8

Add to My News

Story by Dave Cook

Mon, Nov 26, 2012 | 12:49 GMT

Half-Life movie would be ‘awesome’ with Guillermo Del Toro at helm, says Valve writer

Half-Life isn’t getting a movie adaptation any time soon – if at all – so don’t get too excited. However, Valve writer Marc Laidlaw has billed Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy director Guillermo Del Toro as the perfect man for the job, should it ever happen. Over to you Gabe.

In an interview with New Rising Media, Laidlaw – who was writer on the Half-Life series – was asked to decide who would be his dream director, should a Half-Life movie see the light of day.

“If Paul Verhoeven returned to science fiction films, he would do something insane with Half-Life…maybe something objectionably insane, but at least not boring,” he replied, “Peter Jackson has proved himself an amazing purveyor of faithful adaptations.

“Guillermo del Toro has the horror vibe that I think a lot of people miss out on when thinking about a Half-Life movie. Half-Life is essentially horror after all. The science in it barely passes as hand-waving, but when a headcrab jumps at your head, it’s a precisely engineered jolt. There are probably a lot of good potential directors, but I think most of them are busy pursuing their own visions.”

However, as OXM points out, the prospects of a Half-Life film have been slammed by Gabe Newell before in an interview with PC Gamer.

In the piece Newell said, “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.”

Would you like to see a Half-Life movie or is it best left alone? Let us know below.