There's been an air of silence around the Metal Gear Solid movie ever since director Jordan Vogt-Roberts signed on to the project in 2014. Since then, Vogt-Roberts directed Kong: Skull Island, a film that is about to hit theaters.
With Kong: Skull Island pretty much done, Vogt-Roberts has opened up to talking about the project that was put on the backburner – the live-action adaptation of Metal Gear Solid. In an interview with Collider, Vogt-Roberts commented on the state of the film.
“Metal Gear Solid is probably the most important franchise to me on the planet. It is such a genius, idiosyncratic work and being able to spend time with [Hideo] Kojima recently has been like a dream. He’s the best and his whole team is the best. We are working on the script. That is a property that I will fight tooth and nail to make sure is done properly because it’s so easy to screw it up and so easy for a studio to try and make it into G.I. Joe or try and make it into Mission: Impossible or try and make it into something that it’s not. Metal Gear Solid needs to be exactly what it needs to be, which is Metal Gear Solid.”
Basically, the script is getting written right now and it's clear that Vogt-Roberts wants to do his best with Metal Gear Solid.
Vogt-Roberts went on to detail that the film has to honor the game series it is based on, but at the moment the script is the most important thing. The director wants to nail the script and make it work in such a way that it makes sense. Overall, Vogt-Roberts wants to ake the game's story, which is something fairly important to him, and make other Metal Gear Solid fans impressed with the movie, as well as something believable to those unfamiliar with the series.
“So first and foremost beyond thinking about budget, I wanna find the version that someone like you who’s like a superfan of this property would say, ‘They did it. That’s my Metal Gear. That’s my shit.’
…it’s not even about being a video game movie, Metal Gear is an important story, an important set of characters. So it just needs to be approached right now from how we nail that, and once we nail that then budget questions will happen, then those things will happen down the road, but right now I’m just working with incredible producers and trying to make a version that you or a Metal Gear megafan would be proud of and where people would be comfortable with that version to say, ‘I know this is different, I know this is not exactly the way a normal movie might go, but this is very Metal Gear’ and that is what will make random Joe Schmoe in Nebraska who has no idea what Metal Gear is, that is what will make them fall in love with this franchise and with Solid Snake and these people, and that is what will make them say—beyond the nerdverse and things like that who already accept this thing as super important—it’s such a potentially massive thing that we’re focused on getting that right first.”
There's plenty more to the interview, but it more of a reiteration of the same point. Vogt-Roberts will do his best with the film, because he adores the series. As for a rating, he will do what is best to "nail" the tones and "philosophies that the characters exhibit."
