Metal Gear Solid Movie Has a Writer; But Does It Have a Kojima?
Coming to you live from Development Hell! We’re seeing some motion from Sony/Columbia Pictures’ upcoming Metal Gear Solid movie for the first time in months. Please note that I’m using “upcoming” in the loosest possible sense here; like “we’ll see this in the next fifty years, maybe.”
The Roster So Far
Avi Arad, Producer
You Might Know Him From: A whole crop of Marvel movies – from the Blades to every Spider-Man adaptation to, on the more impressive side, X2
Jordan Vogt-Roberts, Director
You Might Know Him From: The Kings of Summer
Josh Bratman, Executive Producer (Middle)
You Might Know Him From: Fright Night? I guess? Or Priest, if you’re into that.
And our latest addition, as of a few days ago – Jay Basu, Writer (Far Left)
You Might Know Him From: …Monsters: Dark Continent? Oh boy. But hey, Universal’s enlisting him to help relaunch their old monster movies. Untested as he may be, if they’re trusting Basu with IPs of this kind of renown, those Hollywood cats might know something we don’t.
There’s also been some talk about Academy Award-nominated Michael De Luca (The Social Network and American History X) as executive producer, but unlike the characters above, I haven’t found anything substantiating his involvement. Erroneous as these whispers may be, they’re not outrageous. De Luca’s frequently involved in Sony Pictures projects.
No word on a leading Snake yet. Hugh Jackman was a possibility for a while, but recently, MGS movie team’s been leaning towards casting someone less established.
So all that’s fine and nifty, but what of Hideo Kojima? He was on for executive producer, advisor, and co-writer, but recent developments in the fallout between Konami and Kojima don’t bode well for his involvement in Metal Gear Solid’s cinematic treatment. Solid Snake might see the silver screen eventually, but without Kojima’s insights, I’m afraid it might fall flat.
Thomas M Gumbel
Writer of stuff. Story stuff, music stuff, game stuff. Look at my Twitter pls.
Source imdb.com
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Any hopes that a metal Gear Solid movie is going to be great has been lost. You have an inexperienced director and a team that has little on their resume. Gee is it really that hard for Avi Arad to tap a respected geek director like Sam Raimi or Joss Whedon (you know real geek directors) rather than some hipster.
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Game adaptations are a hard sell, man. So far, history's just screaming "video game adaptations are toxic; this can't be done." The closest we've come to a working game-movie (talking strictly Hollywood, not splinter projects like Advent Children or fan films) is Silent Hill, and that's... not great. Not terrible, but nothing else has come close. And that's what's damning to any A-listers with a reputation to risk. Generally, we'll only see new blood taking the dive.
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At one point superhero films were a hard sell after the disastrous release of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and Batman & Robin. However Sam Raimi along with Bryan Singer changed all that. Both of them were already established directors when they took on these projects. You just needed a talented or respected director who is also a gamer attached to the project then everything will workout for the best.
