Jordan Vogt-Roberts Talks Nailing The Tricky Tone Of The Metal Gear Solid Movie - Polidicks

[QUOTE]Video game adaptations continue to be something of a dark spot in Hollywood. For years now, we’ve seen countless directors attempt to bring their favorite digital properties to life only to fail miserably. Last year, that trend continued with both Warcraft and Asssassin’s Creed, and despite the genre’s horrid track record, it doesn’t look like filmmakers will quit trying to nail the tricky beast that is a video game movie anytime soon. One project that’s currently got a lot of people curious is Metal Gear Solid. Given that some of the entries in the series are basically like films themselves, as they feature excessively long cutscenes and plots so complicated that very few people can claim to fully understand and follow everything, it was really only a matter of time before someone tried to bring the iconic franchise onto the big screen, and that someone just so happens to be Jordan Vogt-Roberts. Currently gearing up to release his new film Kong: Skull Island, the director sat down with us in Los Angeles this week to talk about the upcoming effort. While we’ll have the full interview for you shortly, we did want to share one particular part of it where he mentions his plans for Metal Gear Solid. When we asked him if he was still attached to bring Kojima’s celebrated and beloved video game to life, Vogt-Roberts told us the following. Metal Gear is something I’ve been attached to for a long time. It’s a movie I fought tooth and nail to try and attach myself to because it is potentially the most precious property on this Earth to me. And it is one of the most tricky and idiosyncratic properties on the planet, where the creator’s voice, Hideo Kojima, is a genius. It would also be one of the easiest properties for Hollywood to mess up. Luckily, there are very smart producers on it. It’s the type of thing where it would be very easy for Hollywood to be like, “Oh, it’s like Mission: Impossible!” No, it’s not Mission: Impossible. “It’s like G.I. Joe!” No, it’s not G.I. Joe. Metal Gear Solid IS Metal Gear Solid and can only be Metal Gear Solid. It is an incredibly tricky thing to adapt because of how specific the tone is. Kojima’s tone is so brilliant in what it does. The tone of this movie at times could take itself very seriously, be very intense, and then next moment, it can be very goofy and very sort of out there. There is no other property on the planet that I would want to protect and shepherd more than the Metal Gear Solid property. We are working on a script and have great producers. The goal is to get the script right and do justice to a movie that is unlike anything else that exists in movies or video games or anything. It’s one of the most influential properties in my life. And I’ve been fortunate enough to get to know the creator over the last couple of years. Just to be able to spend time with him is great. [/QUOTE] [url]http://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/jordan-vogt-roberts-talks-nailing-tricky-tone-metal-gear-solid-movie/[/url] The only way to get the Metal Gear Solid movie right is to get Kojima himself involved 100%, The Director needs to ignore all input from Konami and just get Kojima involved.

He seems very passionate about the project and knows his stuff. I had no expectations for this before but they've been raised pretty high now. He should definitely get Kojima on board for creative input and consulting.

[QUOTE=Duck M.;51851988]He seems very passionate about the project and knows his stuff. I had no expectations for this before but they've been raised pretty high now. He should definitely get Kojima on board for creative input and consulting.[/QUOTE] I wonder what walls he'd hit with Konami, however

No cardboard box, no dice

Who put a guy that [url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3611349/]is mainly responsible for some TV shows and movie shorts[/url] in charge of an adaptation of one of the most cinematic franchises of gaming? Sure he sounds enthusiastic about it, more like a real personal project as a fan of the series than just some director that thinks it looks neat, and he does have director credit for that King Kong movie on the cusp of its release next month, but something seems weird.

[QUOTE=RikohZX;51852074]Who put a guy that [url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3611349/]is mainly responsible for some TV shows and movie shorts[/url] in charge of an adaptation of one of the most cinematic franchises of gaming? Sure he sounds enthusiastic about it, more like a real personal project as a fan of the series than just some director that thinks it looks neat, and he does have director credit for that King Kong movie on the cusp of its release next month, but something seems weird.[/QUOTE] perhaps he was the only person both capable of respecting the unique tone of the series [I]and[/I] willing to take up a videogame project after all, he was chosen before the konami/kojima fallout

Imo it can't be done, at least not well. MGS exists best as it's current medium: A game series. Sure, it's the "best movie you've ever played," but the epilogue of MGS4 alone is half of an decent movie length. There's no way you can adapt any of MGS's plot lines into a concise movie, and make it work as well as the games have, included it's camp being as well received. The usual solution to these scenarios is make an original plot within the world, rather than adapt an existing story. And that won't work, either, because even Kojima seemed to struggle a bit on MGSV trying to fit in another story somewhere in the universe.

If it bombs I want to hear what Konami did

[QUOTE=LegndNikko;51852231]Imo it can't be done, at least not well. MGS exists best as it's current medium: A game series. Sure, it's the "best movie you've ever played," but the epilogue of MGS4 alone is half of an decent movie length. There's no way you can adapt any of MGS's plot lines into a concise movie, and make it work as well as the games have, included it's camp being as well received. The usual solution to these scenarios is make an original plot within the world, rather than adapt an existing story. And that won't work, either, because even Kojima seemed to struggle a bit on MGSV trying to fit in another story somewhere in the universe.[/QUOTE] just do it LOTR style and have it be a four hour film

[QUOTE=Mio Akiyama;51851958][url]http://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/jordan-vogt-roberts-talks-nailing-tricky-tone-metal-gear-solid-movie/[/url] The only way to get the Metal Gear Solid movie right is to get Kojima himself involved 100%, The Director needs to ignore all input from Konami and just get Kojima involved.[/QUOTE] Theres no way Konami's fragile pride would allow kojima to work on their IP.

[QUOTE=RikohZX;51852074]Who put a guy that [url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3611349/]is mainly responsible for some TV shows and movie shorts[/url] in charge of an adaptation of one of the most cinematic franchises of gaming? Sure he sounds enthusiastic about it, more like a real personal project as a fan of the series than just some director that thinks it looks neat, and he does have director credit for that King Kong movie on the cusp of its release next month, but something seems weird.[/QUOTE] Remember that Peter Jackson had only really made low-budget splatter films before he made The Lord of the Rings. Where do think film directors come from?

Yea it's nice and all how passionate he is of the series, and that he's supposedly been in touch with Kojima so much, but I still wouldn't put that much hope behind it yet. I still remember getting hyped for Alien vs Predator because of all these news stories talking about how big an expert Paul W S Anderson was of the Alien and Predator films and how he rewatched them all the time. Never again god damn. The better test here is gonna be how good that new King Kong movie the director is doing turns out, since that's a huge film and not gonna be easy to do right.

Metal Gear would work great as a TV series if it went chronological, every game could be a season

[QUOTE=LegndNikko;51852231]Imo it can't be done, at least not well. MGS exists best as it's current medium: A game series. Sure, it's the "best movie you've ever played," but the epilogue of MGS4 alone is half of an decent movie length. There's no way you can adapt any of MGS's plot lines into a concise movie, and make it work as well as the games have, included it's camp being as well received. The usual solution to these scenarios is make an original plot within the world, rather than adapt an existing story. And that won't work, either, because even Kojima seemed to struggle a bit on MGSV trying to fit in another story somewhere in the universe.[/QUOTE] i think a lot of the wacky light hearted elements go too far, though. the exposition is heavy-handed, too, and those are the lengthiest cutscenes in the games. what i'm saying is, it's hard to adapt the games because, as unique as it makes them, they do a lot of things "wrong" (yes, VERY subjective, no need to tell me) in terms of tone and storytelling

[QUOTE=Zukriuchen;51852287]i think a lot of the wacky light hearted elements go too far, though. the exposition is heavy-handed, too, and those are the lengthiest cutscenes in the games. what i'm saying is, it's hard to adapt the games because, as unique as it makes them, they do a lot of things "wrong" (yes, VERY subjective, no need to tell me) in terms of tone and storytelling[/QUOTE] Metal Gear is basically what happens when a Japanese movie geek attempts to make a tribute to a crap ton of western movies while keeping some of that eastern quirkiness you just can't escape. Even MGSV, for how super serious and dark it could get, had its weirdness. Western film makers are just not going to be able to think like or recreate that element. And that's not even getting into the localizations often just coming off as overly-literal and abnormal because of converting Japanese to English, which created all sorts of dialogue that you just wouldn't hear in a western game or movie altogether.

there's some good cuts of the games on youtube that turn them into movies by skimming down all of the gameplay segments to last only a few seconds (they still take hours to watch)

[QUOTE=LegndNikko;51852231]Imo it can't be done, at least not well. MGS exists best as it's current medium: A game series. Sure, it's the "best movie you've ever played," but the epilogue of MGS4 alone is half of an decent movie length. There's no way you can adapt any of MGS's plot lines into a concise movie, and make it work as well as the games have, included it's camp being as well received. The usual solution to these scenarios is make an original plot within the world, rather than adapt an existing story. And that won't work, either, because even Kojima seemed to struggle a bit on MGSV trying to fit in another story somewhere in the universe.[/QUOTE] I think the really interesting stuff about metal gear can only done in video games. I'd like to see them recreate the psycho mantis fight in a film.

[QUOTE=AkujiTheSniper;51852278]Metal Gear would work great as a TV series if it went chronological, every game could be a season[/QUOTE] Never go chronologically with metal gear, always go by release date.

I mean, you could probably combine Metal Gear 1 and 2 (the original MSX games) into a digestable 2 hour movie. MGS1 could work given the simpler story, but it would have to be close to 3 hours, and it would be confusing as hell without a previous movie explaining half the shit that's brought up in the story.

[QUOTE=Dantz Bolrew;51852426]Never go chronologically with metal gear, always go by release date.[/QUOTE] Season 1 is MG1, season 2 is MG2 and then Season 3 would be MGS1. It'd be weird going from a season of MGRR to MGSV

[QUOTE=SpartanXC9;51852453]Season 1 is MG1, season 2 is MG2 and then Season 3 would be MGS1. It'd be weird going from a season of MGRR to MGSV[/QUOTE] Metal Gear 1 could probably fit as a prologue. That's how I imagine a movie could work.

MG is something I have extremely slim hopes that it'd work on screen. Just like the article itself says; some of those games are movies basically anyway. What are they gonna do, get Kiefer to act as Boss? Hard pass.

[QUOTE=bitches;51852364]there's some good cuts of the games on youtube that turn them into movies by skimming down all of the gameplay segments to last only a few seconds (they still take hours to watch)[/QUOTE] As someone whos never played the series but has been very interested in playing V, Ive been enjoying those movie cuts by KefkaProductions. He does a lot of work, especially later on he starts to cut codec conversations into gameplay that would be relevant/happen soon before or afterward. He also has a way of cutting to previous games for a second when the one you're watching makes a reference to them, or even (and Im not even sure this isnt part of the base game) [sp] In MGS 4 when ocelot/liquid says "You're... pretty good", the editor echoes in a clip of ocelot and naked snake saying that from 3 [/sp]

[QUOTE=spazthemax;51853981] [sp] In MGS 4 when ocelot/liquid says "You're... pretty good", the editor echoes in a clip of ocelot and naked snake saying that from 3 [/sp][/QUOTE] that's in the game.

TBH the closest thing to a MGS movie that we ever had was The Rock. Good luck if this doesn't fail horribly.

[QUOTE=Dantz Bolrew;51852426]Never go chronologically with metal gear, always go by release date.[/QUOTE] I get that that's what you do for the video games but that would be a lot of jumping back and forth as a TV series.

[QUOTE=AkujiTheSniper;51854349]I get that that's what you do for the video games but that would be a lot of jumping back and forth as a TV series.[/QUOTE] Going chronological would be like a first-timer watching the Star Wars movies chronologically. The impact of "No, I am your father" loses so much impact when it's prefaced by 3 movies worth of Anakin Skywalker falling to the darkside. Same with Big Boss' origins, especially in light of the twist that MGSV had in it's ending.

Wait, it won't be following Big Boss's story? Naked Snake best snake, FFS.

[quote]and plots so complicated that very few people can claim to fully understand and follow everything,[/quote] The plot isnt really that complicated.

[QUOTE=AaronM202;51854626]The plot isnt really that complicated.[/QUOTE] It kind of is, especially if you consider how they tried to tie it all together in MGS4. Plot's a bit of a mess overall, but the characters are really what makes MGS great.