Obsessed With Film

Posted by Matt Holmes

According to Coming Soon, soon after the release of the futuristic post-Matrix sci-fi movie Equilibrium in 2002, fans were “clamoring” for it’s director Kurt Wimmer to helm the movie adaptation of Metal Gear Solid.

It’s not something I particularly remember (wasn’t the movie a flop anyway?) but I will take their word for it. Equilibrium was a pretty cool movie when you finally got round to seeing it on DVD (did anyone actually see it in the theatre?), an ambitious feature with some really juicy ideas that it maybe didn’t quite explore to the full because of it’s attempt to be too stylish and cool in a cinema still very much feeling the effects of The Matrix.

So six years on. Wimmer’s possibly being knocked down a few notches on the Hollywood ladder after his female-centric futuristic sci-fi movie Ultraviolet under-performed and his reputation left a little sour after the huge recuts from Warner Bros. on the flick but finally it looks like Columbia want to talk to him about it.

Producer Michael De Luca says he expects to sit down with Wimmer and talk to him about writing (and probably directing) a Metal Gear Solid movie which apparentaly is now officially a priority for Columbia.

And that’s just about all we have on this one.

I’ve said it before… Metal Gear Solid, alongside Splinter Cell, are the two easily adaptable movie franchises from popular A-List video games just waiting to be made into a money making tentpole feature. Essentially, they are just clever action thrillers and if you use the basic plot from the game and just tweak it a little for pacing and coherent storytelling then you should be on for a painless winner.

Properties like Halo, Gears of War and Grand Theft Auto are slightly harder to adapt but MGS just needs an assured writer in the genre.

Wimmer could be that guy. His script for the Al Pacino/Colin Farrell thriller The Recruit wasn’t bad and he also co-wrote The Thomas Crown Affair. He’s certainly a less eccentric writer than he is helmer, I would like to see him knock out a script for this but I’m not sure about him directing it.

Glad to see the movie back up and running though.

categories - Kurt-Wimmer, Metal Gear Solid, Movie News

Further Reading

• UPDATED: THERE WILL BE METAL GEAR but not with PTA?

• Sony begin development on Metal Gear Solid movie

• Columbia want Berg to direct Cruise’s SALT

• Tom Cruise replaced by Angelina Jolie in SALT!

• GEARS OF WAR in trouble

6 Comments »

1. Solid Snake to be played by either Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman or Gerard Butler. Those are my picks.

   Comment by Tino | March 14, 2008

2. Solid Gear Snake goes to someone like Colin Ferrell (who showed great killing skill in Daredevil, lol. Someone who might actually be intimidating. I know I piss people off when I say, not Hugh Jackman (I didn’t think he played a good Wolverine).

   Comment by Madhatt3r | March 14, 2008

3. Snake should be played by Nick Chindlund, who was in Ultraviolet, or Cole Hauser. And while I think Wimmer is a serviceable enough writer I think MGS needs someone like David Hayter to write the script.

   Or better yet, Tony Gilroy. And the director? John McTiernan. MGS is a thinking man’s action flick and no one is better at that that McTiernan.

   Comment by JaySmack | March 14, 2008

4. Jaysmack’s on the right lines. Hugh Jackman and Chrisitan Bale have enough franchises right now, it’s gotta be an unknown or a non franchise actor.

   Though Gerard Butler would be cool. Wasn’t the character always said to be based on Kurt Russell in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK?

   Tony Gilroy I would love to see take on this but I think they could have done a lot worse than Kurt Wimmer. And besides nothing’s official yet, they are just meeting for talks.

   Comment by Matt Holmes | March 14, 2008

5. snake should be russell crowe!

   Comment by manj | March 14, 2008

6. I would love to see Viggo Mortensen as SS but he’s a bit old now and I don’t think he would want to do it.

   Comment by Sean | March 14, 2008

Leave a comment