VOTD: J.J. Abrams Discusses Storytelling With Valve Co-Founder Gabe Newell

Posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2013 by Russ Fischer

When filmmaker J.J. Abrams appeared on stage a week ago with Gabe Newell of Valve Software, the two dropped a bomb: their companies will work together on several potential projects, one of which could be a video game, and which may also include films based on Valve game series Portal and Half-Life.

Their announcement of potential collaborative projects came right at the end of a talk that ranged through storytelling concepts as developed in film and games. Now you can watch the DICE event, Storytelling Across Platforms: Who Benefits Most, The Audience or the Player? complete with the film and game clips originally found in the presentation, in its entirety.

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If There Were to Be a Half-Life Movie, Game Developer Valve Might Make It

Posted on Sunday, August 29th, 2010 by Russ Fischer

Why don’t game developers make their own movies based upon the video games they create? The first answer to that question should be: “they’re busy making more games.” But there are a few cases where very high-profile development studios might be able to pull together the resources to make a game-based film, and do so in a way that stays true to the spirit of the original title. But is that the best way for it to happen?

Valve, the company behind the award-winning game series Half-Life, has seen a lot of interest from producers and studios. But during those pitches no one kept the spirit of the games properly in mind, and Gabe Newell, CEO and co-founder of Valve, has come to the conclusion that if a Half-Life movie is going to be made, Valve might have to do it themselves. Read More »

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