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[Icolin]

Some interesting points made about tackling the source material, meeting with Kojima (this, this, and this), a potential "R" rating, and his love for the IP.

Key points:
- MGS is the "most important franchise" to Vogt Roberts "on the planet"

- MGS is a property that he will "fight tooth and nail to make sure is done properly because it's so easy to screw it up," and that and it's "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"

- notes that MGS is "a highly, highly specific property that's idiosyncratic to one persona and one person's point of view and the way in which they interpret sort of culture and Western culture and twist that back around into this super pure amazing property that has a tone that I think is unlike anything else that is out there"

- says when people see [Kong] they'll think "this can be incredibly serious and dark and intense or it can also be incredibly goofy and kind of take the piss out of itself and be slapstick at times, much like Metal Gear"

- on a "R" rating, Vogt Roberts says he wants to "make the version of the movie that is most true to what it needs to be, so if that is a Deadpool or Logan route where you go with a smaller budget and you're able to make it R, great. If you need to blow it out more and really get that bigger budget and go PG-13, I think it could exist in both avenues. There are hyper-violent parts to Metal Gear but I would not necessarily call the hyper-violent part the core element of it versus like the tone and the voice and the philosophies that the characters exhibit"

- the most important thing about the project right now is nailing the voice and tone of MGS

- wants it to be something that Metal Gear superfans and "random Joe Schmoe in Nebraska who has no idea what Metal Gear is" can enjoy and love

Source

Haven't made a thread on NeoGAF before, so mods feel free to lock it and PM me.

 

[shiftplusone]

duncan jones is a huge megafan of warcraft and that didn't seem to matter in the end for that movie, either.(I personally liked it )

MGS will meet the same fate

 

[Einchy]

MGS, in the right hands, could make for such a weird and amazing movie but it'll never happen. MGS is no longer an active brand, so I don't see who would want to finance it.

 

[Durden77]

Just gonna post what I said over in the gaming side thread

As much as I love Metal Gear, I have never been behind this idea. Considering what the games are, it just doesn't seem necessary at all and almost surely will be redundant and less rewarding just because of the type of game MGS is.

It's like making an Uncharted movie. Seriously what's the point? These games are special because they are already cinematic experiences.

 

[Grenchel]

A two hour hour metal hear movie is like one cutscene in metal gear 4

I don't think they should do this, especially not with kojima directing.

 

[- J - D -]

It'd be better as a tv show.

 

[Icolin]

MGS, in the right hands, could make for such a weird and amazing movie but it'll never happen. MGS is no longer an active brand, so I don't see who would want to finance it.

It is happening though. Produced by Avi Arad and Sony Pictures, so it might not be vaporware. And meetings between Vogt Roberts and Kojima have been happening more frequently as time has passed.

 

[Discotheque]

Just gonna post what I said over in the gaming side thread

Well the thing with uncharted is that translated to film it would just be some bog standard Indiana Jones ripoff. We get one of those like every few years.

MGS is unlike anything else. It's a franchise from a game auteur in that you can't separate it from kojimas weird idiosyncracies

Otherwise you'll just get some generic ass spec ops movie with a guy wearing a cool bandana. They have to go all out with the absurdity as well as the melodrama and action. And I don't see the studios allowing that so what's the point of this shit

 

[MMarston]

It'd be better as a tv show.

Especially with those obscene infodumps.


Could be in a generational anthology format a la JoJo too.

 

[What did he mean by this?]

That's pretty sad this MGS interview is getting more traction than any of the Kong press info. Wonder how that movie will do

 

[hodayathink]

It is happening though. Produced by Avi Arad and Sony Pictures, so it might not be vaporware. And meetings between Vogt Roberts and Kojima have been happening more frequently as time has passed.

Sony also had producers on that TLOU movie that has basically been mothballed. It's being planned, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will happen.

 

[Slayven]

2017 and Mortal Kombat is still the best video game movie.

 

[- J - D -]

Especially with those obscene infodumps.


Could be in a generational anthology format a la JoJo too.

Someone light the Netflix signal!

2017 and Mortal Kombat is still the best video game movie.

^^^^^^ this.

the Silent Hill movie is garbage I don't care what anyone says.

 

[G-Fex]

Like I sad in the other thread no way big hollywood going to sign off it without turning it into something more sellable.

 

[BlackGoku03]

Please don't fuck up Metal Gear. Please.

A good MG/MGS movie series can almost make up for the only start the DCEU has had.

 

[BlueTsunami]

The claustrophobic, small scale of the original does not need a huge budget.

 

[Squire]

MGS is not something that can be made paketsble fir a mainstream audience and it's not a vision that could be realized on an art house budget. It's a lose-lose situation.

He should really play more Japanese games, too. MGS tone is simply not that unique. It might've been at MGS1, but at this point? Suda51, Yoko Taro, etc. A LOT of designers make stuff that's in the exact same wheelhouse as MGS with regards to tone.

 

[torre_avenue]

duncan jones is a huge megafan of warcraft and that didn't seem to matter in the end for that movie, either.(I personally liked it )

MGS will meet the same fate

See, where Jones went wrong was making "Warcraft" a big budget mega-blockbuster.

The difference between "Warcraft" and "MGS" is that you don't need a $150+ million budget to do MGS justice. In theory, "MGS" could be a sub-$100 mil production and fit snugly in that "Logan"-"Deadpool" R-rated range of films. As long as Vogt-Roberts focuses on making the script good and balancing the innate weirdness of the property with the accessibility of a modern-spy film, it'll be good.

But then again, Hollywood is a place where they fucked up "Hitman" twice by making it a dumb action film instead of a thriller, so....

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

MGS1 could be a good, fun action movie in the style of Under Siege, MGS3 could be a good action/espionage movie that has a strong emotional core, but moving beyond that and trying to keep faithful will result in a spiraling clusterfuck of nonsense that won't have "at least it's fun to play" and "man the graphics are so good" to save it.

 

[Bill Squabber]

If Ghost in the Shell turns out to be good, then I'd have hope for a MGS movie.

 

[broncobuster]

I know it's parody to suggest making it like Dredd, but they should make it like Dredd. Small scale, all in Shadow Moses. Karl Urban could work as Snake, too.

 

[Slayven]

I am going to be blunt, i don't see how this could be good without some heavy changes. You throw shit like Quiet up there and people just going to think it is a parody

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

That's pretty sad this MGS interview is getting more traction than any of the Kong press info. Wonder how that movie will do

Personally, I think it's going to bomb horribly, and Power Rangers perform subpar as well, putting the 'western Kaiju movie' attempts on hold for a bit. Pacific Rim 2 is in production, but that's probably where the train stops for a bit to recharge until Godzilla comes back.

Also, A Monster Calls 2 with Anne Hathaway comes out this year too. That is going to be in theathers for two weeks, then never to be seen again... until Best of the Worst: Christmas or Kaiju.

 

[Whompa02]

I'd like to give this a chance to be honest.

 

[Guess Who]

Like I sad in the other thread no way big hollywood going to sign off it without turning it into something more sellable.

If we're only talking MGS1, it's already a pretty sellable story. The weirdest of the weird shit only really comes in later in the series - MGS1 is just an espionage thriller about a Cool Stoic Action Man saving the world from his evil brother and nuclear weapons. You'd have to rewrite a bit of the genetics stuff, and you wouldn't stick scenes like Otacon pissing himself into the trailers, but otherwise it'd basically work as a movie.

MGS3 would also work as a Bond homage. MGS2 wouldn't work at all in non-video-game-form though, and MGS4 doesn't even really work any way you slice it, so...

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

I am going to be blunt, i don't see how this could be good without some heavy changes. You throw shit like Quiet up there and people just going to think it is a parody

MGS1 is near future sci-fi die hard. It's easy. You kind of have to include the crazy mecha stuff, but the clone / Liquid Snake stuff is something you could possibly drop for an adaptation (and improve it by doing so).

Even if you had a mech in MGS1 adaptation, you could then do a prequel with MGS3 stuff and keep a lot of that story in-tact just using conventional "cold war secret weapon technology" stuff instead of a mech per se. The Boss's Arc would be the emotional core of the movie and a pretty good one at that.

MGS2, MGS4 and MGS5 are just insanity and would have to be hacked to pieces to make work.

 

[More_Badass]

Just gonna post what I said over in the gaming side thread

Why make any movie? Execution matters, not that it wouldn't be original like you stated with Uncharte

 

[Slayven]

MGS1 is near future sci-fi die hard. It's easy. You kind of have to include the crazy mecha stuff, but the clone / Liquid Snake stuff is something you could possibly drop for an adaptation (and improve it by doing so).

Even if you had a mech in MGS1 adaptation, you could then do a prequel with MGS3 stuff and keep a lot of that story in-tact just using conventional "cold war secret weapon technology" stuff instead of a mech per se. The Boss's Arc would be the emotional core of the movie and a pretty good one at that.

MGS2, MGS4 and MGS5 are just insanity and would have to be hacked to pieces to make work.

I agree with you, but they just fucked up a movie about medieval ninjas

 

[The Driver]

MGS1 is near future sci-fi die hard. It's easy. You kind of have to include the crazy mecha stuff, but the clone / Liquid Snake stuff is something you could possibly drop for an adaptation (and improve it by doing so).

Even if you had a mech in MGS1 adaptation, you could then do a prequel with MGS3 stuff and keep a lot of that story in-tact just using conventional "cold war secret weapon technology" stuff instead of a mech per se. The Boss's Arc would be the emotional core of the movie and a pretty good one at that.

MGS2, MGS4 and MGS5 are just insanity and would have to be hacked to pieces to make work.

MGS without its namesake or weird clone shit? Nah fam keep dat.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

MGS without its namesake or weird clone shit? Nah fam keep dat.

The actual mechs are just mcguffins in every single game. You can substitute them for any action movie plot driver (super virus, NOC list, secret computer program, nuclear bombs etc) and they all still function just fine with minimal modification. The plot to MGS1 isn't actually superior because you're chasing down a robot, the plot to MGS3 isn't improved by the Shagohod being a robot. By the time you get to MGS4 and 5 the mechs have almost nothing to do with the story. It's just a plot about AI's controlling the world and vocal cord parasites. They contain mechs because the series is called "Metal Gear", and that's about it.

You probably have to have Rex in MGS1 because of the series namesake, but the Shagohod is actually a detriment to MGS3.

Clones shit is bad and has always been bad. I don't even want to talk about the silliness of Liquid Ocelot in the sequels. If you were making a one shot movie of MGS1, you could quite happily just make Liquid and Solid the literal children of Big Boss.

But there's a question you have to ask, which is whether you're trying to make a good movie, or whether you're trying to be faithful to the series, because those are pretty much at loggerheads with one another. There's so much camp on every level of MGS, even in the "relatively grounded" first game. Psycho Mantis, Decoy Octopus, Revolver Ocelott, Sniper Wolf and Vulcan Raven would all need to be toned down if you were trying to make it "serious" as opposed to just some sort of comedy. Even Kingsmen is about 10x more serious than a straight adaptation of MGS1 would be.

 

[IC5]

There is a way to make this work. But it would cost too much and would have to be all or nothing.

First, it would have to be a 2 or 3 movie setup, all shot back to back.
It would be built from all the good ideas in the games but end up its own separated canon. Example: MGS goes too far up its own butt. However, the Tanker is a compelling setting for a mission and I loved the concept of Fortune. The story ideas are great and relevant----but too much screen time us spent wording it out. Try to lighten that load, so that we can just have cool sneaking action.

I think it would be best to focus on the enemies who have slight quirks on reality. Ocelot is a crackshot. Seems to be everywhere. Fortune is a just a conflicted, super fit women soldier, aside from being invincible to gunfire. But I don't think we should have a guy wielding bees, or a Vampire. Characters like Sniper Wolf, Decoy octopus, Olga, are all pretty grounded. I don't want it to end up like some of the lame side.mutants in X-men movies or otherwise like, what hokey freak will we see next?

The goldeneye director, with Kojima in a producer role where he can also inform some directing choices to maintain tone.

The hellboy team teams up with Yoji Shinkawa for art direction and costumes. Hellboy movies already have obvious MGS inspirations and some other Japanese stuff, such as Nausicaa.

Hugh Jackman as Snake.

Focus on espionage and direct ops stuff. Cut out the world controlling, high imminent threat.

I think a cool sub plot to borrow would be the insanity of grey fox as cyborg ninja. A ghost in a shell. Just like the games, dont show the past, dont show us an origin. Tease him through the movie just like the game (maybe even a little more) and just like the game, have him die not in a showdown with snake, which could never be plausible.
And then run hard with Raiden being some young greenhorn who wants to be snake and ends up a cyborg ninja freak in his lust to be the best. But cut out all the whiney B.S. Just make him foolhardy and super eager. He should be Snake's sidekick in the movies, rather than Otacon. Otacon should just be kept to his pants pissing, I'm the metal gear creator, scene. Not a mainstay character.
Movie two could flip to snake eater style outdoors. Maybe Australia or something. While snake is doing this is when we are getting hints that Raiden is up to something (becoming a cyborg ninja on his eagerness to 1-up snake. With idea that if Snake fails, Raiden will be able to fill the gap).
Losing big boss' corpse in a harbor was a great scene. Use that. Plot it so that somehow it's the only sample of his DNA. Like it has to be harvested from living tissue, for cloning to work. But, he actually gets lost to the sea floor. And BTW he was president during desert storm or something. And thats how this all got noticed. Because they were too confident and took the presidency. WHAT.

Haha.

 

[RustyNails]

Please dont. When will people learn?

 

[IC5]

The actual mechs are just mcguffins in every single game. You can substitute them for any action movie plot driver (super virus, NOC list, secret computer program, nuclear bombs etc) and they all still function just fine with minimal modification. The plot to MGS1 isn't actually superior because you're chasing down a robot, the plot to MGS3 isn't improved by the Shagohod being a robot. By the time you get to MGS4 and 5 the mechs have almost nothing to do with the story. It's just a plot about AI's controlling the world and vocal cord parasites. They contain mechs because the series is called "Metal Gear", and that's about it.

You probably have to have Rex in MGS1 because of the series namesake, but the Shagohod is actually a detriment to MGS3.

Clones shit is bad and has always been bad. I don't even want to talk about the silliness of Liquid Ocelot in the sequels. If you were making a one shot movie of MGS1, you could quite happily just make Liquid and Solid the literal children of Big Boss.

But there's a question you have to ask, which is whether you're trying to make a good movie, or whether you're trying to be faithful to the series, because those are pretty much at loggerheads with one another. There's so much camp on every level of MGS, even in the "relatively grounded" first game. Psycho Mantis, Decoy Octopus, Revolver Ocelott, Sniper Wolf and Vulcan Raven would all need to be toned down if you were trying to make it "serious" as opposed to just some sort of comedy. Even Kingsmen is about 10x more serious than a straight adaptation of MGS1 would be.

I like the literal children idea. Maybe separated at birth. Maybe snake is the only one who knows and then liquid finds out. Big boss had no clue.
Maybe the cloning of big boss ends up some crazy plan that never pans out and his corpse sinks to the sea floor.

 

[Icolin]

See, where Jones went wrong was making "Warcraft" a big budget mega-blockbuster.

The difference between "Warcraft" and "MGS" is that you don't need a $150+ million budget to do MGS justice. In theory, "MGS" could be a sub-$100 mil production and fit snugly in that "Logan"-"Deadpool" R-rated range of films. As long as Vogt-Roberts focuses on making the script good and balancing the innate weirdness of the property with the accessibility of a modern-spy film, it'll be good.

But then again, Hollywood is a place where they fucked up "Hitman" twice by making it a dumb action film instead of a thriller, so....

This right here.

 

[Frozenprince]

Honestly, with a good director and lead, MGS could work. You'd need to handwaving the metal gear 1&2 stuff but it could work.

It won't, obviously, but out of all the games to adapt, MGS1 seems like a fairly easy one to get right.

 

[Icolin]

Honestly, with a good director and lead, MGS could work. You'd need to handwaving the metal gear 1&2 stuff but it could work.

It won't, obviously, but out of all the games to adapt, MGS1 seems like a fairly easy one to get right.

They seemingly have the director part down (fingers crossed for Kong Skull Island), but the success of this movie will come down to the script and cast. They gotta nail the casting of Snake, Liquid, Otacon, etc.

 

[brandonh83]

A two hour hour metal hear movie is like one cutscene in metal gear 4

I don't think they should do this, especially not with kojima directing.

This comes right down to a script level though. Just because Hideo opted for ridiculously long cutscenes doesn't mean a movie can't be done in 2 hours.

And are you trying to say Kojima should direct this? I have no idea how he'd do and I respect his talents, but I think Jordan would do fine.

 

[Icolin]

This comes right down to a script level though. Just because Hideo opted for ridiculously long cutscenes doesn't mean a movie can't be done in 2 hours.

And are you trying to say Kojima should direct this? I have no idea how he'd do and I respect his talents, but I think Jordan would do fine.

Agreed. I think he's a great choice.

 

[brandonh83]

Agreed. I think he's a great choice.

He's the only aspect that makes me somewhat optimistic. We'll see how Kong turns out first I guess, but even looking at Kong he seems to have a good eye for shots and set design. The practical effects looked awesome in the b-roll and the sets are super atmospheric even before any post touchups.

 

[Gaius Cassius]

It'd be better as a tv show.

And give it to the guys that made The Americans. I'd watch the shit out of that.

 

[jett]

This movie will enter production juuuust about the time the Uncharted movie does.

 

[Grenchel]

This comes right down to a script level though. Just because Hideo opted for ridiculously long cutscenes doesn't mean a movie can't be done in 2 hours.

And are you trying to say Kojima should direct this? I have no idea how he'd do and I respect his talents, but I think Jordan would do fine.

I was attempting to make a poor ass joke with the cutscene thing, but yeah..

I don't have any doubt they could make a decent flick out of metal gear, but I think Kojima made something that can't really be emulated in other mediums.

 

[brandonh83]

I was attempting to make a poor ass joke with the cutscene thing, but yeah..

I don't have any doubt they could make a decent flick out of metal gear, but I think Kojima made something that can't really be emulated in other mediums.

Gotcha lol

Well, like I said it depends on script. The original MGS was a pretty tightly paced thriller. I think that could be translated well to film. When you condense it down to just the story and action I mean it can work.

Games are filled with so much shit that doesn't need to be in a film adaptation.

 

[CosmicGroinPull]

I'd give my life, not for honor but for a faithful MGS3 adaptation starring Cate Blanchett as The Boss.


Okay not my life but I'd give a lot.

 

[7DollarHagane]

This will never come out unless it's just cashing in on the name and using some generic action movie script they can buy cheap with the characters names changed.

I have zero interest or faith in Hollywood to do games right.

 

[Blablurn]

Would you still call it Metal Gear Solid considering Average Joe should also watch it.

 

[7DollarHagane]

Honestly, with a good director and lead, MGS could work. You'd need to handwaving the metal gear 1&2 stuff but it could work.

It won't, obviously, but out of all the games to adapt, MGS1 seems like a fairly easy one to get right.

They should start with metal gear 1. It's a much simpler plot and has a ton more leeway to be written as a war movie.

Metal gear 2 might not even be necessary because it's basically mgs 0.5.

I can see putting the back story in a metal gear movie, if that does well, metal gear solid as the sequel.

Then just jump to snake eater for the trilogy. Mgs2 and mgs4 cannot be translated to a film. It is impossible.

 

[torre_avenue]

Would you still call it Metal Gear Solid considering Average Joe should also watch it.

I'd call it "Escape from Shadow Moses". But Shadow Moses doesn't sound cool enough.

You know what sounds cool? City names.

 

[7DollarHagane]

Honestly a Rambo style 80s throwback movie of the original metal gear sounds a lot more fun and workable than MGS.

Infiltration, slitting throats, old style radios and Berettas, smoking cigarettes to expose laser beams, blowing up the tank with mines..

Actually make it set in the late 1980s and blend the events of metal gear 1 and metal gear 2 into one movie. That would be amazing.

 

[brandonh83]

Would you still call it Metal Gear Solid considering Average Joe should also watch it.

Just Metal Gear maybe. Really if they wanted a series they could take creative liberties to help tell a tighter and more coherent story. I always thought it'd be cool to get a movie about The Boss and the dudes from MGS3 when they were all together during one of the wars they were in, at least as a prologue and actually start with that and Big Boss. Then the next film would be the events of MGS1 but the previous one would end with the setup of the Les Enfants Terribles project which would establish Solid, Liquid and Solidus.