The Metal Gear videogames have been around for a quarter of a century, but it was the 1998 title, Metal Gear Solid, that put designer Hideo Kojima’s series on the sneak-em-up map. Since then, Metal Gear has grown into one of gaming’s most recognisable franchises.
Speaking at a Tokyo event marking the anniversary of Metal Gear, Kojima has announced that a movie adaptation is now in progress.
There’s been talk of a Metal Gear movie in the past, but producer Michael De Luca’s attempts to get the project in motion came to nothing back in 2007. Now, producer Avi Arad’s involved, having just rebooted The Amazing Spider-Man.
“Videogames are the comic books of today,” Arad told a rapt Tokyo audience. “We will take our time [with Metal Gear] and tell the story with all the nuances, ideology [and] cautionary tales needed.”
According to Kotaku, the event’s walls were festooned with banners stating, “Metal Gear Solid Hollywood Movie” with Columbia Pictures’ logo printed beneath.
Metal Gear Solid’s plot, which involved retired super soldier Solid Snake sneaking into an Alaskan base owned by the terrorist group Foxhound, is the perfect fodder for a high-tech, stealthy action movie. Kojima freely borrowed ideas and images from Hollywood cinema – Snake’s face was even modelled on Christopher Walken – so in some respects, the American blockbuster is its spiritual home.
Whether the movie will reach the screen this time remains to be seen, however. Although Arad’s had plenty of success in the comic book field, the other videogame adaptations he’s been involved with – Mass Effect and Uncharted are but two – have yet to materialise.
Will Solid Snake’s antics fare better? It’s early days for this latest Metal Gear project, but it’s just possible that Snake might finally sneak into Hollywood within the next few years.
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