J.J. Abrams and Gabe Newell Want to Make Things Together
The other day at DICE, J.J. Abrams and Gabe Newell got up on stage together to give a presentation about their discussions on storytelling in games and film. If you’ve been paying attention, you may know that Gabe and J.J. have been buddies for a while, and have frequently mentioned their love for each other’s works. So now, on the cusp of Abrams getting the Star Wars gig, they have announced that they’ll be working on creating content together. Namely, Abrams wants to create Portal and Half-Life movies, and Newell wants Abrams to collaborate on a game with Valve. Pretty exciting stuff, but Abrams said that they’re only in the “early stages” of the talks, and are going to hire a scriptwriter soon. So who knows what could change in that time.
Thankfully, it appears Abrams has a healthy respect for the storytelling mechanics in games as well as movies. He states he’s “also aware of the cautionary tales of movies that became games and vice versa.” They’ve said they don’t want to infringe on what makes the games good, but use elements of them to create a good movie. To me, it seems like their hearts are in the right place, but we all know how movies can change over the course of their development. Lets hope Valve, Gabe, and J.J. all keep a tight leash of creative control on the process to make sure it turns out right.