I’ve never read the book Generation Xbox, about video games invading Hollywood. But our columnist Superannuation (who’s on a bit of a video game vs Hollywood run at the moment) found something interesting tucked away inside.
Seems that at one point, years ago, Valve (and its agents) met with both Sony Pictures and Dreamworks over the possibility of making a Half-Life movie.
According to Valve’s agent at the time, Larry Shapiro, “the Valve kids’ jaws [dropped]” when Steven Spielberg was present at the meeting with Dreamworks.
So where’d it all go wrong? Seems a few things, mostly that Valve didn’t like what its share of the profits would be, and there were also disagreements over sequels and problems getting a production timetable together. You know, the usual stuff that kills video game movies.
Generation Xbox was published last year, and was written by Jamie Russell. You can grab a copy here (which I probably should, if it’s got fascinating stuff like this, and this, in it).
Superannuation [Twitter]
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5 responses to “Sony And Dreamworks Wanted To Make A Half-Life Movie”
And then they try to make it a watered down PG movie like the new robocop and wwz…
Not that it needs to be hardcore R, but Halflife does call for some pretty hardcore violence now doesn’t it?
Or worse, they pull the “We think this will appeal to fans and new comers to the Half Life franchise”. Which is code for, “Fans will hates this and the small nods and references to them will only serve to annoy them” God I hate Hollywood
Sam Jackson spoke at Comicon today trying to defend the new ROBOCOP remake and its PG-13 rating. He said the old one would get PG 13 these days and this new one is quite violent.
HELL NO. An example (all in spoilertags):
In the new Robocop movie, Murphy doesn’t actually DIE, he is simply shot on duty and the suit helps keep him alive. Ridiculous.In the original, Murphy has bodyparts blown off by a shotgun, has half his head taken off, is torn to pieces by gunfire.
The PG-13 rating restricts the use of blood and gore. The original Robocop was a hyper-violent gore-fest that celebrated ultraviolence.
Sam Jackson was obviously drinking or something to believe ‘the original would get a pg13 these days’…
This is what Hollywood will do to a Halflife movie. Be warned.
Or its RC because the suit administers morphine….
Hey, I know that guy! It’s Curtis! He’s a champion!
so glad this never happened