9 ms·

J.J. Abrams, Valve in talks for game and Half-Life or Portal film

80 points by jjp9999 14y ago

nonamegiven 14y ago
When you're sitting in a theater watching the Portal movie, will you be able to see through the portals on the screen to see movies in the other theaters in the multiplex?
matmann2001 14y ago
So many lens flares...
jnycs 14y ago
NOOOOOOOO
javajosh 14y ago
Love the games. But let's face it: Hollywood movies based on games are basically professionally done fanfic. They use the world to tell a story, which is really, really boring. I mean, has there ever been a successful movie based on a game? It would be far, far better if Abrams and Valve collaborated on a new game. Half-Life 3, perhaps? Or a massively multiplayer Portal? There's certainly no shame in doing games anymore for big names. The money is, if anything, better in games than in movies these days.
- meaty 14y ago
  Yes there has: mortal kombat. It captured the essence of the game perfectly and lets face it, the sound track was awesome. Flawless victory!
  - rangibaby 14y ago
    It's interesting that the adaptations of both Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil were directed by the same person.
- harshpotatoes 14y ago
  I thought silent hill was quite good, probably due to less rigid 'canon' allowing for flexibility in characters and story. Admittedly, this would make it the exception and not the rule. I also think this means that Half Life/Portal would not translate well into a movie.
- FreeKill 14y ago
  You could argue the Resident Evil movies are successful. They've made 5 of them, and most of them have made a ton of money worldwide... Honestly though, I think video game movies right now are like Comic Book movies were 20 years ago. Back then, they all were terrible until someone came along and made one (with an appropriate budget) that took the material seriously, and now it's a massive profit engine. I think there are many video game based stories worthy of movies, it just takes someone to do it right.
  - javajosh 14y ago
    Yes, there have been some incredibly good movies based on comic books! Perhaps more than have been based on novels, actually. Comic books and games do indeed share the important quality of being highly visual. However, unlike a comic book a game is also interactive, immersive, and involves you in a (generally) non-linear story. Perhaps most important of all, a game gives you a chance to solve problems and have your answers evaluated; a movie (like a comic book) treats you as a passive participant, taking away something that you may want. Come to think of it, there is one game I think would make a good movie: Grim Fandango!
    - FreeKill 14y ago
      True, they are definitely very different mediums. However, no one says a video game to movie adaptation has to duplicate exactly the experience of playing the game. Many games have incredibly deep mythology, stories, and characters all of which lends itself great towards movies. I think video game "worlds" could be a great source for movies but maybe not necessarily any direct adaptation of a specific game to film. For example, I think a movie based on the overall storyline of assassin's creed would be good, but I don't think it would be successful to just copy one of the games and create scenes that are shot for shot from the game.
      - javajosh 14y ago
        Sure. I mean, it's hard to argue that "The Matrix" wasn't inspired by computer games (Syndicate comes to mind). But that's not what Valve is talking about doing. Presumably they are going to make an action movie with a (talking?) Gordon Freeman as the action hero. Bleh.
- InclinedPlane 14y ago
  Funny enough, the best examples in the genre are Wreck it Ralph and Tron, which are based mostly on fictional games.
kemiller 14y ago
Holy Christ, is there not a single beloved geek scifi franchise pie that this man will have his finger in?
- zanny 14y ago
  Dungeons and Dragons! But that might be because the only D&D forays into cinematography have been less than spectacular.
  - Xlythe 14y ago
    There have been a few good web comics[1] and short videos[2] based around D&D. I can envision a D&D movie. [1] http://www.goblinscomic.com/06262005/ http://www.goblinscomic.com/06262005/ [2] http://www.urealms.com/content.php?150-Unforgotten-Realms-Episode-1 http://www.urealms.com/content.php?150-Unforgotten-Realms-Ep...
    - DuskStar 14y ago
      Hey! You forgot Order of the Stick! (Even if it is more a parody) http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html
  - kaolinite 14y ago
    I quite enjoyed The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, though it has been a while since I watched it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gamers:_Dorkness_Rising http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gamers:_Dorkness_Rising
DiabloD3 14y ago
Site is down. I suspect this isn't true.
- Bud 14y ago
  Appears quite legit. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118065765/ http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118065765/
simonsarris 14y ago
This is a really unpopular opinion[1], so I hope I don't get a lot of flak here, but while Half-Life 1 had a lot of intrigue, Half-Life 2 felt plain awful and I'm not really sure how they could turn any of #2 into movie material unless they really de-emphasized Gordon to the point where he's a minor character. You'll notice, after all, that most live-action stuff centered around the Half-Life universe doesn't really contain any Gordon (at least the ones I've seen)[2]. Half-Life 1 was the story of a scientist caught up in something much larger than himself. You played this hapless guy who escaped and explored worlds, with compelling confusion about who your enemies and friends were. It was dream-like and scary and mysterious and great. Half-life 2 felt like you were being lead through a metaphorical tunnel the entire game. Literally some parts had NPCs reminding you to "go this way" for hour-long stretches. Most of the game wasn't escaping terrifying situations, instead it felt like you were merely "in transit". It's hard to have a thrilling feeling of excitement and horror as you're being nagged to get to the next plot device. What's more, whereas in HL1 you were this scientist caught up in a mess, in HL2 you play essentially the role of a hired brute. You do zero Gordon-specific things. When you meet Barney at the start of the game, if you swapped bodies with Barney at that moment, nothing in the game would have changed at all. Congrats on that MIT degree the NPCs will remind you, now kindly plow through 6,000 bugs/zombies/cycloptic humans as we tell you what to do. I have a inkling that the sour direction HL2 took is at least part of the reason they're having trouble with HL3 but who's to say. Most reviews say its one of the greatest games ever, so maybe I'm way off kilter. Anyway, I think a Half-Life movie, if it covered any of the events in Half-Life 2 at all, would suffer severe problems if it tries to make a story of a mute scientist who kills his way to the 90th floor of Castle X to save the world. It's just not a very compelling story. [1] I was lambasted for offering this opinion on Reddit. The game also has a 96 on Metacritic, with zero negative reviews: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/half-life-2 http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/half-life-2 That makes it the #1 all-time highest scoring game on Metacritic (tied with HL1!), which seems insane to me, and several (in my opinion) better games within that genre come to mind. [2] What I was thinking of specifically was "Escape from City 17": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1UPMEmCqZo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1UPMEmCqZo
- galaktor 14y ago
  I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in my opinion that HL2 seemed to drag on eternally. I loved HL1, but never even completed HL2 - all I really remember thinking back is * drive boat, get out, shoot stuff, open gates. repeat. a lot. * headcrabs * Ravenwood is annoying and boring. more headcrabs. * no ammo. lots of headcrabs. I'm not joking, at some point I just stopped playing... I suppose I should give it another chance, the story seems to be intriguing.
gruseom 14y ago
I will never forgive Abrams for the eternal clusterfuck of plot betrayal that was Lost, and intend to express this by boycotting anything he has a hand in forever.
- MartinCron 14y ago
  And after you cut off your nose to spite your face, how do you keep your sunglasses from sliding down?
  - gruseom 14y ago
    Your comment made me realize that the humor in mine must not have come through. Every time I use that tone online, I end up regretting it -- not that this one is a big deal, obviously, but the phenomenon is interesting. "The online comment" or even "the HN comment" is its own little genre.
    - MartinCron 14y ago
      Yeah. Humor on HN is a difficult thing. For the most part, I don't bother. There seems to be a different standard for top-level comments than for replies.
- csense 14y ago
  I've never personally watched Lost, but I've been told that in the first episode they explain the concept of a plane crash several times. "We were up there...and then the engine failed...and now, we're down here!" If this is an accurate characterization, it says a lot of things -- none of them favorable -- about the show, the director, and the audience.
  - untog 14y ago
    You've never watched, but been told what some characters apparently said in the first episode of a six season long show, and are happy to judge it on that basis?
- 14y ago
knodi 14y ago
Gabe please Half-Life 2: EP3!!!
cheeseprocedure 14y ago
Imagine a "Half-Life" film composed of one continuous shot from the first-person perspective.
- MartinCron 14y ago
  Two extremely difficult film techniques, there. One would be a lunatic to try such a thing.
  - rangibaby 14y ago
    Enter the Void[1] was basically three hours of this. I enjoyed it, but it's definitely not for everyone. [1]http://www.avclub.com/articles/enter-the-void,52931/ http://www.avclub.com/articles/enter-the-void,52931/ Here's part of my favorite comment on that article: "The whole thing plays out like a video game cut scene that never ends, or a rail shooter in which the controller has stopped working; first person, limited third, floaty bits-- it seems to borrow a lot of gaming grammar for its visuals, intentional or no. Old-timey comics used to throw around adjectives like "mindbending!" all the time. I think Enter the Void truly is, though. It ate my brain and shat it back out in my skull... and I think it gave me insomnia. It's either a weird, pretentious mess, or a goddamn masterpiece, but it's definitely worth seeing."
    - MartinCron 14y ago
      This evening would have been better if I hadn't been reminded of that film. I respect that some people enjoy it, but yeah, I am not a fan.
  - officemonkey 14y ago
    See "Russian Ark." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J--TDEHizVA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J--TDEHizVA
    - MartinCron 14y ago
      That looks amazing! Thank you for the heads up.
Benferhat 14y ago
If it's anything like Portal: No Escape (Live Action Short Film by Dan Trachtenberg)[0], I think the Portal movie could be quite successful. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4drucg1A6Xk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4drucg1A6Xk
- error54 14y ago
  Awesome short film. I hadn't seen that before so thanks for the link!
  - nathos 14y ago
    I also like "Outside Aperture": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NorZUFfpvC0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NorZUFfpvC0
ck2 14y ago
I am not a gamer but I love the resident evil movie series, very entertaining (have never even seen the game!) Why the heck is JJ Abrams the only person Hollywood can go to though? That's crazy and I am kinda exhausted from his style. Now if they can make a mystery movie based on portal, I'd watch that.
overgard 14y ago
Well, Half-Life might work as a silent film. (Zing!) Sorry, couldn't resist the obvious joke. To me, a good story generally involves good characters. Are there actually any good characters in half-life? Gordon is literally a blank slate, and Alex is an extremely generic attractive side-kick. And uh, theres a scientist and barney. The only interesting character I can think of is the G-Man, but he's more interesting in terms of what he suggests about the structure of the world rather than as a character in his own right (at this point). I just don't get where the story draws from. Half-Life was effective because it presented a great experience rather than a great narrative.
- dspeyer 14y ago
  Portal does better on the character front. Cave Johnson and GLaDOS are very memorable. The two of them just bantering... has potential.
- EliRivers 14y ago
  If the film began by appearing to be about Freeman and chums, but gradually was revealed to actually be about G-Man as a "chess Grandmaster" style behind-the-scenes puppet-master, they could get a lot out of that.
B-Con 14y ago
Would the movie be downloadable through Steam?
officemonkey 14y ago
They're barking up the wrong IP. Valve could make a PG-13 rated Team Fortress 2 game, and people would love it. Make a "Magnificent 7" rip-off, or an "Oceans 11" rip-off. The thing is tailor-made for any caper/heist/action flick.
maked00 14y ago
I can save them a few hundred million bucks, mix in McGuffins every few paragraphs, wrap things up with a shaggy dog ending. Include gratuitous explosions, car/plane/train crashes, and rescue the chick,puppy,small children between McGuffins.

80 points by jjp9999 14y ago

When you're sitting in a theater watching the Portal movie, will you be able to see through the portals on the screen to see movies in the other theaters in the multiplex?

matmann2001 14y ago

So many lens flares...

jnycs 14y ago

NOOOOOOOO

javajosh 14y ago

Love the games. But let's face it: Hollywood movies based on games are basically professionally done fanfic. They use the world to tell a story, which is really, really boring. I mean, has there ever been a successful movie based on a game? It would be far, far better if Abrams and Valve collaborated on a new game. Half-Life 3, perhaps? Or a massively multiplayer Portal? There's certainly no shame in doing games anymore for big names. The money is, if anything, better in games than in movies these days.

meaty 14y ago
Yes there has: mortal kombat. It captured the essence of the game perfectly and lets face it, the sound track was awesome. Flawless victory!
- rangibaby 14y ago
  It's interesting that the adaptations of both Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil were directed by the same person.
harshpotatoes 14y ago
I thought silent hill was quite good, probably due to less rigid 'canon' allowing for flexibility in characters and story. Admittedly, this would make it the exception and not the rule. I also think this means that Half Life/Portal would not translate well into a movie.
FreeKill 14y ago
You could argue the Resident Evil movies are successful. They've made 5 of them, and most of them have made a ton of money worldwide... Honestly though, I think video game movies right now are like Comic Book movies were 20 years ago. Back then, they all were terrible until someone came along and made one (with an appropriate budget) that took the material seriously, and now it's a massive profit engine. I think there are many video game based stories worthy of movies, it just takes someone to do it right.
- javajosh 14y ago
  Yes, there have been some incredibly good movies based on comic books! Perhaps more than have been based on novels, actually. Comic books and games do indeed share the important quality of being highly visual. However, unlike a comic book a game is also interactive, immersive, and involves you in a (generally) non-linear story. Perhaps most important of all, a game gives you a chance to solve problems and have your answers evaluated; a movie (like a comic book) treats you as a passive participant, taking away something that you may want. Come to think of it, there is one game I think would make a good movie: Grim Fandango!
  - FreeKill 14y ago
    True, they are definitely very different mediums. However, no one says a video game to movie adaptation has to duplicate exactly the experience of playing the game. Many games have incredibly deep mythology, stories, and characters all of which lends itself great towards movies. I think video game "worlds" could be a great source for movies but maybe not necessarily any direct adaptation of a specific game to film. For example, I think a movie based on the overall storyline of assassin's creed would be good, but I don't think it would be successful to just copy one of the games and create scenes that are shot for shot from the game.
    - javajosh 14y ago
      Sure. I mean, it's hard to argue that "The Matrix" wasn't inspired by computer games (Syndicate comes to mind). But that's not what Valve is talking about doing. Presumably they are going to make an action movie with a (talking?) Gordon Freeman as the action hero. Bleh.
InclinedPlane 14y ago
Funny enough, the best examples in the genre are Wreck it Ralph and Tron, which are based mostly on fictional games.

kemiller 14y ago

Holy Christ, is there not a single beloved geek scifi franchise pie that this man will have his finger in?

zanny 14y ago
Dungeons and Dragons! But that might be because the only D&D forays into cinematography have been less than spectacular.
- Xlythe 14y ago
  There have been a few good web comics[1] and short videos[2] based around D&D. I can envision a D&D movie. [1] http://www.goblinscomic.com/06262005/ http://www.goblinscomic.com/06262005/ [2] http://www.urealms.com/content.php?150-Unforgotten-Realms-Episode-1 http://www.urealms.com/content.php?150-Unforgotten-Realms-Ep...
  - DuskStar 14y ago
    Hey! You forgot Order of the Stick! (Even if it is more a parody) http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html
- kaolinite 14y ago
  I quite enjoyed The Gamers: Dorkness Rising, though it has been a while since I watched it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gamers:_Dorkness_Rising http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gamers:_Dorkness_Rising

DiabloD3 14y ago

Site is down. I suspect this isn't true.

Bud 14y ago
Appears quite legit. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118065765/ http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118065765/

simonsarris 14y ago

This is a really unpopular opinion[1], so I hope I don't get a lot of flak here, but while Half-Life 1 had a lot of intrigue, Half-Life 2 felt plain awful and I'm not really sure how they could turn any of #2 into movie material unless they really de-emphasized Gordon to the point where he's a minor character. You'll notice, after all, that most live-action stuff centered around the Half-Life universe doesn't really contain any Gordon (at least the ones I've seen)[2]. Half-Life 1 was the story of a scientist caught up in something much larger than himself. You played this hapless guy who escaped and explored worlds, with compelling confusion about who your enemies and friends were. It was dream-like and scary and mysterious and great. Half-life 2 felt like you were being lead through a metaphorical tunnel the entire game. Literally some parts had NPCs reminding you to "go this way" for hour-long stretches. Most of the game wasn't escaping terrifying situations, instead it felt like you were merely "in transit". It's hard to have a thrilling feeling of excitement and horror as you're being nagged to get to the next plot device. What's more, whereas in HL1 you were this scientist caught up in a mess, in HL2 you play essentially the role of a hired brute. You do zero Gordon-specific things. When you meet Barney at the start of the game, if you swapped bodies with Barney at that moment, nothing in the game would have changed at all. Congrats on that MIT degree the NPCs will remind you, now kindly plow through 6,000 bugs/zombies/cycloptic humans as we tell you what to do. I have a inkling that the sour direction HL2 took is at least part of the reason they're having trouble with HL3 but who's to say. Most reviews say its one of the greatest games ever, so maybe I'm way off kilter. Anyway, I think a Half-Life movie, if it covered any of the events in Half-Life 2 at all, would suffer severe problems if it tries to make a story of a mute scientist who kills his way to the 90th floor of Castle X to save the world. It's just not a very compelling story. [1] I was lambasted for offering this opinion on Reddit. The game also has a 96 on Metacritic, with zero negative reviews: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/half-life-2 http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/half-life-2 That makes it the #1 all-time highest scoring game on Metacritic (tied with HL1!), which seems insane to me, and several (in my opinion) better games within that genre come to mind. [2] What I was thinking of specifically was "Escape from City 17": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1UPMEmCqZo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1UPMEmCqZo

galaktor 14y ago
I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in my opinion that HL2 seemed to drag on eternally. I loved HL1, but never even completed HL2 - all I really remember thinking back is * drive boat, get out, shoot stuff, open gates. repeat. a lot. * headcrabs * Ravenwood is annoying and boring. more headcrabs. * no ammo. lots of headcrabs. I'm not joking, at some point I just stopped playing... I suppose I should give it another chance, the story seems to be intriguing.

gruseom 14y ago

I will never forgive Abrams for the eternal clusterfuck of plot betrayal that was Lost, and intend to express this by boycotting anything he has a hand in forever.

MartinCron 14y ago
And after you cut off your nose to spite your face, how do you keep your sunglasses from sliding down?
- gruseom 14y ago
  Your comment made me realize that the humor in mine must not have come through. Every time I use that tone online, I end up regretting it -- not that this one is a big deal, obviously, but the phenomenon is interesting. "The online comment" or even "the HN comment" is its own little genre.
  - MartinCron 14y ago
    Yeah. Humor on HN is a difficult thing. For the most part, I don't bother. There seems to be a different standard for top-level comments than for replies.
csense 14y ago
I've never personally watched Lost, but I've been told that in the first episode they explain the concept of a plane crash several times. "We were up there...and then the engine failed...and now, we're down here!" If this is an accurate characterization, it says a lot of things -- none of them favorable -- about the show, the director, and the audience.
- untog 14y ago
  You've never watched, but been told what some characters apparently said in the first episode of a six season long show, and are happy to judge it on that basis?
14y ago

knodi 14y ago

Gabe please Half-Life 2: EP3!!!

cheeseprocedure 14y ago

Imagine a "Half-Life" film composed of one continuous shot from the first-person perspective.

MartinCron 14y ago
Two extremely difficult film techniques, there. One would be a lunatic to try such a thing.
- rangibaby 14y ago
  Enter the Void[1] was basically three hours of this. I enjoyed it, but it's definitely not for everyone. [1]http://www.avclub.com/articles/enter-the-void,52931/ http://www.avclub.com/articles/enter-the-void,52931/ Here's part of my favorite comment on that article: "The whole thing plays out like a video game cut scene that never ends, or a rail shooter in which the controller has stopped working; first person, limited third, floaty bits-- it seems to borrow a lot of gaming grammar for its visuals, intentional or no. Old-timey comics used to throw around adjectives like "mindbending!" all the time. I think Enter the Void truly is, though. It ate my brain and shat it back out in my skull... and I think it gave me insomnia. It's either a weird, pretentious mess, or a goddamn masterpiece, but it's definitely worth seeing."
  - MartinCron 14y ago
    This evening would have been better if I hadn't been reminded of that film. I respect that some people enjoy it, but yeah, I am not a fan.
- officemonkey 14y ago
  See "Russian Ark." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J--TDEHizVA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J--TDEHizVA
  - MartinCron 14y ago
    That looks amazing! Thank you for the heads up.

Benferhat 14y ago

If it's anything like Portal: No Escape (Live Action Short Film by Dan Trachtenberg)[0], I think the Portal movie could be quite successful. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4drucg1A6Xk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4drucg1A6Xk

error54 14y ago
Awesome short film. I hadn't seen that before so thanks for the link!
- nathos 14y ago
  I also like "Outside Aperture": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NorZUFfpvC0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NorZUFfpvC0

ck2 14y ago

I am not a gamer but I love the resident evil movie series, very entertaining (have never even seen the game!) Why the heck is JJ Abrams the only person Hollywood can go to though? That's crazy and I am kinda exhausted from his style. Now if they can make a mystery movie based on portal, I'd watch that.

overgard 14y ago

Well, Half-Life might work as a silent film. (Zing!) Sorry, couldn't resist the obvious joke. To me, a good story generally involves good characters. Are there actually any good characters in half-life? Gordon is literally a blank slate, and Alex is an extremely generic attractive side-kick. And uh, theres a scientist and barney. The only interesting character I can think of is the G-Man, but he's more interesting in terms of what he suggests about the structure of the world rather than as a character in his own right (at this point). I just don't get where the story draws from. Half-Life was effective because it presented a great experience rather than a great narrative.

dspeyer 14y ago
Portal does better on the character front. Cave Johnson and GLaDOS are very memorable. The two of them just bantering... has potential.
EliRivers 14y ago
If the film began by appearing to be about Freeman and chums, but gradually was revealed to actually be about G-Man as a "chess Grandmaster" style behind-the-scenes puppet-master, they could get a lot out of that.

B-Con 14y ago

Would the movie be downloadable through Steam?

officemonkey 14y ago

They're barking up the wrong IP. Valve could make a PG-13 rated Team Fortress 2 game, and people would love it. Make a "Magnificent 7" rip-off, or an "Oceans 11" rip-off. The thing is tailor-made for any caper/heist/action flick.

maked00 14y ago

I can save them a few hundred million bucks, mix in McGuffins every few paragraphs, wrap things up with a shaggy dog ending. Include gratuitous explosions, car/plane/train crashes, and rescue the chick,puppy,small children between McGuffins.