6 Director Suggestions for the HALF-LIFE and/or PORTAL Film Adaptation

To say that J.J. Abrams is a busy man is beyond an understatement. When I read last week that he was going to be involved in making a Half-Life or Portal feature film with Gabe Newell and Valve Corporation, I honestly thought I was reading some sort of Onionesque article playfully poking fun at the absolute tsunami of J.J Abrams news we seem to find ourselves swimming in these days.

One has to think: in what galaxy is this man going to have enough time and energy to balance directing not only the two biggest science fiction properties in the history of entertainment in Star Wars and Star Trek, but also one of the most coveted and well-received titles in all of gaming. Hit the jump for the full list of directors:

For the purposes of this list, let us go ahead and assume that J.J. Abrams will ultimately end up as a Writer, Producer or Executive on the production of the Half-Life or Portal feature. This leaves the door open for a variety of directors that not only could do justice to the material, but some filmmakers that have ironically enough, already done work partly inspired by the games themselves.

Neill Blomkamp

Anyone who has played Half-Life will attest that Gordon Freeman's red crowbar is the signature weapon in the game. However, I have always been partial to the "gravity gun" and I think that Neill Blomkamp is too. Among many other references and visual nods to Half-Life, it is a similar force field-like weapon that Wikus uses to great effect during the stunning climax of District 9; brutally taking out a badguy by launching a dead pig is a particularly great moment. Looking closely at Blomkamp's earlier work reveals a strong video game influence and sensibility: in many ways, District 9 already feels as if it is a very capable film adaptation of an existing video game franchise (which it was initially, as it began life as an adaptation of Bungie's Halo series). Of particular interest is Blomkamp's spectacular online short Halo: Landfall. This extremely brief proof-of-concept film is, in my opinion, the most faithful video game to screen adaptation to date by anyone; quite a marvel considering it is less than ten minutes long.

Guillermo del Toro

Pacific Rim already has a much discussed Portal connection. GLaDOS, the internet's favourite psychotic robot was included in voiceovers with the original trailer and this was officially confirmed to be an homage of sorts on the part of del Toro. Of course, whether or not GLaDOS will make it to the final cut of the film still remains to be seen. Having said this, I think that del Toro may be better suited to the more alien creature oriented world that is the Half-Life adaptation. With his obvious passion for creature design, it is not difficult to imagine him brilliantly realizing a battle between Gordon Freeman and the swarming Antlions or a terrifying face-off with a dreaded Strider. To top all of this off, Marc Laidlaw himself, the writer of the Half-Life series, mentioned that if it were up to him, his personal choice for director would be one Guillermo del Toro. He also went ahead and said something else about another director, but more on that later.

Alfonso Cuarón

His 2006 masterpiece Children of Men is already well on its way to being regarded as truly one of the finest science fiction films ever made. The environment that Cuarón creates in the film actually shares a significant number of similarities to "City 17" as it is depicted in Half-Life 2. Walled off cities, segregated trains, steel meshing, giant screens mounted on public walls; it's all there in both. What I think Cuarón brings here is the same thing that Valve employed to developing Half-Life; use an extremely real-world approach to production design and then subsequently apply the futuristic and otherworldly technologies and themes around that - not the other way around. This is the reason that the environments and cityscapes in Children of Men and Half-Life feel so authentic and lived-in; they are logical extrapolations of our existing world and are not based on outlandish speculation.

Jon Favreau

It is safe to say that Jon Favreau and the team at I.L.M. have mastered the VFX intricacies involved in bringing the Iron Man suit to life over the course of Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and now Iron Man 3 (only as Executive Producer). Let's face it, aside from watching Robert Downey Jr. chew through scenery, the real reason that Iron Man is awesome is we love seeing the suit; the brightly shining, high-tech pieces of titanium, steel and brass whirring, spinning, locking and clicking into place. Chk chk chk chk chk! I can think of nobody better to tackle the robotic, clinical, modern, sleek, shiny and suprisingly humourous world that is Portal. Favreau seems to have developed a natural ability to manage both extremely compelling action as well as genuinely humourous improvisational dialogue; two things that would work beautifully in a Portal feature film.

Darren Aronofsky

Because it would just be awesome. That's why.

Paul Verhoeven
Despite the high chance of the film slipping into the category of "camp", I would approve of Paul Verhoeven helming Half-Life adaptation. Because Starship Troopers and Total Recall, that's why. All kidding aside, one could actually make the argument that the Antlions and several other monstrous aliens featured in Half-Life do owe a lot to Verhoeven's 1997 cult classic. However, he has not directed an American film since 2000's inept yet strangely watchable Hollow Man and I really don't see him having the chops unless the intent is to make a campy and satirical Gordon Freeman adventure. However, I do find some humour in the words of Marc Laidlaw, who was previously mentioned in the Guillermo del Toro entry above:

"If Paul Verhoeven returned to science fiction films, he would do something insane with Half-Life…maybe something objectionably insane, but at least not boring."

So there it is. If either of these films get made, or they are more smartly combined into one picture, chances are it will be none of these talented gentlemen that I have listed above. However, perhaps that name may be found amongst the Honorable Mentions below:

Duncan Jones - He is a true fan of science fiction, video games and film. Duncan Jones the filmmaker would direct the film to please Duncan Jones the film fan.
Matt Reeves - The director of Cloverfield is already a chosen padawan of J.J. Abrams; this would be the safe choice and it would stay in the family.
Rian Johnson - While I was not the raving fan of Looper that everyone else seemed to be, I think that Johnson has recently demonstrated a somewhat decent capability for directing action, world building and sci-fi vision.
Matthew Vaughn - Mr. Vaughn, once attached to virtually everything under the sun, now is left without a franchise dance partner.

Who do you want to see directing the Portal or Half-Life film? 

Which franchise do you think would make the best overall transition to the screen?







Wksc.