Valve, J.J. Abrams Want to Collaborate on Movies, Games

It’s an unwritten rule between Alex and I to avoid the most of the news about Hollywood picking the rights to produce movies based on video games, largely because they almost never happen.

That said, all bets are off when it comes to Paul Walker (Alex) and JJ Abrams (me). I'd apologize, except I'm not going to apologize.

Anyway, Valve founder Gabe Newell and director J.J. Abrams were part of a joint keynote this morning, the kickoff for the the D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas this week (we aren't there, sadly). The duo revealed a mutual admiration for one another, and Abrams revealed he’d like to work with Valve on a game, and Valve would like to work with Abrams on possibly creating a Half-Life or Portal movie.

No real details were revealed, and it may only be aspirational between the two, at the moment.

The keynote was titled “Storytelling Across Platforms: Who Benefits Most, the Audience or the Player?”

The connection between Valve and Abrams isn’t completely new. An interactive teaser trailer for Abrams’ Spielbergian flick Super 8 was produced using Valve’s Source engine in 2011.

J.J. is owning the media world.

Something may actually come out of this.

Cool.

Where's Half-life 3?

Lost.

So basically what this all means is that three years ago, JJ abrams found a Magic Lamp with a genie inside.

"I want to direct a new Star Trek movie!" IT IS DONE

"I want to direct the new Star Wars trilogy!" IT SHALL BE SO

"I want to work on half-life three!" ...LOOK, STICK TO MOVIES KID.

I really like the sound of this. Here's hoping!

@Icicle7x3 said:

Where's Half-life 3?

Lost.

I see what you did there.

Half-Life 3 coming soon!

(To a theater! AHAHAHA!)

Half-Life 3 will turn out to be a J.J. Abrams film done with Source Filmmaker with the Source 2 engine showcasing all sorts of new crazy lens flare tech.

I find it hard to imagine Half-Life and Portal translating that well into movies. Maybe Abrams can do it, but I doubt it.

I could not be less excited

Doesn't JJ Abrams already have enough to do between Star Wars and Star Trek?

I'm more interested to see what his game ideas are rather than any film adaptations. Portal and Half-Life already have proven themselves as workable fan shorts.

I hope not. I'm looking at you Black Ops.

Stay out of gaming, Hollywood.

Welcome to the video game ghetto J.J. Abrams

my brain just sploded.

I did always think JJ Abrams could nail a Half-Life 2 adaptation. Or perhaps just a show set in City 17.

Go for it.

Who was REALLY asking for Half-Life or Portal movie?

Let games be games. Let Gabe be a knife-obsessed Muppet.

Terrible combo. Someone needs to break it.

@GeekDown said:

I find it hard to imagine Half-Life and Portal translating that well into movies. Maybe Abrams can do it, but I doubt it.

A film adaptation of the adventures of Gordon Freeman would probably be terrible, but the weird background fluff of the Half-Life setting (the Seven Hour War and other assorted G-man/Combine shit) seem right in Abrams' wheelhouse.

I'll believe stuff when I'm sitting in a theater watching it. Until then I have no interest.

LENS FLARE

Also, Alex needs to be on it when Nick Cage is going to be a video game-based movie.

Hot story Patrick!! Keep up the great work my man!

A Portal movie? Makes even less sense than an Uncharted movie.

Please happen!

@VibratingDonkey said:

This is too good.

I think the choice to hand Abrams anything at this point simply represents the worst in corporate thinking. I don't care that he is helming all these projects (Star Trek, Star Wars, ect) per se, but I do have issue with the bland, commercial mindset this represents. I can basically envision the movie that Abrams will make, and so can everybody else, so he remains the safe bet and gets the job. I hope Valve was simply being polite. There is a certain poetic irony in Abrams pumping out a series of homogeneous sequels and remakes based on what was once diverse, original material though.

And delving more into the Portal mythology? No thanks. The last thing we need is movie that does for Portal what midichlorians did for Star Wars.

This is super cool.

LENS F...oh somebody already made that joke

Let me try again:

Something related to Half Life? That would be an Impossible Mission!

God damn you Abrams, whatever dark magic brought you into this world is incredibly powerful.

Is there video of Gabe's keynote anywhere?

why not just let things exist exclusively in their own medium. i know the answer is "money" and that lots of people will watch this but it's lazy and money shouldn't be an excuse

Hmmm, is there going to be a video of the keynote online in the near future?

This is going to be either a pipedream or a disaster.

@rebgav said:

Is JJ Abrams courting the videogame industry for licensing purposes? I thought that there was some talk a while ago about him meeting with Kojima?

My god JJ Abrams' Metal Gear would be incredible. Why can't that be the rumour.

Why does JJ Abrams suddenly have control over everything nerdy?

@arch4non said:

Why does JJ Abrams suddenly have control over everything nerdy?

Because that Star Trek reboot was pretty damn good

Abrams is one of the only directors I could see translating Half-Life into a good movie. Not that It really needs to happen, but if it does, he's a good choice.

@Icicle7x3 said:

Where's Half-life 3?

Lost.

You just won a thousand of Internets, friend.

Screw building on valve's existing IPs, what if they made an entirely new collab. IP, the game and movie come out on the same day and tell 2 sides of the same story or something crazy.

Chicago Ted

I'm pretty sure this just means JJ is as tired of waiting for Half-Life 3 as the rest of us, and he wants to get in there and get it made.

YES. I AM COMPLETELY ON BOARD.

@OriginalGman said:

I'm pretty sure this just means JJ is as tired of waiting for Half-Life 3 as the rest of us, and he wants to get in there and get it made.

@Paindamnation said:

@OriginalGman said:

I'm pretty sure this just means JJ is as tired of waiting for Half-Life 3 as the rest of us, and he wants to get in there and get it made.

Great! Those video games & Guillermo del Toro and video games & James Cameron hot collabos have been dynamite!