The Portal Movie is Still a Thing

Eight years ago — that’s right, eight goddamn years — JJ Abrams announced that he was going to be working on a Portal and Half-Life movie together with the folks over at Valve. If you’ve forgotten this, it’s probably because it was announced eight years ago, a lot has happened since then, and of all the stuff to happen, none of it was an update on the fate of these two movies. But apparently, the folks at IGN did remember, and in a press event for the 4K release for Super 8 (a ten-year-old movie), JJ Abrams assured us that the Portal movie is still a thing.
 

"We actually do have a script that’s being written for the Portal movie now at [Warner Bros.]. We’re really excited about the take and the pitch, so it feels like that thing’s finally on the rails… It’s got enormous potential for a lot of reasons, one of which is because of the limited narrative of the game, as ingeniously told as it is, the potential of it is so huge. It’s gonna be super fun."

Don’t get too excited, tho: merely writing a script is barely the start of the process, and it doesn’t guarantee that any steps will be taken beyond that. Countless movies have “died” at the script phase, so even when a hard copy is in the director’s hands, it by no means implies we’re destined to get a Portal movie anytime soon.

Case in point: the Half-Life movie is, as far as we’re aware, not happening anymore. Specifically, JJ Abrams said that his production company, Bad Robot, isn’t involved with it anymore so he cannot speak to its status. But it’s not a good look.

In any case, a Portal movie would undeniably be dope as heck, so even if the odds aren’t great I’ll be seeing it this decade… I can still hope.