Before Bad Robot and 10 Cloverfield Lane, director Dan Trachtenberg has made a bit of a name for himself in the early days of YouTube with a an incredibly short flick based on Valve’s Portal.
In 2011, Trachtenberg uploaded a short movie he made, entitled ‘Portal: No Escape,’ which racked up millions of views from eager fans. (This being in the early days of YouTube, where millions of views was next to impossible).
Because of the, frankly, brilliant project, fans have been eyeing him up to bring Portal and Half-Life to the big screen, though nothing really has ever come of it.
Back in 2016, JJ Abrams was reportedly working on a Portal movie, telling IGN that both a Portal and Half-Life project were still “very much in development.” Sadly, that’s pretty much the last we heard of it all.
Now Trachtenberg has opened the floodgates of speculation once again, according to IGN’s Terri Schwartz.
Trachtenberg recently hosted a live watch-along of 10 Cloverfield Lane, where he responded to fan questions which were then live-tweeted by Schwartz.
According to Schwartz, when asked about a potential Half-Life or Portal movie, Trachtenberg responded: “I casually talked about it with [Bad Robot] at one point – they have Portal and Half-Life. … My answer is I have no idea. I’d probably have to say that anyway’ #10CloverfieldLane #WFHTheater.”
It’s been a long, long time since JJ Abrams last offered an update on the projects, so it’s looking likely that they’ve been shelved – at least for now. Abrams’ career has definitely seen an upturn in the past few years, as he’s moved from the likes of abc’s hit show, Lost, to the loft heights of the Star Wars universe.
Whether or not Half-Life or Portal will ever make it onto the big screen remains to be seen, but here’s hoping we’ll get there one day!
Featured Image Credit: Valve