J.J. Abrams to Work with Valve on a Half-Life or Portal Movie?

As if J.J. Abrams didn't have enough on his plate with Star Trek and Star Wars, it's been revealed that he's working with Valve on a video game and a possible movie adaptation. During the D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas today, J.J. Abrams and Gabe Newell took the stage for the opening keynote to discuss storytelling in games and movies.

They also made the surprise announcement that they plan to work together on a number of projects. Abrams mentioned that Bad Robot and Valve will be teaming up for a new video game: “There’s an idea we have for a game that we’d like to work with Valve on." It was also mentioned by Newell that they are talking about working on a movie together as well: “We’re going to figure out if we can make a Portal movie or Half-Life movie together."

Valve's Gabe Newell had talked about interest in a Half-Life movie previously, but mentioned he'd only do it if they were able to bring the  same quality to the movie that they bring to their games. Given Abrams' schedule, we think it's very unlikely he'd be involved as the director of a Half-Life or Portal movie, and would likely take a producing role with Bad Robot.

While this announcement is probably very exciting for fans of Valve's games, keep in mind that everything is in the very early stages. They aren't even sure which video game adaptation they would move forward with, so it could be years before we hear about anything moving forward. Still, it's a great place for Valve to start and we'd love to see a Half-Life movie done right.