Video game adaptations have long had a reputation for often being painfully bad, but they’re seeing something of a Renaissance of late. From Netflix’s League of Legends show Arcane to Paramount+’s swing for the fences with Halo, many studios are trying to capitalize on the vast fandoms that some of these popular game titles command.
One video game adaptation that’s been in various states of development hell for quite some time is the big screen treatment of Metal Gear Solid. Based on the long-running video game series from creator Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear Solid follows a super spy/soldier named Solid Snake, usually as he tries to stop one military/terrorist group or another from using the series’ titular Metal Gear walking nuclear tanks. It was first announced that Sony would be producing this movie all the way back in 2014, with Jordan Vogt-Roberts (Kong: Skull Island) set to direct. In late 2020 we saw our first big piece of news for the film, when Oscar Isaac signed on to play Solid Snake.
Since then all’s been quiet…but according to Isaac, the film is still “sneaking along.”
Oscar Isaac, Solid Snake himself, told IGN “We’re climbing through air ducts, we’re looking for the story [of the Metal Gear Solid movie]." https://t.co/BDe0xdQ2n2 pic.twitter.com/Y7hOJieK0K
— IGN (@IGN) March 23, 2022
Work on the Metal Gear Solid movie is still moving along
While at the Moon Knight red carpet premiere in Los Angeles, IGN asked Isaac about the status of the Metal Gear Solid film. “We’re searching, we’re searching like Solid Snake,” the actor said. “We’re climbing through air ducts, we’re looking for the story.”
While this isn’t much to go on, it’s encouraging to hear Isaac give a straight answer to a question that many fans are no doubt wondering about. Metal Gear Solid is up there among the most iconic video game franchises of all time, and legions of gamers have enjoyed Snake’s story over the years.
“I love the feeling that the game would give me every time I’d play,” Isaac told Total Film when asked about what drew him to the role. “It’s just a strangely isolated, mournful, lonely game to play that has these incredible moments of violence and terror, with these weird, psychedelic concepts and villains. But, yes, it’s kind of like psychedelic military horror things that happen. And the truth is, underneath the whole thing, it’s an anti-war story. So I think those are the elements I really love. And, like I said, I love the feel of playing it, and the big question of: can something like that be transferred — or can you explore those themes in a really interesting way — on film?”
It may be a while until we get that question answered. But considering that Metal Gear Solid has a particularly cinematic story, it may translate to the screen easier than other video games.
While we may have to wait a few more years to see Oscar Isaac crawl through air ducts and use his codec like Solid Snake, you can catch the actor soon in Marvel’s Moon Knight. The limited series premieres on Disney+ on March 30. .
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h/t Syfy Wire