Word of J.J. Abrams-led Portal and Half-Life movies first surfaced three years ago when the film director and Valve’s Gabe Newell tossed the idea around at the DICE 2013 Summit in Las Vegas. In March of this year, Abrams’ confirmed the existence of both films, that they are in development, but with little to no information to follow up with.
IGN pressed Abrams at Wednesday’s Westworld red carpet event, and he admitted he is meeting with Valve next week. “We have a meeting coming up next week with Valve, we’re very active, I’m hoping that there will be a Portal announcement fairly soon,” Abrams told IGN.
“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.”
This is comforting, due to the fact that Newell has spoken out before about the poor quality of the pitches he has receieved from Hollywood production companies over the years. The pitches, he described as “brutally, the worst”, as a result of “not understanding what made the game good.”
Abrams continued: “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.
“I look forward to being able to talk about it and announce who’s working on it.”
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