Serious talk of a Metal Gear Solid movie adaptation has been a thing for over a decade now, with Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts attached since 2014. But that iteration has seemingly gone nowhere as Sony Pictures has just closed a deal with two new directors half of Hollywood is currently chasing.
The Hollywood Reporter revealed on 9th April that Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, who delivered last year’s highly successful revival of the Final Destination franchise (it made $317m worldwide on a $50m budget), have been tapped to helm the big-screen adaptation of Hideo Kojima’s hit video game series. This is part of a larger first-look deal with Sony that covers all of the film studio’s labels and allows the company to look at their upcoming work before competitors do.
The deal also targets Lipovsky and Stein’s newly-launched company, Wonderlab, which will develop big-screen projects to be handled by both the duo and other filmmakers. It includes an animated Venom movie, which they’re also supposedly directing, on top of the Metal Gear Solid movie. Another original sci-fi project titled The Earthling is in the works too.
Though it’s unclear what Kojima’s involvement might be in this new version of the project, we know producers Avi and Ari Arad (Iron Man, Venom) are still attached as producers. Back in 2020, we also heard Oscar Isaac was set to play Solid Snake, but it’s unclear if the actor is still interested in the project or whether he will fit in with the new creative direction. In late 2022, he still seemed interested.
Following a number of encouraging updates over the years from Vogt-Roberts – who’s always been openly enthusiastic about video games – the news might come as a disappointment, but Lipovsky and Stein can clearly deliver an exciting crowd-pleaser. The question now is whether what makes the Metal Gear series special can survive the usual Hollywood filtering process.
