I think they could pull of a Half-Life movie as long as they could find a way of remaining loyal to the spirit of the game, while also making it work in a different medium. I think that's the primary problem with video game based movies. As it's so difficult to transform an interactive medium into a passive one, filmmakers try to make it work by producing extremely loose "artistic visions" of video games that they say keep with the spirit. This is a mistake. Yes, keep with the spirit, but don't throw us some random story that hardly resembles the games at all. A way to compromise must be found. Find a away to tell the story presented in a game in a way that is both faithful to the source material, but also works within the rules that exist in good filmmaking. Of course, that's easier said than done.
Though given the current state of Hollywood and movies based on video games, I hope filmmakers stay far away from Half-Life for the moment. Given the nature of Gordon Freeman's character and how the story is presented in the Half-Life series, it would be more difficult than most adaptations to pull off and I wouldn't want it trusted to anyone who isn't a brilliant filmmaker and willing to put in the effort needed to figure out a way to make it work.
With that said, my choices are: Edward Norton, Hugh Laurie, and Gary Oldman. Any of those actors would be fantastic. I think Ryan Gosling could be an interesting choice as well.
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