Valve writer names Guillermo Del Toro as his top choice for Half-Life movie

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Well, this isn’t an official announcement or anything, but it’s a nice “What if…” scenario. In a recent interview, HALF-LIFE scribe Jeff Laidlaw discussed his own top choices to helm an adaptation of the video game. Who made the shortlist?

At the top we have the obvious choice for amost any horror project, Guillermo Del Toro. Laidlaw says the filmmaker “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.”

Interestingly enough, Guillermo Del Toro has long sung the praises of Valve. He even put the studio on his own shortlist to develop inSANE following the game’s drop from THQ. Del Toro has since found a new developer for inSANE who has yet to be named. If it did prove to be Valve, perhaps Del Toro could be persuaded to tackle the HALF-LIFE franchise on film? Stranger things have happened…

Laidlow also named ROBOCOP and TOTAL RECALL director Paul Verhoeven as a maverick choice to “do something insane with Half-Life–maybe something objectionably insane, but at least not boring.” He also dropped the name of Peter Jackson as “an amazing purveyor of faithful adaptations.” However, I think we all know who the obvious choice is… even though Paul Verhoeven would be f*cking boss. What do you think? Would Del Toro be your choice for HALF-LIFE: THE MOVIE? Talk back with your ideas below…