Kane Parsons, the young director of Backrooms, has expressed interest in directing a Portal film. In a recent interview with The New York Times, Parsons noted that a Portal adaptation is a dream project. This isn’t because Parsons has an interest in becoming an IP merchant, quite the opposite. When speaking on The Town podcast, Parsons outright said he was uninterested in doing a Star Wars film and that the only IPs that were attractive to him were a select few from his childhood in the 2000s. He neglected to name them because he’s actively exploring those as options, but it led some to believe he may be looking into adapting Portal.
Parsons grew up with Valve titles like Half-Life and Portal, even going as far as making a Portal short film on his YouTube channel long before he’d ever make the Backrooms series. The franchise also shares some similarities with large, vapid rooms that have an eerie quality to them. Some have drawn connections between the liminal space horror of something like Backrooms to the unnerving nature of Aperture Science’s sterile test chambers and more specifically, the corridors and caverns tucked behind some of these chambers in Portal 2.
There have been attempts to adapt Portal in the past. Director JJ Abrams was once attached to bring both Half-Life and Portal to the big screen through his production company, Bad Robot. However, that announcement was made in 2013 and it doesn’t seem like there has been much movement since. Abrams noted to IGN in 2021 that Portal was still in development at Warner Bros., but once again, it has been very quiet.
It’s unclear what the hold up has been, but with there being a major boom in gaming adaptations, it seems only logical that someone out there would want to bring Portal to life. Parsons may be the guy for the job, but we’ll have to wait and see if Valve agrees with his vision. It’s possible that Bad Robot and WB may also be sitting on the rights, which could create other complications. However, after seeing how successful Backrooms has been, it would be silly to not get Parsons lined up for his dream project.
Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN’s news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
