Konami Says Paul Thomas Anderson is Circling Metal Gear Solid? NOT TRUE!
Collider talked to someone involved with the production who has confirmed that Paul Thomas Anderson is NOT involved. My guess is that Saito meant to say Paul W.S. Anderson, who has a history of video game movie adaptations. The original news story follows:
Get out of here, Konami! At a press conference for this summer’s Metal Gear Solid 4, Konami’s Aki Saito, who’s apparently hands-on with the Metal Gear feature film adaptation, told a Kotaku reporter that 1.) the franchise’s feted creator, Hideo Kojima, will not be directing the movie version and 2.) director Paul Thomas Anderson is a possibility…
Regarding to potential directors, Saito says, “Paul Thomas Anderson is interested.”
What would The New Yorker say if this became a reality? Saito also communicated how carefully Konami, the vid game’s publisher, is handling the adaptation, much to fans’ satisfaction, and expressed a certain weariness over Hollywood’s video game flick graveyard…
“Often Hollywood adaptations have the original game creator involved at the beginning, but somewhere along the line they fall out of view. This is why it’s very important for us to carefully pick the studio for this project.”
PTA handling a grandiose spy action film would be bananas and make for a highly unforeseen and no doubt controversial follow-up to his masterpiece, There Will Be Blood. Venturing into pipe dream land, I’m not sure if I’d rather see Tarantino’s Grand Theft Auto (the Internet fantasy fave for Rockstar’s franchise at the moment) or this. Not sure why Saito would just throw PTA’s name out there if there wasn’t some truth to it.
Brief MGS synopsis: Metal Gear Solid follows Solid Snake, a retired soldier who infiltrates a nuclear weapons disposal facility to neutralize the terrorist threat from FOXHOUND, a renegade special forces unit.
Kurt Wimmer to Write and Possibly Direct Metal Gear Solid Movie?
Coming Soon had a chance to speak with producer Michael De Luca (21, Ghost Rider) and he passed along news that a Metal Gear Solid movie, based off the long-running hit espionage video game franchise, is once again going ahead. The project has been in the very early stages for sometime (see eerily similar Slashfilm post from Feb ‘07), and faced a set back from the writer’s strike. Moreover, De Luca says that a meeting will take place in the “next few weeks” with writer/director Kurt Wimmer about adapting a screenplay for the film.
Though De Luca didn’t directly state it, this probably means that Wimmer is also up to direct the big budget affair, as his previous films, Equilibrium starring Christian Bale and Ultraviolet starring Millo Jovovich, were similar fanboy-intensive, kinetic action/genre flicks. Neither one of those films connected at the box office, however, so MGS would be the director’s closest shot at bagging a sure thing, the whole video game curse notwithstanding. Wimmer’s next screenplay to hit the big screen will be April’s LAPD thriller Street Kings with Keanu Reeves.
Video game synopsis: Metal Gear Solid follows Solid Snake, a retired soldier who infiltrates a nuclear weapons disposal facility to neutralize the terrorist threat from FOXHOUND, a renegade special forces unit.
Metal Gear Solid: The Movie
Sony has announced that they will be bringing Konami’s hit videogame franchise Metal Gear Solid to the big screen.
Metal Gear Solid first published by Konami in 1998 for the PlayStation video game console. Since then the franchise has sold more than 20 million units. An off-shoot from the 1987 game Metal Gear, the stealth action title has had four sequels. Another sequel is set for release this year.
Metal Gear Solid follows Solid Snake, a retired soldier who infiltrates a nuclear weapons disposal facility to neutralize the terrorist threat from FOXHOUND, a renegade special forces unit.
Michael De Luca will produce the adaptation, with videogame creator Hideo Kojima as executive producer. No director has been announced. One person we know won’t be involved is hack director Uwe Boll. Kojima has previously stated, “it’s impossible we’d ever do a movie with him.” Thank God.
MGS is one of the few video games that has the potential for a descent big screen adaptation. Do I believe it will be done right? No. But I’m all about setting myself up for big disappointments.
Kojima first announced the project on his weekly podcast, HIDECHAN! Radio, that “[they] are going to do it as a movie.” But it has not been confirmed in an official capacity until now.