5 reasons I'm beyond stoked for the Metal Gear Solid film

Metal Gear Solid is becoming a film. That most cinematic of games will soon find its spiritual home on the silver screen, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Sony Pictures has signed filmmaking duo Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein to a sweeping first-look deal that hands them access to the studio's film labels, including the original stealth 'em-up, Metal Gear Solid.

I'm excited, and for five very good reasons.

1. I loved the game

Along with Resident Evil and Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear Solid was part of a golden period of late-90s PlayStation games that blurred the lines between gaming and cinema. As well as its epic cut scenes and focus on voice acting, it was the first major game to focus on stealth gameplay rather than attacking everything in sight.

This was a revelation. You could spend hours hiding from guards, tapping on walls to attract their attention, and fleeing to safety before starting the whole game of cat and mouse over again.

As such, it has a fond place in my heart, and probably cost me a couple of grades at A level.

2. It always had a genuinely cinematic feel

[HD 1080 ] [PS1] Metal Gear Solid 1 Introduction - YouTube

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Metal Gear Solid always wanted to be a film. On the first playthrough, this was thrilling, as for entire half hours at a time, you would relinquish control entirely and watch a Hollywood-budget cut scene with proper voice acting and plenty of plot twists.

For every subsequent playthrough, it was a right pain, as you hammered the X button to skip yet more interminable dialogue.

This reached a nadir in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots, which has a cut scene lasting a ridiculous 71 minutes. It's basically a film with a game attached.

The voice acting was always hammy, and the dialogue pretty dire, but you couldn't thwart its ambition. And where it excelled was in the Alaskan nuclear facility setting and the inventive scenarios it threw at you – such as an imprisoned Solid Snake hiding under the bed to fool the guards.

3. It'll be directed by the duo behind the most recent Final Destination

Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein have some serious directing chops. Did you see the observation tower collapse scene in Final Destination Bloodlines? Even by that series' standards, it was a masterclass in suspense. And gore.

If there's one thing the Metal Gear Solid universe relies on, it's tension. Lipovsky and Stein could be the perfect match for the job.

4. It has solid production talent behind it

But they're not the only crew talent onboard. It will be produced by the father-and-son team of Avi and Ari Arad, whose previous work includes Blade, X-Men, and both Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse. That's quite some CV.

5. It promises to be fun

This is the biggie. Because for all Metal Gear Solid's earnest subject matter and po-faced cut scenes, it also had a very silly sense of humour.

One of the first things you can do in the game is hide inside a cardboard box, and tiptoe around like something out of Looney Tunes.

Or there's the part where you hide under the bed in your jail cell until the guard, unable to see you, comes blundering in, ready to be knocked unconscious by a few well-aimed fists.

Or the boss Psycho Mantis, who shows his psychic powers by reading out the Konami saves on your memory card and displays his telekinesis by vibrating your Dual Shock controller; in order to defeat him, you had to plug your controller into the second control port so that he couldn't predict your moves. Genius.

For the movie, the directors' aim will be "creating wildly fun, commercial, character-driven, genre-bending films". If you change the last word from 'films' to 'games', it's a pretty accurate description of the Metal Gear Solid franchise.

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