The shock news broke today that J.J Abrams, who already has his plate pretty full with promoting Star Trek 2 and gearing up to direct Star Wars Episode VII, is looking to work with Valve's Gabe Newell on
bringing their hugely popular Half-Life and Portal franchises to the big screen. It sent shockwaves throughout the Internet, given that Newell has for years shown resistance to Hollywood filmmakers handling his baby, though either through one Hell of a pitch or simply a grand admiration for Abrams' work in the sci-fi arena to date, the Star Trek director appears to have done something to stoke the game designer's fires. Half-Life has to be one of the most challenging video game properties to adapt for a multitude of reasons, not least that the games have a fervent, rabid fanbase who will turn on anyone who they perceive as threatening their prized IP. If J.J. Abrams is going to make this a success, there are 7 simple rules he must follow. Here are 7 things J.J. Abrams must get right in developing the Half-Life movie...
7. Don't Make A Direct Adaptation
Directly adapting the first Half-Life game would be, to be frank, stupid; it's a great
game, but it wouldn't make a particularly compelling film in its pre-existing state, and would have to be significantly altered for the cinematic medium. We doubt J.J. Abrams would dare do this anyway, and just as well, because there's a vocal contingent of Half-Life fans, myself included, who would prefer that Abrams make a film
connected with the Half-Life universe rather than a film that outright attempts to copy it. Set the movie in another testing facility where a horrible alien experiment goes wrong? Absolutely, just don't cast Gordon Freeman in it, but introduce other elements - such as a hapless security guard and enemies we are all familiar with - to make it clear that this is an authorised and official Half-Life movie and not some dispiriting knock-off. Though this is one lesson video game movies learned in the early days - that direct adaptations are a terrible idea - let's hope J.J. is the first director to actually do something interesting - and, you know, good - with it.