It was announced in 2013 that films based on the games Portal and Half-Life would eventually be coming to the big screen, but since then information has been fairly thin on the ground.
But speaking to IGN recently, J.J. Abrams has reassured fans that both films are absolutely still in development and that, with regards to Portal at least, we can expect to hear an announcement "fairly soon."
Early stages
It's not clear just how far into the development process these films are. But since Abrams told IGN that since they're having "some really interesting discussions with writers" things can't be too far along.
However, Abrams also added that meetings were being held with Valve and that at the moment they were "very active" so it might be the case that the pace of production is about to pick up rapidly.
Films based on games are notoriously hard to get right and considering Half Life and Portal are titles that have particularly strong fan bases it's all the more important to make sure the right team is put together for the job.
It'll be interesting to see how and if these film adaptations stick to the original stories of the games or if they decide to take inspiration from the game world and build something new from there.
There's been a recent flurry of films based on games, from the animated Ratchet and Clank to the upcoming live-action Assassin's Creed and the reboot of Tomb Raider, making now an opportune time for an announcement.
