Over at the Design Innovate Communicate Entertain summit, people are talking. Mostly about video games, but that’s also kind of good. And JJ Abrams was there as well. So what does the man behind a fresh take on Star Trek and an upcoming gig on Star Wars 7 have on his mind at DICE?
Well apparently, something that has him thinking with Portals.
Taking the stage with Valve co-founder Gabe Newell, Abrams decided to reach Del Toro levels of workahol by announcing that he wanted to make films together with the house of Half Life, Left 4 Dead and Portal. Movies that would be produced by his Bad Robot company and distributed across the Steam network, a system from Valve that allows PC owners to buy new games as they release, downloading them and bypassing brick and mortar shops altogether.
It’s a hell of an ambitious idea. For starters, Half Life has been in Hollywood crosshairs for a decade now, as the tale of a scientist involved in a black ops program that opens a portal into another dimension won numerous gaming awards when it was first released.
Then you’ve got Portal, a strange tale of homicidal computers, puzzles and a gun that shoots wormholes. Realistically don’t expect Abrams to take on more than a producers role with this announcement. He’s got his hands full with two massive universe, and most likely already has other projects bubbling away right now.
But a movie version of Half Life finally hitting the big screen? I’d gladly wait for that,
Last Updated: February 7, 2013
Grant Hancock
February 7, 2013 at 14:27
Just as with the new Star Wars films… I’d be extremely excited to see Half-Life movie…and extremely nervous ! …could be a colossal balls-up