It’s hard to believe, but it’s been ten years since the release of the original Half-Life game. In honour of this event, GameSpy has published the Half-Life 10th Anniversary Interview with Valve Software’s writer –in-residence Marc Laidlaw.
If they ever decided to make a movie based on the game – probably not a good idea, since there hasn’t been a good movie based on any videogame, but I always hold out hope – I think Hugh “House M.D.” Laurie would make a great Gordon Freeman:
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I contest – I personally think Hitman’s a good film. Doom was good right at the beginning when the Universal world logo was actually Mars and it zoomed right in. But then the story started and it was all a down hill train wreck violently colliding with the first person mode at the end.
Hugh Laurie would make a great Gordon Freeman, if Gordon Freeman had a really bad American accent. But yea, he does look similar.
A movie where Freeman talks? We can’t have that.
Hugh Laurie’s nearly fifty – too old for Gordon Freeman; several characters in the Half Life games have made references to him being young for the kind of work he’s doing, and I’m pretty sure there’s official mentions of his age being early-30s.
And if I was (somehow) at the helm of a Half Life film, the first person to speak would be Freeman, to get that out of the way. You can’t have a movie (at least, not an effective one) where the main character doesn’t speak. In the game, you are Gordon Freeman; personally, when I’m playing Half Life, I speak to the NPCs in Gordon’s place.
@Paul C: If the movie has to remain true to every last detail in the game, then yes, Hugh Laurie is too old. However, I think that it’s all right to use some artistic licence and take some liberties with minor details like Freeman’s age.
In my dream videogame-based movie — Dig Dug, starring Jackie Chan in the title role — you can bet I’d be taking all sorts of creative liberties.
I disagree – there’s been a handful of not-horrible video game movies:
- Resident Evil
- Tomb Raider (ok, it wasn’t great, but it wasn’t a Uwe Boll massacre either)
- Max Payne was actually not bad as well.
Hrmm, ok so there aren’t that many. But come on… How can you deny the awesomeness of the Street Fighter movie, and the Super Mario Brothers movie?
Happy Elevnth Birthday half-life, its 2009 and i plan on staying aboard the half-life saga until a giant rock hits the earth and crashes my computer.
final fantasy was a good animated film, and I thought the silent hill film was ok, other then that most game to movies suck
Hugh Laurie is not a bad idea at ALL. It doesn’t really matter if a bit older.
Another option for me would be Gary Oldman.