‘Metal Gear Solid’ Film Director Celebrates Game Anniversary With Run of Inspired Art
By Brian Crecente
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Friday marks the 31-year anniversary of seminal action-adventure stealth game “Metal Gear” and Jordan Vogt-Roberts, the director for the upcoming movie based on the series, is celebrating with a run of amazing art inspired by the three-decade series created by Hideo Kojima.
Vogt-Roberts, who most recently directed “Kong: Skull Island,” kicked off the day with a video presented through the game’s classic Codec radio system. In it, Colonel Campbell delivers a message to fans, reminding them that today is the anniversary of the game and that the “Metal Gear Solid Film Project” remains alive and well.
“Some of you might say we’ve kept you waiting, huh?,” the colonel said in the video.
As both a thank you to fans of the franchise and a unique way to explore the long, inspired history of the games, Vogt-Roberts promised to release 31 pieces of concept art he “created with a series of ‘next-gan artists.’” The video also made it clear that the concepts are “fan art” and they they are not meant to show “what is or not in the forthcoming film.”
“Generating art based on Hideo Kojiima’s seminal characters and world has been a true childhood dream come true,” Vogt-Roberts is quoted as saying.
If the first piece of art, a creation by Nick Foreman that was released today and seen above, is any indication of what we have in store for us, then it is going to be a wonderful month of days. It looks like Yoji Shinkawa’s Metal Gear designs brought to live. In it, we see one of the titular Metal Gear, a bipedal walking tank that looks like it may be the Metal Gear REX, off the in distance, tiny birds circle a weapon pod mounted to one shoulder and soldiers stand around one of its legs. In the foreground we see a helmeted soldier wearing an XOF patch. The greys and greens of the piece deliver a somber tone and seem like the perfect sort of concept art for a movie anyone who loves the series would like to see.
It’s obvious Vogt-Roberts is an authentic fan of the series, so it will be interesting to see if the art touches on different stylistic approaches as it recaptures iconic moments and, maybe even delivers new ones. This concept of delivering daily Metal-Gear-inspired art to fans could be an excellent way of judging the sort of approach fans are looking for in the film, but even if it isn’t, it’s a wonderful bit of community fan service.
“Metal Gear” was originally released on the MSX2 on July 13, 1987, essentially creating stealth gameplay and, as the colonel points out, introducing the world to Kojima’s brand of military surrealism. That original game was rereleased on the Famicom that December and the next summer hit the Nintendo Entertainment System. More importantly, the game spawned a series which, under Kojima’s leadership, went on to deliver decades of filmic, powerful games that examined the state of the cold war and nuclear proliferation. The last Kojima-directed Metal Gear game, “ V: The Phantom Pain” was released in 2015 to near universal acclaim.
Kojima has since parted ways with Konami and is now working on “Death Stranding,” a game that seems to have the potential to be every bit as meaningful, both inside the game industry and out, as the “Metal Gear” series. He spoke about his work on the game recently with Variety.
The “Metal Gear Solid” film continues to slowly work its way toward reality. Last year, Derek Connolly, who wrote “Jurassic World” and “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” was announced as the writer for the film, working alongside “” collaborator Vogt-Roberts. Avi Arad is producing the film.
Both Ari Arad, president of Arad Prods., and Vogt-Roberts recently spoke with Variety about the continued pursuit of creating the sort of massive success comic book movies have had with video game movies.
