J.J. Abrams Says PORTAL and HALF-LIFE Movies Are Still in Development
Back in 2013 J.J. Abrams announced that he was developing feature film adaptations of the video game franchise's Portal and Half-Life. Bad Robot and Valve are teaming up to make these films happen, but there’s been no information on the projects since that announcement at the D.I.C.E. Conference that year. If you were excited by that news, you’ll be happy to hear that the films are actually still in development! While talking to IGN, Abrams was asked about the projects and he told them:
“Not yet, but they’re in development. And we’ve got writers, and we’re working on both those stories. But nothing that would be an exciting update.”
It’s exciting enough to know that they aren’t dead and that Abrams is still in the process of bringing these stories to life. We don’t know who is helping develop these projects, but I think it’s safe to assume that 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg is working on Portal. After all, he directed a fantastic short film based on the game that helped land him the 10 Cloverfield Lane directing gig.
If you think about it, Abrams probably gave him the opportunity to direct 10 Cloverfield Lane as a way to help fine-tune his directing skills and get him some experience making a feature length film. Now that he’s done that, and he’s done it well, he's better prepared to take on a bigger film project like Portal.
The stories of the two games are not really tied to each other, but they do take place in the same universe. I imagine the movies that are being made will also take place in the same universe.
Half-Life was released in 1998 and follows a theoretical physicist named Gordon Freeman, who opens a dimensional rift that leads to a plane of existence named Xen, which is full of creatures and connects to other dimensions.
Portal was released in 2007, and it follows a test subject named Chell, who is forced to navigate a rival research company’s laboratories armed with a device that can open portals through space while being taunted by a power hungry AI.