Valve CEO Gabe Newell and director / producer J.J. Abrams recently found themselves sitting aside one another during the keynote at the 2013 DICE Summit. What started out as a casual chat about storytelling in video games and friendly critique over each others' work eventually turned into an announcement that the pair have been in discussion about doing a movie together based on Portal or Half-Life.
At one point, Newell played a clip from Cloverfield where the protagonist continues to use his camcorder as the head of the Statue of Liberty is blown off and lands right near him. As a gamer, Newell said he's telling him to put the camera down and run but "you won't let me do that."
Conversely, Abrams pointed out a scene in the beginning of Half-Life 2 where two computer players are telling Gordon Freeman valuable story information while the player is walking around and playing with random stuff in the room. Newell countered by claiming the player is the architect of their own amusement.
SlashGear says the two icons briefly discussed the possibility of working on a film although details are scant at this point. Each used clips from Valve games and Abrams' movies to discuss different storytelling methods. Newell did say, however, that the two are going to try and figure out if they can make a Half-Life or Portal movie together and that it was time to do more than talk.
If you aren't already aware, Abrams is responsible for directing or producing a number of hit films and television shows like Mission: Impossible III, Cloverfield, Super 8, Lost, Fringe and the new Star Trek film Into Darkness.