No Metal Gear Solid Movie Anytime Soon, Says Producer Mike De Luca

For years now, we've been reporting on the potential film adaptation of the Konami game series Metal Gear Solid. Last year, we reported that Equilibrium director Kurt Wimmer was talking with the studio about adapting the game, and there were also rumors about Paul Thomas Anderson directing as well (we think they really meant Paul W.S. Anderson). Now we have more of a concrete update from producer Mike De Luca — it's most likely not happening at all.

Speaking to Frosty over at Collider, De Luca talked about how the video game companies in particular made it impossible for the film to get made.

I don't think it's going to move forward because I got the sense that there may not be enough of a coordinated will at this point on the side of certain parties to see a movie get made.

Like Frosty mentions, this doesn't mean that a movie will never happen — it's just been very difficult to get the ball rolling so far. The upcoming Prince of Persia is the most high-profile and big-budget video game adaptation in some time, and if it's successful, there's a good chance that the many players involved will finally agree on terms to an MGS movie.

De Luca goes on to say:

[T]he video game companies are very protective of their property and there are certain things a studio requires freedom-wise to market and distribute a movie effectively in a global marketplace and sometimes getting those two things to match up is really hard. And in the case of Metal Gear Solid, the agendas just....not because the parties weren't amicable, it was just kind of impossible to get the agendas to match up.

It's no great surprise why Konami has been so hesitant, given the history of video game adaptations thus far. I hope they figure out some way to make this happen though. I consider Resident Evil to be the best game-to-film adaptation thus far, and I've been impressed with the footage we've seen from Prince of Persia. Both of those game franchises were inherently cinematic, which likely helped with the transition. As one of the most cinematic game series out there, I think an MGS film is inevitable.

Read the full interview over at Collider.