Movies

Oscar Isaac Wants To Star In 'Metal Gear Solid' Movie, And Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts Is Into It

metal gear solid movie
By Ben Pearson/

Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts (Kong: Skull Island) has been attached to direct a Metal Gear Solid movie for several years, but movement on the project has been slow. The film technically doesn't have an official greenlight from Sony yet, but here's something that may get the ball rolling: Star Wars and Inside Llewyn Davis actor Oscar Isaac says he wants to star in the movie.

During the press rounds for Netflix's new film Triple Frontier, IGN asked the cast if they'd ever consider starring in a video game movie. While most of the cast just sort of nodded, Isaac piped up with a specific project in mind:

"Metal Gear Solid, that's the one I'm – yeah. I'm throwing my hat in for that one."

Could this be the first step toward an Oscar Isaac Metal Gear Solid film? Actually, make that the second step, because the first step was already taken by Vogt-Roberts himself last year when he asked digital artist Boss Logic to create a mock-up of what a Metal Gear Solid movie poster would look like with Isaac in the lead role:

It sounds like we still have a wait ahead of us before we hear an official casting announcement, but the fact that both of these people are interested could bode well. Of course, there are a million reasons why this pairing might never happen: scheduling, contract negotiations, differing visions, what have you. But a few years ago, young Tom Holland used social media to showcase videos of his athletic ability that eventually led to him auditioning for – and ultimately earning – the role of Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so never say never.

When IGN asked who Isaac would like to play in the film, he paused for a moment as if the question were ridiculous and then answered, "Snake, man." He's talking about Solid Snake, a black ops agent who's an expert in stealth and combat. The games' plots are incredibly dense, but the gist is that they take place in an alternate timeline in which robotics and technology quickly become far more advanced after World War II than they did in our timeline. In that world, special ops soldiers are tasked with finding and stopping massive "Metal Gears", huge mechas that have the ability to launch nuclear weapons. Toss in a complex web of betrayals, redemptions, military realism, and out-of-this-world anime influences, and you can maybe start to understand why it's taken this long for a proper movie adaptation to get made.

Last year, Vogt-Roberts shared some concept art/fan art that he had commissioned which could potentially influence the movie, and he's talked in the past about how his film would embrace the weirdness of the games and not try to sterilize it, which sounds like the perfect approach for such a huge adaptation. Here's hoping that Oscar Isaac's interest pushes this thing toward the starting block.

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