Two game series that seemed ripe for film adaptations are the “Portal” and “Half-Life” franchises. When J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot and Gabe Newell’s Valve announced a collaboration almost four years ago, the hope was we would get something along those lines.

So far not much has happened on that front, both potential films seemingly stalling. With Abrams doing “Westworld” promotion at the moment, he was asked about the status of the potential films by IGN. He confirmed both “still very much in development” and suggests a “Portal” film is the one further along:

“We have a meeting coming up next week with Valve, we’re very active, I’m hoping that there will be a Portal announcement fairly soon. We are having some really interesting discussions with writers, many of whom…once you said you’re doing a movie or show about a specific thing that is a known quantity you start to find people who are rabid about these things. As someone who loves playing Half Life and Portal, what’s the movie of this, it’s incredible when you talk to someone who just

gets’ it, it’s like, oh my god, it’s really the seed for this incredible tree you’re growing.”

Valve’s Gabe Newell has previously indicated that any film adaptations of their games would have to be done in-house. “10 Cloverfield Lane” director Dan Trachtenberg has so far been the man who has gone the furthest in realising the idea of a screen version of “Portal” with his great short film “Portal: No Escape” which can be found online.