In 1987, Konami released a video game called Metal Gear for MSX2 home computers, which were much more popular in Japan than in the United States even though Microsoft had championed their use. Unlike other action-adventure games at the time, Metal Gear stood out in that it emphasized cleverness in addition to fast-paced action, thus securing its place as one of the main progenitors of the stealth genre. Combined with a plot inspired by the creator Kojima Hideo’s love of U.S. action movies, this propelled the game onto the road to success, leading to a number of sequels with combined sales totaling in the tens of millions. As a result, it should come as no surprise to learn that there has been a fair amount of interest in adapting Metal Gear for the movie screen, though progress towards this end has not been smooth and uncomplicated to say the least.
What Is Happening with the Metal Gear Movie?
For proof, this can be seen in how a Metal Gear movie was announced in 2006, with an eventual released expected in 2011. There were a lot of rumors spread following that announcement, with examples ranging from a claim that Christian Bale had been contacted about playing the lead role to a claim that Uwe Boll would be called to direct, which resulted in a bit of an uproar because said director does not have the best reputation with video game fans to say the least. Eventually, the Metal Gear movie was postponed for an indefinite period of time, with Kojima having expressed concerns that a bad movie would have negative consequences for the franchise as a whole.
With that said, Sony Pictures Entertainment brought Jordan Vogt-Roberts onto the project to serve as its director in 2014. Since that time, he has been working with Kojima as well as other stakeholders to come up with something worth watching. In particular, it is interesting to note that Vogt-Roberts has made a serious effort in recent times to bring the script for the proposed movie more into line with the tone and themes of its source material, which was possible because his success at the helm of Kong: Skull Island provided him with a fair amount of clout. As a result, it is no exaggeration to say that the Metal Gear movie is now headed by someone with proven filmmaking ability as well as an interest in making sure that the result remains true to its roots, which is the sort of thing that inspires hope in video game fans that they will eventually see a flourishing of video game movies similar to the flourishing of comic book movies in recent times.
What Does This Mean?
However, interested individuals should not see this as cause for excessive enthusiasm at this point in time. After all, there is no guarantee that filming will ever start on the Metal Gear movie, not least because of the bitter breakup between Kojima and Konami that is too complicated to be brought up at length here. Furthermore, even if the Metal Gear movie, there is no guarantee that it will be worth watching even with a number of factors lined up behind it. As a result, while people should be excited by knowing that Vogt-Roberts is so dedicated to his current project, they should still keep their optimism under control for the time being.
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