Video games are one of the top-selling entertainment properties on the planet, so it is no surprise that the movie industry wants to tap this goldmine. However, video game adaptations have yet to be able to pull off a successful cinematic hit. Everything from ‘Mario Brothers’ to ‘Warcraft’ to ‘Assassin’s Creed’ has tried to get the formula right and have failed, but director Jordan Vogt-Roberts (‘Kong: Skull Island’,’The Kings of Summer’) is convinced that his take on ‘Metal Gear Solid’ will be the “first great video game movie.”
We’ll see if bringing Solid Snake to life might be the winning ticket.
Jordan has been working on getting the movie put into production for the past five years and has been able to get the blessing of Hideo Kojima who created the franchise to move forward with his pitch.
That being said, for everything he has put into the movie so far we haven’t heard that Sony has even greenlit the project. As to where it stands, a script by Derek Connolly (‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’) has been sent into Sony and it sounds as if the studio has returned notes for revisions which are currently in process.
That sounds like this could potentially be happening.
According to Vogt-Roberts:
“Even if I wasn’t involved in this movie I would read that script and say, ‘Holy shit,’It represents a different approach to a video game movie. It represents a different approach to how a three-act structure is put on screen.”
We’re in for a wild ride here. The director wants to embrace everything about the franchise from Solid Snake to Big Boss to the Metal Gears to everything in between:
“The thing about Metal Gear is it’s intentionally sprawling, and it’s intentionally dense. It’d be super easy to do one sliver of it or do too much at once. And we’ve spent the last little bit really trying to figure out, to me, the most Kojima-san inspired way to tackle as much of that story through a device that I think allows you to tap in…how to put this without spoiling it?…regardless, we have a device that I think allows us to respect the breadth of the franchise, respect the sprawling nature of the franchise, respect the somewhat convoluted nature of the franchise at times. But to still show you the mirrors. What I mean by that is all those timelines fundamentally exist because they show the repetition of war throughout time. They show the repetition and the cycle of pain throughout time. So it ’s almost impossible to tell just one story now. You need the full throughline of what this game is about.”
If he can pull this off, he’s pulled out all the stops and is comparing what they’ve put together to another blockbuster franchise:
“There are Star Wars movies to talk about, there’s all sorts of stuff to talk about. To me, this is that. This is a new frontier not only for me as a filmmaker, but I just feel like for audiences. To me, it’s a way to make the first great video game movie where it doesn’t matter that it’s based on a video game.”
Jordan is passionate about turning ‘Metal Gear Solid’ into a film, and there is no doubting that. What you have to wonder is if this could be the film that breaks the video game curse and if Sony is even willing to give the projet a green light.
Would you be interested in a ‘Metal Gear Solid’ movie? Do you think a single film could do this series justice or would it have to be made as a trilogy or franchise in mind? These days would it even work as a movie or would you prefer it be tackled as an ongoing series on a network like HBO or Netflix? Share your thoughts below!
Source: Collider
