Metal Gear Solid fans let out a simultaneous cheer of jubilation and groan of apprehension this week as it was announced Avi Arad, the mastermind coordinator behind Marvel Studio’s The Avengers, is to bring MGS to the saga to the big screen.
It’s a long mooted project, but one which Arad is pledging to finally do justice. The producer said: “”We will take our time and tell the story with all the nuances, ideology, cautionary tales needed.”
But game-to-film adaptations have an embarrassingly bad track record, making me (a huge MGS fan) very worried about the movie.
To do it justice, here are 5 hurdles I think the Metal Gear Solid movie has to clear.
5. Picking a Protagonist
The problem with the making an MGS movie is that the series has two equally popular main protagonists, the legendary soldier turned disillusioned merc and terrorist Big Boss, and his cloned son Solid Snake.
While Snake’s badassery in Metal Gear Solid and its sequel made him a video game icon, Big Boss’ tragic story as portrayed in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and it’s handheld sequels made him a much loved anti-hero.
Big Boss’ tragic tale might make him a more interesting protagonist, but that means the film would have to be set at some point between the sixties and the rise of Outer Heaven.
But having Solid Snake as the protagonist would allow for a more modern, high-tech scenario, and could explore his relationship with the turncoat Big Boss.
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5 Comments
correct me if OOT, but isn’t Kevin Feige the Mastermind/Producer of The Avengers?
He’s a former Marvel CEO and was apparently heavily involved with the Avengers’ co-ordination.
Feige is the head of Marvel Studios I think?
Avi Arad is a good choice to produce. Remember, he’s the one who helped to shepherd Blade into production and began the comic-book renaissance that we are now enjoying. Though people seem to conveniently forget that and instead say X-Men was the beginning of it –yeah, a full two years later!
Arad was also the guy behind X-Men 1&2, Spider-Man and the rest of Marvel’s movie slate. Feige simply built on the foundation Arad had laid.
Avi’s involvement should also be encouraging to David Hayter fans since Avi is/was already working with David Hayter on Lost Planet so I would think he would at least bring David in to plot if not write the MGS script. However, David’s busy working on Wolves right now, and will be for the next year, so I’d say any involvement with him simply isn’t going to happen.
Now onto the article.
About the only point I’d like to address is that audiences will accept the rogue’s gallery. I’ve been laughing for several years now at the online pundits who say what audiences will or won’t accept.
Seven or so years back a clown on themovieblog was going on and on about how audiences would never believe a “realistic” comic book movie, epseically if someone was dumb enough to take some of the most iconic, campy villains and make them serious and believeable. “It simply won’t work!”
They were talking about Batman one year before Batman Begins came out. BTW, this person has yet to admit they were wrong. They in fact went on to repeat that same nonsense about every other superhero movie being made and Transformers, among many others.
Audiences are audiences. A proper director and any half-way competent screeenwriter can get FoxHound or Dead Cell over with an audience.
And as for casting. My short list would be Johnny Messner, Nick Chindlund, or Cole Hauser. Yes, you could go with someone who’s more of a “name,” but the “Star” mentality is what led to Doom and Afraid of the Dark.
I’m pretty damned good at predicting what works so here’s where the smart money is: Metal Gear is a dark, serious and brooding world. Rhe movie must be as well.
Think Dark Knight, or Patriot Games, only with a giant walking robot at the end. The lingo, tactics and most of all POLITICS of the story world should be taken from the real world we live in.
The Snake as one-man army, is about the only part that you can fudge on.
Anything less serious than Batman Begins and it won’t work. I think it goes without saying that any Metal Gear movie would have to be set in the “current” timeline, and not the Cold War. Besides, the audience would be too far ahead of Solid Snake if they already know about his father and we have to waste time relating to him what the audience already knows.
Unbeleiveable! The site didn’t post my comment?
Jesus. I’ll try again. Avi produced the first slate of Marvel’s movies starting with Blade so any “groans” must be from people who like nipples on the batsuit or something.
David Hayter’s busy on Wolves so he won’t be involved with this project.
As for casting: Johnny Messner, Nick chindlund, or Cole Hauser would be good.
The audience will accept the villains. It’s ALWAYS hilarious to hear web critics say what audiences will or will not accept from an adapted property. Same thing was said about Harry Potter (yeah, what audience will pay to see a school full of child-magicians?) and Batman. Well the critics were wrong then and they’re still wrong now.
Next you’ll try to tell me that there’s a difference between Batman/Harry potter and MGS. After all, MGS is about a soldier and paranormal military foes is ridiculous, right? You can’t have a hardcore, serious military story than then has sci-fi elements all throughout it. Nobody would buy it, right?
Sure, because we all remember what a big flop PREDATOR was, don’t we?
Audiences will buy it because they always have. It’s the critics who seem to have the trouble.
“Groans of apprehension” just means that game-to-film adaptations so far don’t inspire much confidence.
I’m also never said audiences won’t accept the villains, just that they might seem daft, which, if we’re honest, they are – but that’s part of the MGS charm.
I’m an embarrassingly big fan of Nolan’s Batman films, largely because of the way he takes outlandish characters and grounds them in some form of reality.