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Metal Gear Solid Movie Gets Writer Jay Basu

vpance

Member
Ah, well thank goodness they chose Metal Gear for that instead of literally anything else they could've created on their own.

I mean, who's going to see movies like this? Fans. What do fans want? Faithfulness. Maybe not 100%, but at least the spirit of it (see Silent Hill). So who are these adaptations for if they're in name only?

For the Chinese and international box office.
 
As an amateur script writer myself I can tell you adapting MGS into a movie is going to be really really hard. There is too much to cover and not enough time. You can't just take MGS plot copy and past it, nor can you just copy and past parts of it and leave holes. Structure and pacing are key in a good script and at some point in a MGS movie adaptation sacrifices would need to be made to make the story work in a film structure. I've spent my time thinking of how I would write the MGS film script if it was given to me & I've got my ideas but in the end I feel like it's a losing proposition. You wont make the fans happy because the fans just want MGS: The Game The Movie but the film structure wont allow for it. MGS would work much better as like a 5 part HBO or Showtime series.
 

pottuvoi

Banned
The plot should follow this:

Breifing and launch of the one man SDV into shadow moses
Meeting with the DARPA chief
Shootout with meryl
Duel with Ocelot
Minefield and Deepthroat
fistfight with grey fox(perhaps he's half man half machine rather than totally cyborg)
Snake Finds Meryl in the women's restroom
Meryl used as bait by sniper wolf
Snake goes back to get a rifle, campbell voice over of his connection with meryl
Shootout with wolf
Capture and Torture
Escape from prison cell
Rex's storage facility and the PAL key
Fight with Metal Gear REX
Fight with Liquid
Escape
Naomi's confessions into credits.
With the failed torture and the best ending that comes with it.
 

Mr. RHC

Member
GWUVrDP.gif
.

Metal Gear Solid: Philanthropy will be remembered as a masterpiece compared to this.
 

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
This is a nightmare. Kojima gone, shit movie pushed forward with a terrible creative team.

WE'RE DOOMED.

A lot of the goofier elements probably need to be cut out or de-emphasized. More sniper wolf fights with meryl bleeding out and less vulcan raven talking about pulling ears and using an aircraft mounted gun.

Actually how about NO vulcan raven.

Is this some kind of very sophisticated, high-level satire that I don't get...?

fistfight with grey fox(perhaps he's half man half machine rather than totally cyborg)

Now I know you're joking.
 

gafneo

Banned
Why him? I don't know his background much. We need an academy award winning production. Something tells me we are getting Uwe Boll.
 

gafneo

Banned
The plot should follow this:

Breifing and launch of the one man SDV into shadow moses
Meeting with the DARPA chief
Shootout with meryl
Duel with Ocelot
Minefield and Deepthroat
fistfight with grey fox(perhaps he's half man half machine rather than totally cyborg)
Snake Finds Meryl in the women's restroom
Meryl used as bait by sniper wolf
Snake goes back to get a rifle, campbell voice over of his connection with meryl
Shootout with wolf
Capture and Torture
Escape from prison cell
Rex's storage facility and the PAL key
Fight with Metal Gear REX
Fight with Liquid
Escape
Naomi's confessions into credits.
The movie version will be
Snake aka Jake fights robots from the future. He meets a robotic cop named FoX
who hunts armies of cloned terminators in a post apocalyptic world. Snake has the power to control bullet time. After dying during the intro, Snake hands his head band to Mila Jovavich who is named Ming. She has fox die in her blood which allows her to read minds and hack computers. Jason Biggs and Marlon Wayons play scientists who are the only ones who know the cure for the robot plagues that are spreading all over the universe.
 

Klossen

Banned
Seems like Sony's not holding the IP in much regard considering the "talent" it's hiring to make the movie. An MGS movie is redundant anyways. There is nothing a movie can do that the games can't.
 

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member

You'll have to forgive the shamelessly long cross post. It's about the ending and the
death of Rorschach
. The changes here are symptomatic of those throughout the film, but I'm not going to go through the whole thing though! :D

They turned one of the most emotionally charged and symbolically loaded moments in the comic into something trite, cringeworthy and painfully histrionic. A lone existentialist man (of sorts), one who is unwilling to compromise even in the face of Armageddon, faces judgement in the snow at the hands of an implacable God. It was perfectly pitched in the comic: it was sad, it was brutal, it was heart-wrenching. Having fat, everyman Dan waddle into it and scream "NOOO" didn't add anything; not to our understanding of the characters, not to our understanding of the subtext or the story, not about Dan and Walter's relationship. It conventionalises the scene and, for me, trivialises Rorschach's death. Rather than simply letting the character die and allowing the audience to soak up the finality/impact of that, Rorschach's death simply becomes motivation for Dan's 'revenge'.

Don't be fooled here, having Dan witness Walter's death serves a singular purpose: it sets up Adrian - the 'bad guy' - getting his 'comeuppance' (as if someone with Adrian's ego would simply let himself be beaten up). They simply couldn't have Adrian kill millions and not be penalised in someway; they couldn't let a main character be killed without someone being punished. This is something the comic resolutely refuses to do (at least in the confines of the pages, and even that is up for debate). We can all pat Snyder on the back for getting a cigar on screen or managing to get the film set in 80s, but when it matters most, when it comes to conveying scenes in anything beyond the visual, he falters dramatically; bowing down to the pressures of Hollywood and ultimately (I think) bringing us a relatively safe film.

They had to have Nite Owl do those things because Hollywood can't have (what is ostensibly) a "bad guy" get away with his nefarious scheme without having some kind of comeuppance. Is that a sentiment the comic holds to? No, absolutely not.

The film wears the comic's skin (and wears it well) but it does not have any of it's heart.
 

kogasu

Member
This is still happening? Kojima's gone and I thought maybe everyone just forgot about the MGS movie announcement. Well, it certainly does not look that great but I'll remain in the middle. Could they at least get Hayter to co-write or something?
 
I always thought Jon Woo's Mission Impossible 2 was like the quintessential Kojima movie.

from the badass scenes to the stupidity of it all.

This is going to play it straight and be a straight bore. plus that director choice wtf.
 

Cartman86

Banned
MGS3 is the only story worth being told on film if at all. The rest are particularly suited for the video game medium or are just not good enough.
 

Farks!

Member
How exactly would a MGS movie work? Interchanging cuts between characters having philosophical monologues about culture and information technology and a man wearing spandex and bandana sneaking around in a military installation with nudie mags and rations?
 
You'll have to forgive the shamelessly long cross post. It's about the ending and the
death of Rorschach
. The changes here are symptomatic of those throughout the film, but I'm not going to go through the whole thing though! :D

So nothing as far as I can tell. Night Owl screaming No does not ruin anything nor does it take away anything. In fact despite only watching both films once I never once though anything Night Owl in the final scenes, the only thing anyone remembers is what happens to Rorschach, his sacrifice, and what happens to his journal. I doesn't spit in the face of anything that's pure hyperbole. Quite frankly what you posted reads like a butthurt fanboy who's mad his comic book wasn't adapted to the T and is trying to drag an entire film down by applying consequence to a scene change that don't exist.
 
I'm curious. How faithful would a MGS movie have to be to appease fans of the series? I can't imagine a version of the script with Wolf, Raven, and Mantis working.
 
Thanks for reading!



Why?

No problem.

Obviously because there is no room for them. You MIGHT have 2 hours to tell MGS's story. They are not part of the main story line so they are expendable and they take up too much time. You can either have them in the film and have them be static flat characters that act as canon folder which is disrespectful to the characters or you don't add them.

As far as the main plot goes the vital characters are Snake, Ocelot, Meryl, Campbell, Naomi, Fox, Liquid, Otacon, and Decoy. That's already a lot of characters as it is. You might be able to get Mantis in there but you'll be pressing for time. Again we go back to the problem of the structure of the narrative for MGS just does not fit for a film.
 
To be fair, it's exceptionally difficult to judge a writer based on their past work. All of those films had other hands shaping the project - so it's hard to distill what he's contributing (and if he's a positive/negative element).

But I don't think this is a good sign. They approached him, rather than take an existing pitch. Meaning he didn't come in with some idea for MGS that was so phenomenal that they hired him on the spot - instead, they tossed a talented guy their hot property, and said "adapt this, we'll give you a fat check."

I think you could make a great MGS movie. The structure is already based on action movie tropes, so it's just natural to turn the switch back & make an action film out of it. But it also needs to be something more. It has to be clever and subversive to the expectations of film, the way the original subverts that of games.

Expect Bradley Cooper as Snake, Emily Blunt as Meryl, and an inexplicably buff Ralph Fiennes as Liquid.
 

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
No problem.

I'll be sure to come to you for thoughtful, well-written, constructive criticism in future.

Obviously because there is no room for them. You MIGHT have 2 hours to tell MGS's story.

You may have a point there. Then again, the total cutscene time in MGS1 is around the 3 hour mark and there is an awful lot of stuff from the game that can be edited down rather than outright cut without losing the 'spirit' of the game.
 
But I don't think this is a good sign. They approached him, rather than take an existing pitch. Meaning he didn't come in with some idea for MGS that was so phenomenal that they hired him on the spot - instead, they tossed a talented guy their hot property, and said "adapt this, we'll give you a fat check."

I think you could make a great MGS movie. The structure is already based on action movie tropes, so it's just natural to turn the switch back & make an action film out of it. But it also needs to be something more. It has to be clever and subversive to the expectations of film, the way the original subverts that of games.

You may say that's a bad sign but that's exactly how things work a lot of the times. Company's send a writer a pitch and want their take on it. As a script writer you get tabbed to write scripts and rewrite other people's scripts, and adapt scripts all the time. It's extremely common for there to be a bunch of different scripts all bought up by the studio and never even used. You can't just send them a script for MGS if your a writer. There isn't like an open script casting call.

Also the plot is based on action movie tropes NOT the narrative structure. Two different things.
 

DryvBy

Member
Hey everyone, maybe he's played some hardcore MGS and is a big fan.

It's Hollywood making a video game movie. It's more than likely not going to be good no matter who writes it.
 
You may say that's a bad sign but that's exactly how things work a lot of the times. Company's send a writer a pitch and want their take on it. As a script writer you get tabbed to write scripts and rewrite other people's scripts, and adapt scripts all the time. It's extremely common for there to be a bunch of different scripts all bought up by the studio and never even used. You can't just send them a script for MGS if your a writer. There isn't like an open script casting call.

Also the plot is based on action movie tropes NOT the narrative structure. Two different things.

"Bad sign" might be the wrong word. It's more of a non-sign, with Basu coming to Sony with a great pitch being the good sign.

And I'd still say MGS' basic arc is still pretty core to the standards of a 2 hour action flick. Shave away the extraneous boss fights/puzzle backtracking, and it's really just "guy goes on mission, encounters quirky villains, meets girl, uncovers the true stakes of the operation, loses girl, realizes baddie is bro, beats baddie, saves girl, escapes." You can take that framework and make a movie - anything else you put on top of it is window dressing.
I almost certainly fucked something up in that breakdown, but I stand by my point.
 
You're saying that like it's a bad thing.

I started writing that sentence as my "worst case scenario" cast (the most obvious, profitable choices), then realized I'd be totally cool with it.

So basically they kicked Kojima and now they're pushing a movie?

They're going to molest the IP after V.

Movie was gaining traction before Kojima left, and the IP was already licensed to Sony Pictures years ago.. It's likely they were unrelated events.
 
Why him? I don't know his background much. We need an academy award winning production. Something tells me we are getting Uwe Boll.

I doubt any screenplay that comes out of an MGS adaptation would be award winning, anyway, unless it doesn't resemble the original material at all.
 
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