Long-delayed 'Portal' adaptation now in active development at Warner Bros., says producer J.J. Abrams

The cake is most certainly not a lie! It just needs a little bit more time in the oven to finish baking. During a recent press event for Paramount's 4K home release of 2010's Super 8, J.J. Abrams reportedly provided an update on a long-gestating film adaptation of Valve's Portal games, which is now in active development at Warner Bros.

"We actually do have a script that’s being written for the Portal movie now at [Warner Bros.]," said the film/television producer extraordinaire (via IGN). "We’re really excited about the take and the pitch, so it feels like that thing’s finally on the rails ... It’s got enormous potential for a lot of reasons, one of which is because of the limited narrative of the game, as ingeniously told as it is, the potential of it is so huge. It’s gonna be super fun."

Abrams boarded the Portal project back in the winter of 2013, but there have been precious few updates since then. At the time, it was also reported that he would produce a big screen version of Half-Life, but the original news is now only (excuse the pun) half-true. "The Half-Life thing, we’re not actively involved with at the moment," Abrams admitted at the press event.

"Our goal here to is to treat the world Valve has created in both these properties like anyone would a book or some great story that comes from a pitch or original script — just to treat it with the respect they treat their games and their players with," he said in a 2013 statement.

Abrams (and his production company, Bad Robot) signed a $500 million mega-deal with Warner Bros. in September of 2019. The Hollywood mogul is now developing a ton of different projects at the studio, including a new Superman movie and a TV series about The Shining's Overlook hotel.