Valve: There Won't be a Half-Life Movie Unless We're Making It
Valve: There Won't be a Half-Life Movie Unless We're Making It
Posted 08/30/2010 at 11:14pm
| by Nathan Grayson
21
Comments
Print
These days, it seems like every videogame and its Atari 2600 grandmother is getting a movie tie-in. But hey, games are awesome and so are movies, so where's the problem? Well, see, as it turns out, game movies are not awesome. Not in the slightest. So, is it Game Over for gaming's star on the Hollywood walk of fame? Not necessarily, says Valve's Gabe Newell. We just need to change up our approach, is all.
“Where we got into this direction was after Half-Life 1 had shipped. There was a whole bunch of meetings with people from Hollywood. Directors down there wanted to make a Half-Life movie and stuff, so they’d bring in a writer or some talent agency would bring in writers, and they would pitch us on their story. And their stories were just so bad. I mean, brutally, the worst. Not understanding what made the game a good game, or what made the property an interesting thing for people to be a fan of,” he explained to PC Gamer.
“That’s when we started saying ‘Wow, the best thing we could ever do is to just not do this as a movie, or we’d have to make it ourselves.’ And I was like, ‘Make it ourselves? Well that’s impossible.’ But the Team Fortress 2 thing, the Meet The Team shorts, is us trying to explore that.”
And so, on this day, our dream of Jason Statham playing an illogically acrobatic, crowbar-kung-fu master Gordon Freeman – while wearing a phony beard, of course – died a quick death. We're not sure whether to be happy or incredibly depressed about that, honestly.
More like this
Agent007BK
September 08, 2010 at 8:06am
The issue with the games that are made into movies, or games have potential to be made into movies, is that the people who are making them are not gamers. Just because you've played a few games of Mario or Sonic does not make you a gamer. Consulting with the company is one thing, but to truly understand how to translate the story of a video game into a movie that is able to hold the audience attention is a difficult feat, but can be done by someone who understands how to write a script and push the action elements of a game and create interesting scenarios.
Another issue is that all the games that were made into movies were the wrong games to choose to make into movies. Mario Brothers? House of the Dead? Dead or Alive? Those stories are so far fetched that it doesn't even make sense because there is no realistic way to translate those stories. Not only are the stories far fetched, they are corny as hell!! lol... What happen to a Soul Reaver movie? Or Castlevania? Or Starcraft? Or Metal Gear?
I guess as an avid gamer, and a writer, I have found my niche in the film industry.
Muerte
August 31, 2010 at 12:59pm
What actor is going to take a part where the main character has no lines?
Caboose
August 31, 2010 at 1:59pm
A good actor can have a huge impact with only a few lines, a great actor can make an even bigger impact with no lines!
Slugbait
August 31, 2010 at 12:27pm
Comparatively speaking, I thought Resident Evil was kinda awesome.
Conversely, I thought most of the games based on Star Wars, particularly Dark Forces, was a lot of fun.
Now, other than Khan, First Contact and XI, the Star Trek franchise can't seem to catch a break in either direction...
Caboose
August 31, 2010 at 12:49pm
Star Trek Online isn't bad. Star Trek Legacy needed a lot of improvement, but it wasn't terrible...
smashingpumpin
August 31, 2010 at 12:02pm
As much as knowing Valve makes a ton of money, I don't think they can afford to make a full blown movie out of it. Valve could just make a full-CGI or cartoon version of it which they could easily afford.
I don't know about you but thinking about just B movie actors for "dying labcoat scientist" would pretty much kill it! lol
sniggler
August 31, 2010 at 10:31am
These movies are being written, directed and shot by idiots in suits who have never played these games or experienced the great storyline before buying / mutilating the scripts.
Doom 3 = FAIL
Max Payne = UBER-FAIL
Dude, I was so disappointed w/ Max Payne as a movie - seriously, Chris (Ludacris) Bridges playing Jim Bravura? WTF. I mean, Ludacris is an OK rapper / actor but Jim Bravura is supposed to be a stereotypical white overweight police chief in his 50's (think Commissioner Gordon from Batman). Don't take that the wrong way I am in no way shape or form racist, but it is obvious they did a bad job not only with the story but with choosing the roles as well - Mark Wahlberg was also a horrible choice to play Max; I would have rather seen some B-Grade actor w/ half-decent acting skills than the much over-used Wahlberg in this role.
Needless to say Wahlberg is a cliche
oh and PS - Screw you IGN for making such an amazing Zelda teaser... F'ing April Fool's joke my ass... I still haven't forgotten about that from a couple of years ago, you jerks!
Ledoubleu
September 03, 2010 at 11:31am
Hollywood ruins every gaming movie because they don't understand the audience and then try to broaden the appeal (for $$$ of course) by remaking the original premise and screwing with the formula.
I could envision taking a movie idea liek this and making it in South Africa with the help of Peter Jackson like was done with District 9.
***or how about this...episodic instead..like Clone Wars.....Hmmmm!
Caboose
August 31, 2010 at 6:34am
Has anyone seen the fanfilm 'Escape from City 17' ?? It's got to be one of the best game films I've ever seen! So far only part 1 has been released (not sure if/when part 2 will come out). You can read a bit about it here: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/02/13/escape-from-city-17-part-one/
w2ed
August 31, 2010 at 7:17pm
There are some people who should NOT make any(more) video game films: anyone involved with either Super Mario Brothers OR Streetfighter, The jerkoffs involved in Mortal Kombat Annhilation, and the dumb***es involved in the Doom film.
HOWEVER, you had to go and mention the one person who can singlehandedly shitcan even the concept of a film, who probably will go to heaven because the devil is sick of his trying to make a deal with him for a single good film.
I know have to wash the barf from my eyes...
linkmaster6
August 31, 2010 at 4:53am
Love steam, Love Half life to death. But with their production time for HL3 my grand kids will be around when if this movie makes it out
BuLLg0d
August 31, 2010 at 12:22pm
It's been over a decade now and we're only part of the way into the story. I would just be happy with a book (Valve approved or written) of the story to date. Imagine if a movie came out and was SPECTACULAR, then the studios push for more, so, they release the rest of the story so far, then, the studios want more... then what happens to the quality of the story?
I used to want a HL movie.. Not so much anymore. A book however, would be awesome.
misha573
August 31, 2010 at 12:53am
Movies made from games suck. Some suck less than others, but they suck. They fail to capture the spirit of the game...and that's cause of just that. You can't bring in writers and "talent." A good game already has writers and talent.
The game developers know their game, they scripted it. They are the only ones who should do the movie for it. They should be the lead, and let hollywood support.
sniggler
August 31, 2010 at 10:36am
Would it be considered irony that games made from movies also suck?
Or am I confusing irony with coincedence?
Caboose
August 31, 2010 at 6:30am
I think the only video game based movies are the ones actually done by the game companies themselves.
Final Fantasy VII Advent Children (Continuation of FFVII game) was done by Square Enix and was awesome. The animated (CGI) Resident Evil movie was excellent. I have the Dead Space movie, haven't watched it yet but it looks good (never played the game though, I have a great dislike for FPS' on consoles). Final Fantasy The Spirits Within was not bad. I enjoyed it, and have watched it multipletimes (I've misplaced my DVD copy, but will replace it with a blu-ray copy).
ShadowDragoonFTW
August 31, 2010 at 7:29am
No, not really. For most of those cases, the studio who did the company is brought in as a consultant, but the movie itself is all up to the director/producer/what-have-you. You have a few examples of movies that may very well have been made directly by the game studio (and, in fact, Advent Children was), but the vast majority of them adhere to that layout.
Basically, a movie studio or individuals come in with a pitch for the movie, and if the game studio likes it, they say, "Go ahead." The movie studio runs wild with the idea, and occasionally calls up the game studio with stupid questions that don't mean a whole lot of difference either way. Then the movie comes out, tanks in the box office, fans get pissed, etc., etc.
The Mortal Kobat and Street Fighter movies are excellent examples of this.
EDIT: And btw, you and I are in the VAST minority with Spirits Within. For the most part, everybody hated it. I liked it myself, but still, the concensus was that it was a terrible movie, and that's really all that matters.
Caboose
August 31, 2010 at 11:31am
Ah... fair enough.
(btw: just picked up spirits within on BD. Now I have to decide if I'm gonna watch it or play Metroid Other M)
Fecal Face
August 30, 2010 at 11:37pm
Good news. If Valve makes the movie themselves, it will be done properly.
Even if it was animated, (like the tf2 shorts) i'd still watch it. Half life is damn awesome.
Connect with MaximumPC
Featured Content
We introduce Intel's latest class of tablet killers and review 4 of the first Ultra...
Where have all the memorable videogame enemies gone?
This month's issue
Feature
11 Hardware Hacks
Feature
Overclock Your CPU
How-To
Supercharge Your Smartphone
Build It
A Powerful $830 Rig
Most Commented Articles
Latest Max PC Tweets
- maximumpc: Analysts: 9-Inch Kindle Fire This Summer http://t.co/QDYApwCZ1 day 1 hour ago
- maximumpc: Micron: DRAM Prices Likely as Low as They're Going to Get http://t.co/fFUWuFOm1 day 4 hours ago
- maximumpc: Yar, Mateys! All Of Pirate Bay Made Available As A Single 90MB Zip File http://t.co/j5LHlXEZ1 day 6 hours ago
