The Portal Movie From JJ Abrams Is Still Alive, But The Half-Life Movie Is Not

The Portal movie from director JJ Abrams and Valve is still alive. Abrams himself confirmed as much in an interview with IGN, saying the project has a script and it's in the works at Warner Bros. However, Abrams' Half-Life film is less of a certainty.

"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," he said.

The Portal movie was announced all the way back in 2013, so it's been a long time coming. This isn't out of the ordinary, however, as Hollywood projects can move very slowly. The Uncharted movie, for example, has been in the works since 2008--it's finally coming in 2022.

Abrams did not say who wrote the latest script for the Portal film, nor do we know anything about the cast or a director, so don't expect Portal: The Movie in theaters anytime soon. That said, Abrams said Portal is ripe for a film treatment because the game's story left space for a lot of narrative threads to come to light.

"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," he said.

Oscar-winning actor JK Simmons played Cave Johnson in Portal 2, and IGN said Abrams understands fans will want to see him come back to play the role in the movie, if that happens.

As for the Half-Life movie, which was also announced in 2013, Abrams said this project is no longer happening, at least not with Abrams and his team at Bad Robot.

"The Half-Life thing, we're not actively involved with at the moment," Abrams said.