The Portal movie's still happening, JJ Abrams says, and he's meeting with Valve next week

The Portal film adaptation that Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams and Valve co-founder Gabe Newell teased way back in 2013 is still happening. We've heard next to nothing about the project since then, but IGN got word from Abrams himself saying that should change very soon.

"We have a meeting coming up next week with Valve, we’re very active, I’m hoping that there can be a Portal announcement fairly soon," Abrams said.

A film version of Half-Life was teased back in 2013 as well, but it sounds like that's less far along. Both series exist in the same fictional universe so some elements of Gordon Freeman's adventures could appear in the Portal film as well. Here's hoping Barney Calhoun shows up in the after-credits stinger to recruit the protagonist into the anti-Combine resistance…

Daydreams of a Marvel-style Valve Cinematic Universe aside, it remains to be seen if and how the film adaptations will follow the events of the game. That's up to the writers, who Abrams said he's already had a number of "really interesting discussions with".

"Once you said you’re doing a movie or show about a specific thing that is a known quantity, it's an amazing thing how you start to find people who are rabid about some of these things," Abrams said. "As someone who loved playing Half Life, loved playing Portal, [but] what’s the movie of this, it actually is incredible how when you talk to someone who just ‘gets’ it and is a great storyteller. You kind of go 'oh my god, it really is a seed for this incredible tree that you’re growing'. So I look forward to being to talk about it and announce who's working on it".

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