Back in 2013, J.J. Abrams and Gabe Newell shared the stage at the DICE Summit where they announced a joint partnership between Bad Robot and Valve where the two would be working not only on a game idea together, but also films, namely Half-Life and Portal movies.
Since then, there have been little developments on the projects and they appeared to be stuck in stasis like the game’s protagonists, Gordon Freeman and Chell. Now, speaking with IGN, Abrams says both films are still being worked on.
“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.”
Though we don’t know who the writers on the project are, that there are writers working on the projects at all is good news. Coincidentally, Abrams latest producorial effort is 10 Cloverfield Lane, directed by Dan Trachtenberg, who rose to prominence after making a short film based on Portal.
The first Half-Life game was released in 1998 and follows a theoretical physicist, Gordon Freeman, who opens a dimensional rift between a New Mexico research facility and a world of monsters called Xen. It was awarded countless Game of the Year awards upon release and has spawned several spin-offs and a sequel.
Portal was first released in 2007 and while not directly tied to the events of Half-Life, it is set in the same universe as the game. In Portal, a test subject named Chell 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. It also spawned a sequel in 2011.
