It’s been more than three years sinceJ.J. Abramsfirst revealed his involvement invideo game adaptationsofPortalandHalf-Life, but there have been very few updates about either project thus far. While promoting10 Cloverfield Lanethis spring, the filmmaker teased that both projects are still in development, with writers currently working on the scripts, but he didn’t identify these scribes quite yet. During the red carpet premiere ofWestworldthis week,J.J. Abramsnot only confirmed thatPortalis still in development, but he hopes there will be an official announcement soon.
J.J. Abramsfirst made the announcement about bothPortalandHalf-Lifemovies at the 2013 DICE convention withGabe Newell, the co-founder Valve, which developed both of the hit games. After three years of development, it seems that Bad Robot and Valve have moved forward enough that an official announcement is imminent. Here’s whatJ.J. Abramshad to say about the upcomingPortalmovie, during a red carpet interview withIGN.
“They are very much still in development. 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. We are having some really interesting discussions with writers, many of whom are, like, crazy-obsessed. Once you say you’re doing a movie or show about a specific thing that is a known quantity, it’s an amazing thing how you start to find people who are rabid about these things. As someone who loves playingHalf-LifeandPortal, 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 be able to talk about it, and announce who’s working on it.”
While it remains to be seen whenPortalwill hit the big screen, thevideo gameplayed an interesting role in the development of this spring’s10 Cloverfield Lane, whichJ.J. Abramsproduced. The film was directed byDan Trachtenberg, who made his directorial debut with that film after his 2011 fan filmPortal: No Escapewent viral. While video game adaptations have typically flopped at the box office,Warcraft’s immense international success (despite tanking at the domestic box office) and the highly-anticipatedAssassin’s Creedmay in fact revitalize the genre for good.
ThePortalvideo game debuted in 2007 from the Valve Corporation. The game consists of a series of puzzles that must be solved by teleporting the player’s character and simple objects using “the Aperture Science HandheldPortalDevice”, a device that can create inter-spatial portals between two flat planes. The main character Chell is challenged by an artificial intelligence namedGLaDOS(Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) to complete each puzzle in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center using the portal gun with the promise of receiving cake when all the puzzles are completed. Fans may recall thatGuillermo del Toroused the GlaDOS voice in his 2013 action-thrillerPacific Rim, because he was such a big fan of the game. Take a look atJ.J. Abrams' video interview below forPortal.
http://www.ign.com/videos/2025-07-17/jj-abrams-says-portal-movie-announcement-coming-soon
