J.J. Abrams and Gabe Newell Working Together for a Portal or Half-Life Film?
Last week, we talked about J.J. Abrams, directer of Star Trek and Gabe Newell, cofounder of Valve, would have a discussion during the gaming developer conference D.I.C.E.. Today that conversation, with no moderator, has just ended.
The exchange between the two iconic creators, was about how their two industries approach to storytelling, and how that narrative is told to their audience, and which way is ultimately more meaningful. While there will be a video shortly about their heart-to-heart, there was some interesting news about the two possibly working together in the future.
According to theverge’s live blog of the event, Newell and Abrams teased the idea of a possible game they could one day collaborate with each other. Gabe Newell told the writer/directer that he would personally love to work with him on a Half-Life or possible Portal film. Newell went and admitted the discussion today was purely “recapitulating a series of conversations” in the past, including J.J. Abrams adapting a Valve game for the silver screen.
This is hardly a confirmation on anything, but it is incredible to know that both men have talked about the possibility of a Half-Life or Portal feature film. And clearly if done right, those two video games have the potential of being at the very least, well received, unlike a majority of films that have been inspired by a video-game.
Back in 2009, there was a short film which was inspired by Half-life, which actually took the cue from J.J. Abram’s Cloverfield movie, where it was shot through the eyes of the protagonist. To this day, it has been seen by over 2.5 million people.
And let’s not forget the Portal inspired fan-made film, Portal: No Escape, which was directed by Dan Trachtenberg. To date, it’s been viewed by almost 12 million people, which makes it one of the highest viewed short films on YouTube. It became such a hit with Hollywood, Trachtenberg is scheduled to be directing the film adaptation for the graphic novel Y: The Last Man.
These two games clearly have the audience to make a blockbuster summer film, and don’t think that doesn’t intrigue J.J. Abrams
