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As reported by IGN and Gabe Follower on X, Backrooms director Kane Parsons shared an Instagram story from Valve’s Bellevue, Washington headquarters on September 16. The director has previously said that Portal was extremely influential on his work, inspiring hopes for a Parsons-led adaptation or some other collaboration with the studio.
There’s more circumstantial evidence in favor of this being more than just a friendly visit: Parsons previously told The New York Times in May that making a Portal feature film would be his “dream.” What’s more, this isn’t the first time Parsons has been seen at Valve HQ. His Instagram story commemorating a visit in June has been preserved by user eugen3 on the Valve subreddit.
Those are encouraging signs that we could have a Portal movie from a guy who’d do a great job on it to look forward to, but there are some caveats. Parsons also told the NYT in May that he doesn’t want to move on from Backrooms until it reaches some kind of conclusion, and he is already engaged to direct a sequel for A24.
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There is also the matter of J.J. Abrams’ seemingly-abandoned Portal movie project. He last spoke about it on the record in 2021, but there could be some standing contracts or agreements to consider.
I find I’m not particularly excited about a videogame adaptation unless the right director’s involved, but there’s been a lot of that going around recently. Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil is looking like a slam dunk, even if some people are grumpy it’s not about Leon Kennedy, and I find myself increasingly excited for Alex “The Guy Who Wrote Dredd” Garland’s upcoming Elden Ring movie.
Parsons has already shown himself to be a master of the sort of abandoned corporate surrealism that defined Portal, and his passion for the subject matter would also be cause for excitement. Gaming also runs in Parsons’ family: His father, Michael Parsons, was a longtime technical artist at Telltale during its legendary 2010s hot streak.
