JJ Abrams and Valve to Work on Movies

[Austin]

I confess I have no idea how old this news is, but it's the first I've heard of it. Apparently JJ Abrams met with Gabe Newell to discuss video game and movie collaborations between Valve and Bad Robot (Abram's studio). From what I can tell they're released no specifics, but the two IPs being thrown around as ideas seem to be Half-Life and Portal. They both seem to have acknowledged the fact that movies based on video games often have poor results, but they also seem confident that they'll be able to turn out a worthwhile final product.

Half-Life and Portal movies in early idea stages, J.J. Abrams*says | Polygon

What do you all think? Personally I trust Gabe Newell with my life, so I'm sure anything he's involved in will be fantastic.

 

[Yoda's LSD Dealer]

This is pretty interesting. As you've said, I would sacrifice my first few kids to Gabe Newell, and I trust him with a lot. He has literally never let me down. None of his games have been letdowns in any form of the word. I remember being a little bit sketchy about Portal 2 when it came out, because I thought that they had finished the story quite well and that they were just trying to milk the series. Boy was I wrong. Portal 2 is my favorite game to date, and honestly just... perfect.

A Portal movie though? We'll see what happens. Portal's whole appeal is it being a puzzle game, and you can't really make a puzzle movie persay. Portal's story is absolutely flawless though, so I'm sure that something good can work.

A Half-Life movie, on the other hand, I have no worries whatsoever about. The story is great and action packed; perfect for a movie. If it has to be done, they could combine the first two games in order to make the movie more complete.

Great thread, Austin. I'm excited to see what will become of these movies in the future.

 

[Spirit]

JJ is a great creative mind with a lot of talent for both mainstream and the more independent side of things, I think he could do really well with a Portal movie but I'd also like a Left 4 Dead movie, the games were pretty much in the style of movies and it'd be pretty cool to see some of the artwork re-created to sell the actual movie, also with the popularity of The Walking Dead i could see a Left 4 Dead movie working quite well for many people involved.