Life movie, I'd rather just see Half Life 2, EPISODE FUCKING THREE.

Comma Goddamnit.

[Shannow]

I liked the ending.

But personally, rather than a Portal or Half-Life movie, I'd rather just see Half Life 2, EPISODE FUCKING THREE.

Comma Goddamnit.

Can I get an Amen?

[Yegolev]

I'm over Episode 3.  Episode 2 was dumb.

[Teleku]

I quite liked episode 2.

But yeah, christ, Abrams has cemented himself as the gold standard nerd director at this point.  Not sure how he's going to balance all of these projects.

[DraconianOne]

But yeah, christ, Abrams has cemented himself as the gold standard nerd director at this point.  Not sure how he's going to balance all of these projects.

There's a lot of assumption going on about this whole story but there really isn't any news. Despite what the geek press are saying, this isn't an announcement at all. Sure it's the closest Newell has come to saying he'd grant the rights to make a Half-Life movie (and given that Abrams, Del Toro and Duncan Jones amongst others are all massive fans of the series, he knows he'll get a director who isn't Uwe Boll) but at best it's a pre-pre-production statement. It's "wouldn't it be cool if we made a Half-Life/Portal movie!"  There's no production company attached, no budget, no shooting schedule, no script - and even if Abrams stuck to his word and got someone to write it, that doesn't mean anything either because Newell could still turn around and say "Yeah, you know what - this isn't going to happen."

Even if it does happen (and I will be first in the queue for a ticket!), I reckon Abrams would produce and get someone like Matt Reeves or Drew Goddard on board to direct.

[Trippy]

Producing takes a lot of work too. Mostly likely he'll just be one of the Executive Producers.

[UnSub]

When Abrams said the project status of any Portal / HL movie is that "they'll get a writer on it", it really means it probably won't happen. Which is a good thing, since the movies would be terrible because the sources are terrible to make a movie out of.

[DraconianOne]

When Abrams said the project status of any Portal / HL movie is that "they'll get a writer on it", it really means it probably won't happen. Which is a good thing, since the movies would be terrible because the sources are terrible to make a movie out of.

No they're not. Well, Portal, perhaps but Half-Life could totally be done. Half-Life 1 is Die Hard in a science lab with aliens instead of terrorists. It has the perfect structure for a movie - first act set-up with the resonance cascade, a second act filled with jeopardy, betrayals and escalating threat and a final act on Xen that might just work in a movie even though it didn't work so well in the game.

Half-Life 2 is obviously a film about a dystopian future but is also a war film and is an easy sell really in this age of insurgents, occupying forces, social control and cultural imperialism. Three act structure also in place - but personally I'd make Gordon less reactive and certainly make his motivation of assaulting the Citadel less about rescuing Alyx and more about stopping Dr Breen.

Yes, I have spent far too much time thinking about this over the years. 

[tgr]

And I'd think portal would be somewhat like a new version of the cube, which I thought was a brilliant movie. vOv

[Ironwood]

Yes.

[HaemishM]

And I'd think portal would be somewhat like a new version of the cube, which I thought was a brilliant movie. vOv

But only if they got J.K. Simmons back as CAVE JOHNSON!!!!

[Yegolev]

I think we are talking about Portal, not Portal 2: The Lengthening.

[HaemishM]

That would be a shame. As good as Portal 1 is, Cave Johnson makes everything better. Almost like bacon in voice form.

[Yegolev]

I'm torn.  Would cut into GladOS time.

When I grow up I'm going to make a System Shock movie.

[DraconianOne]

When I grow up I'm going to make a System Shock movie.

Yes.

[tgr]

When I grow up I'm going to make a System Shock movie.

[Samwise]

I think you could make a pretty decent movie by taking the basic structure of Portal 1, eliminating all the puzzle repetition, and using some of the background material exposed in Portal 2 to flesh out the second half where Chell is running around "behind the scenes".  There's no reason that you couldn't have Chell stumble across the old Cave Johnson labs during that segment.

[Ingmar]

It just isn't the right kind of narrative for cinema. As much as people complain about games trying to look like movies, I am nearly certain that trying to turn this game into a movie would be far worse.

[Dtrain]

Nobody's rooting for a L4D movie? Son...

[Bzalthek]

Do we really need more zombie media?  Really?

[tgr]

Do we really need more zombie media?  Really?

Zombie media for the braindead audience?