Here's who I'd cast:
Directors: Edgar Wright (Half-Life 1, subject to change), Guillermo del Toro (Half-Life 2)
Writer: Edgar Wright (in collaboration with the game's writers)
Gordon Freeman - Hugh Laurie
G-Man - Bill Nighy
Dr. Eli Vance - Vondie Curtis-Hall
Alyx Vance - Rosario Dawson
Dr. Wallace Breen - Bill Murray
Dr. Judith Mossman - Julianne Moore
Dr. Isaac Kleiner - Michael Caine or Jim Broadbent
Barney Calhoun - Mark Ruffalo
Dr. Arne Magnusson - Ken Jenkins
Adrian Shepard - Wentworth Miller
Ravenholm guy - ?????
I realize Edgar Wright has mostly done comedy movies, but that doesn't mean I want Half-Life to be a comedy. While he should retain the game's tone, I think he could add some subtle humor around the character Gordon Freeman, in that he doesn't talk much, so something clever can be done about that, like facial expressions and body motions, and that he, of all people, is the savior of the earth. I think Wright, the directors and the game's creators can pull it off and give the films a certain comical tone underneath the horror and apocalyptic elements. I believe, for film purposes, Gordon needs a character arc. I realize that it'll be controversial to give him some personality, but if we're gonna have a film, even for argument's sake, then we need an appropriate protagonist for it. While he did kind of have an arc in the games, starting out as a theoretical physicist and transforming into Earth's savior, the movie can better show it through his reactions and emotions.
I also realize that Half-Life can't adequately be made into a faithful movie, considering how the games are structured, and despite the second game having more story than the first. But for argument's sake, I made what I felt are the least bad choices to make an above-average adaption. And I think the first game should be adapted too, the movies could sort of be parallel to that of the Alien films: The first is more of a survival horror (while introducing some subtle comedy in this case), and the second introduces action and an epic sense of scale, while retaining a familiar feel of the first film as well as the comedy of the second game's episodes. If the Half-Life 2 episodes are incorporated into the Half-Life 2 movie, which I think they should since they rap up the Citadel arc nicely, the part where the Citadel explodes could occur at the 1-hour mark at the earliest, or at the half-way mark if you don't mind a longer film.
"Back in my day, we didn't have that thing you had."
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