Valve's game series Portal is just too good for Hollywood to pass up on it seems, as director J.J. Abrams has confirmed that a script is in the works and the movie is officially "on the rails". According to a new report, after years of rumoured projects on the way, it seems a Portal film really is gaining Steam (get it?) and is in current development at Warner Bros.
In an interview with IGN about Super 8's 4K Blu-ray re-release, a movie he directed, Abrams confirmed to the outlet that the Portal film has gained traction. It's been eight years since the Bad Robot Co-CEO and Valve founder Gabe Newell confirmed that the companies were looking to work together on a film, be it Half-Life or Portal. Now, all these years later, the pitch and script for the film seem to be on their way.
One of the best parts of Portal 2 is Stephen Merchant's performance as Wheatley, a robotic orb who acts as Chell's sidekick. Two fans made an incredible real-life version of our favourite AI here...
Abrams, who also directed 2009's Star Trek and 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, says: "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."
Advert
The interview continues with the director sounding pretty delighted with the way the film could play out, given how expertly the original games were crafted. "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."
There aren't any roles confirmed for the film yet - we don't even know if it would feature a silent Chell protagonist. My personal dream would be to see Chell as her quiet self, Ellen McLain once again take on the role of GLaDOS, and get JK Simmons to voice the dangerously eccentric Cave Johnson, as he did so brilliantly in Portal 2 (one of our greatest games of all time, by the way).
Hollywood has certainly been taking a huge amount of inspiration from games in recent years, with the upcoming Uncharted film, the continuing The Witcher series on Netflix, and the recently released Mortal Kombat. We're interested to see how gaming ideas continue to get translated to film and, who knows, maybe a Portal movie will finally encourage Valve to make a Portal 3.
Featured Image Credit: Valve