A movie about the extremely popular video game series Metal Gear has been in development for a while now, with Jordan Vogt-Roberts attached to helm the adaptation. Thanks to some rising clout from directing the upcoming Kong: Skull Island, Vogt-Roberts has been opening up about the Metal Gear movie and how it's currently coming along. Fans no doubt have a thousand questions for the director, one of which is the rating the team behind the project is shooting for. Are we up for a lighter PG-13 or a more bloody R? According to Vogt-Roberts, right now, it could be either or. He explained:
I think that for me, I want to make the version of the movie that is most true to what it needs to be, so if that is a Deadpool or Logan route where you go with a smaller budget and you're able to make it R, great. If you need to blow it out more and really get that bigger budget and go PG-13, I think it could exist in both avenues. There are hyper-violent parts to Metal Gear but I would not necessarily call the hyper-violent part the core element of it versus like the tone and the voice and the philosophies that the characters exhibit. Those characters sort of are these walking philosophies, so I think nailing that part is far more important necessarily than thinking about the rating at this point, because right now we're just trying to get the best version of it.
Jordan Vogt-Roberts sat down to chat with Collider and finally dished on some tidbits about his long-in-development Metal Gear movie -- mainly if it was still happening and with him attached to direct. Vogt-Roberts was happy to confirm that it is still happening, and he is clearly a fan of the series. His understanding of the series is expansive and he's passionate about doing the epic saga of Solid Snake justice. It's also clear that a lot is still being figured out about how the director and Sony are going to tackle this behemoth, including what the rating will eventually be.
Vogt-Roberts is definitely hitting the nail on the head when he says that Metal Gear isn't dependent on its violence. Sure, there are plenty of brutal sequences from its almost 30 years worth of games, but Metal Gear -- of all franchises -- can hardly be defined by one thing. If the movie is rated R then that's cool, but if it was only PG-13, it wouldn't be a major loss. Plus, it's not like PG-13 isn't still violent.
As long as Sony manages to capture the unique spirit of Metal Gear, fans will be happy. Despite the fact that it took early inspiration from American films (some obvious), there really is no series of games like it, as it possesses a unique voice and vision thanks to the stunning imagination of series creator Hideo Kojima. Metal Gear is serious, funny, brutal, thought-provoking, action-packed, over the top, epic and goofy all at the same time, and making a movie that reflects that -- whether PG-13 or R -- isn't going to be easy.
A Metal Gear movie is still a long ways off, but make sure to keep coming back to CinemaBlend and we'll keep you updated with new information as it becomes available.
