Outstanding news for our video-game fanatics out there: The long-gestating Metal Gear Solid movie, which has been on again and off again for years, officially is back on.
At a Metal Gear anniversary event in Tokyo, Konami declared that the movie finally is moving forward at Columbia Pictures. According to Kotaku.com, uber-producer Avi Arad (The Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men and X2) will guide the film to the big screen, as revealed by Japanese game director Hideo Kojima.
“Comic books are now biggest genre in cinema, Video games are the comic books of today,” Arad said, before easing Metal Gear fans’ minds by reassuring, “We will take our time and tell the story with all the nuances, ideology, cautionary tales needed.”
This is, by no means, a reassurance that the film actually is guaranteed to happen, however, presentations like this (with names like Arad attached) amount to more than the usual dog-and-pony show. But Metal Gear joins a short list of successful video-game franchises waiting for their shot at silver-screen fortunes. Uncharted and Mass Effect are two such properties that seem like natural translations to feature length. However, for every Tomb Raider, there’s a disastrous Doom, Max Payne or Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time serving as a cautious reminder for Hollywood not to mess up.
So while we’re nowhere near the casting stage, it does sound like the pre-production process on a Metal Gear Solid movie is heating up. Will you allow yourself to get excited?
