Ever since the first entry, countless gamers have wondered and considered the possibility of a movie being based on Valve’s hit gaming series, Half-Life. According to studio head and noted once-PS3-hater-turned-follower, Gabe Newell, if a movie was in the works, Valve would make sure they would be the ones to do it; nobody else.
Speaking to PC Gamer, Newell claimed that after the first Half-Life, representatives from Hollywood were pitching stories for a potential film adaptation of the game, and that they were “just so bad. I mean, brutally, the worst.”
“As a WoW player, I would much rather that the WoW team made the movie, right? Than anybody else. I like Sam Raimi, I’ve been a fan ever since Evil Dead came out, but I would rather see Blizzard making the movie.
“We think that customers are like, ‘OK, we’re kind of sick and tired of the way you guys are slicing and dicing the experience of being a fan of Harry Potter, or Half-Life, or The Incredibles, and you need to fix it.’ And the people that fix it will be rewarded, and the people that don’t will be on the rubbish heap of history, or whatever the phrase is.
“Where we got into this direction was after Half-Life 1 had shipped. There was a whole bunch of meetings with people from Hollywood. Directors down there wanted to make a Half-Life movie and stuff, so they’d bring in a writer or some talent agency would bring in writers, and they would pitch us on their story. And their stories were just so bad. I mean, brutally, the worst. Not understanding what made the game a good game, or what made the property an interesting thing for people to be a fan of.”
It certainly is reassuring to know that, if a movie does go through, would receive Valve’s full and undivided attention. But something tells us here at PlayStation LifeStyle that Valve is currently focusing on Portal 2, and can’t spend time on working with Hollywood executives.
