For years now, there has been chatter of a Metal Gear Solid movie. The project was at one time moving forward. Then, it seemed to die.
Today, Konami stated that the movie is back on. Metal Gear Solid is going Hollywood.
At today's Metal Gear Anniversary event in Tokyo, photos show banners with the slogan "Metal Gear Solid Hollywood Movie", along with the Columbia Pictures logo. Columbia Pictures is, of course, owned by Sony Pictures. During the stage presentation, Hideo Kojima confirmed that, yes, there was still a Metal Gear movie project in the works with Avi Arad producing.
This isn't Arad's first video game adaptation. He's also been attached to the Uncharted and Mass Effect movie versions—movies that have not gotten made. Some of his greatest success, however, has been in bringing Marvel comics to the silver screen.
"Video games are the comic books of today."
Arad appeared on stage with Kojima, saying, "For many years I fought to bring comics to theaters."
"Comic books are now biggest genre in cinema," said Arad. "Video games are the comic books of today."
"We will take our time and tell the story with all the nuances, ideology, cautionary tales needed, " Arad added.
During the stage presentation, Kojima gushed about some of his favorite films released by Columbia, such as Stand by Me and Taxi Driver. He also rattled off some of his favorite Hollywood actors—folks like Matt Damon, Hugh Jackman, and Ben Affleck. He also said Christopher Nolan was one of his favorite filmmakers.
"We'll tell these actors and directors who you want, and maybe they'll do it for nothing," Arad quipped.
Arad also said that so many actors in Hollywood would love to play these characters due to the emotional depth they offer.
Back in 2008, Hollywood producer Michael De Luca of Boogie Nights and Wag the Dog fame was on board as producer. At the time, De Luca said the aim was this: "Not mess with the DNA of the game but provide a movie that is an adaptation but that has it's own cinematic identity so even if you don't play the game you know, you'll come out of that movie feeling like you did at the end of The Matrix or the end of Robocop."
That movie ultimately fell apart. There was chatter at the time that the reason the movie didn't ultimately come together was a disagreement over budget. Apparently, Konami wanted a big budget production, but didn't feel like it could do Metal Gear Solid with the smaller budget Hollywood offered.
So when can we expect this new Metal Gear movie in theaters? It sounds very early in the production process, so this could be several years off—that is, if it actually gets made. Remember: Hollywood is littered with the crushed dreams of video games that were never turned into movies.
MetalGear movie? and "Comic books are..." [@ItCameFromJapan]
Metal Gear Solid movie announced [@markmacd]
"For many years..." and "...take our time..." and "We'll tell..." [@johntv]
「METAL GEAR SOLID」，ついにハリウッド映画化が決定 [4Gamer]