Terrible movie adaptations have long brought humiliation to video games. There’s the god-awful Angelina Jolie take on Tomb Raider, Jake Gyllenhaal’s downright shameful Prince of Persia, and, of course, the infamous Bob Hoskins and Dennis Hopper-helmed Nintendo movie from the '90s. But our luck may be about to change. Thanks to visionary director and video game enthusiast Jordan Vogt-Roberts, an upcoming Metal Gear Solid film is stacking up to be the first truly formidable video game film adaptation. And it seems it has attracted the attention of Golden Globe-nominated actor Oscar Isaac.
Metal Gear is one of the most beloved game franchises, a series that has spanned over three decades and countless consoles and handheld devices. Created by legendary developer Hideo Kojima, with its first release dating all the way back to 1987 on the MSX home computer, it is known for gripping stealth gameplay. The main character of the series is usually Solid Snake, who became iconic in 1998 when he appeared in Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation. He dons a grey tactical uniform and long, flowing headband, and always speaks into his earpiece with a grovelling, melodramatic voice. Today, Snake is easily one of the most recognisable video game characters of all time, even recently appearing in Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the Switch.
In a recent roundtable interview with IGN about his upcoming Netflix movie Triple Frontier, Isaac brought up the possibility of filling the combat boots of Solid Snake. “Metal Gear Solid, that’s the one,” Isaac said when he and his castmates were asked if they’d be open to appearing in any video game film adaptations. “I’m throwing my hat in for that one.”
Shortly after, a kickass imagining of Isaac as the moody soldier-hero appeared on digital artist Bosslogic’s Twitter account.
As it turns out, the idea behind the visual mashup came from none other than the project's director. According to a tweet, the mastermind behind the extraordinary Kong: Skull Island film had DM’d Bosslogic after the IGN roundtable to request a photoshop of the pairing. Vogt-Roberts also made it clear "the full process required to cast an icon hasn’t even started," but said that "the ball’s in Oscar’s court."
Vogt-Roberts is the key element here that will hopefully set the Metal Gear film apart from a decades-long string of atrocious video game film adaptations. Unlike so many of the directors who have tried to conceptualise video games for the cinema medium, Vogt-Roberts is a fan of video games. He actually plays games and has been a loud, prominent voice within the gaming community. And not only that, but he’s made a few incredible short films based on recent video games, such as his recent, thoroughly faithful trailer for the indie battle royale game, PUBG.
Leading blockbuster presences such as Michael Fassbender, Aaron Paul, and Alicia Vikander have placed their bets on video game franchises, but with roles in Star Wars, X-Men, and a whole slew of award-winning indie titles under his belt, Isaac may be among the most respected leading figures to express interest in a video game film adaptation. Between him and Ryan Reynolds with Detective Pikachu, it seems that the genre is about to receive a gigantic spark of bankability. Time will tell if the movies can hop over the precedent set by disasters like Super Mario Bros.
Dom Nero is a Senior Creative Producer at Esquire, where he also writes about film, tv, tech, and video games. Elsewhere, Dom hosts Eye of the Duck, a podcast about essential movie scenes.
