As Hollywood continues to try and find the right video game to adapt into a film, many fans have their sights set on one of the most cinematic game titles to date, Metal Gear Solid. An adaptation is in the works right now but we don't know much about exactly what the movie will be or which game in the long running series it will be based on. Now, Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, who will be directing the Metal Gear Solid film, says that his movie won't actually be based on any single game, instead, it will be "remix" of multiple game storylines brought together. According to Vogt-Roberts...
It's not a direct adaptation of any particular game. It'd sound too much like a modern statement to call it a remix, because that's not what it is, but it's trying to fuse a couple of different storylines together, and it's all tied together with a device I can't really talk about right now but that I'm really excited about. I think it's going to make a movie where people go 'Woah, I've not seen that before', and that's very cool. And I think it's very Kojima in its approach.
Jordan Vogt-Roberts says that the Metal Gear Solid film will be true to the vision of creator Hideo Kojima. He feels that to do a video game property justice as a film adaptation, you need to embrace the things that make the story unique, rather than run away from them, which is something more than one video game movie has tried. However, that dedication to vision won't extend to interpreting a single game into a movie. While many fans would certainly love to see a direct adaptation of their favorite game in the long running series, this is probably not a bad decision. The Metal Gear series is... weird, and a direct adaptation would likely be difficult to pull off in a way that would appeal to people who aren't already fans.
Having said, that Jordan Vogt-Roberts enigmatic description of this device he's not talking about is interesting. Vogt-Roberts certainly thinks this device is something special and he also feels it can be used to bring a couple of Metal Gear Solid plot lines together. At least part of the reason this device may be needed is that the five games that make up the primary series cover multiple decades of time and even focus on different characters. Actually combining these might require a little screenwriting magic.
To that end, Jordan Vogt-Roberts tells Eurogamer that a new writer is being brought onto the project. Jay Basu, who wrote the upcoming Girl in the Spider's Web adaptation was previously attached as the writer of the film. One assumes he was part of building this device that Vogt-Roberts mentions, but apparently, it's been decided that the script now needs a fresh set of eyes to finish it up.
A Metal Gear Solid movie has been in development hell for years, but with the success of Kong: Skull Island, it looks like the project may finally have a director that can push the idea into reality.
