Hideo Kojima's Undefinable Video Game Death Stranding Is Becoming A Movie
Video game movie adaptations are notoriously difficult, because translating from a medium that requires constant input to one that's totally passive is honestly really, really hard. A movie based on a Hideo Kojima game, by that metric, should be almost impossible. Thankfully for all of us, Kojima doesn't believe in "impossible!" Deadline reports that there is a "Death Stranding" movie in the works from Kojima's Kojima Productions and "Barbarian" executive producer Alex Lebovici's Hammerstone Studios. This is potentially very exciting news because video game movies might be a challenge, but having the game's original creator onboard is a huge step in the right direction. (It's also not the first time Kojima's mentioned wanting to make a film or TV show, which makes it doubly exciting.)
"Death Stranding" is one of the weirdest games in Kojima's entire oeuvre, and that's saying a lot considering this is the man who brought us Snakes in Liquid, Solid, and Big Boss form. It will be interesting to see how they translate this cinematic but truly bizarre tale of Bridge Babies, naked Norman Reedus, and more walking than "The Walking Dead." There's really no way to tell exactly how Kojima and Lebovici will tackle translating this beast of a story from a lengthy video game to a two-hour movie, but that's why they get paid the big bucks.
Asking the important questions
"Death Stranding" is a 40+ hour story set after an apocalyptic event that left ghostly creatures called BTs, rifts called "voidouts," and rain that ages whatever it touches in its wake. Players control Sam Bridges (Reedus), a transporter who schleps various kinds of cargo across the dangerous wastelands from city to city. Along the way, he encounters a Bridge Baby (a fetus that was taken out of its mothers' womb and put into a canister, where it can sense BTs) and ends up taking it for his own. Trying to explain the plot much further than that will only end in both of us getting headaches, as there is simply no quick synopsis for this wild, weird game.
My biggest question, then, beyond how they're going to condense 40 hours of story into two, is whether or not the actors will reprise their roles. I can't imagine "Death Stranding" with anyone except for Reedus in the lead, and Mads Mikkelsen is similarly a must-have. Kojima took a big swing by casting major movie and TV stars in his video game, so I sure as heck hope that they're going to be in the movie version as well. It's gonna be weird, but I'll be there with a bag of popcorn and a huge smile on my face. Now if we could just get some more "Metal Gear" movie news...