Sony has found its writer for the Metal Gear movie adaptation and it's... some guy.
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We mean no disrespect to Jay Basu, the writer Sony has tapped for its film according to Deadline, but the Metal Gear series is one of the few in all of videogames where the creator is as much as character as his creation. Metal Gear without Hideo Kojima is just...well, it doesn't feel like Metal Gear at all.
The boldness and madness of Kojima is both what makes MGS so hard to swallow at times, but also so brilliant. Like Stephen King, Kojima is in desperate need of an editor - or at least someone to tell him 'no' every once in a while - but his auteur-esque sensibilities and epic, melodramatic vision is what makes us salivate at the mere mention of a new Metal Gear game.
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Jay Basu could be all of those things, he is simply untested. His only other credit is co-author on Monsters: Dark Continent, the sequel to the Gareth Edwards helmed indie flick. The film was not well received when it hit theaters last year. However, Universal also sees something in Basu, as they have tapped him to handle their 'shared universe' of the classic Universal monsters - Swamp Thing, Dracula, Wolf Man, etc.
Sony wants a surefire hit. There is no way a MGS film is coming in under $100 million, so they're going to want this to play to fans. If it ends up a retread of the first Metal Gear Solid game (one of the all-time greats), then Basu may end up being little more than transcriber. We hope that he has a vision all his own - established within the world of Kojima, but offering his own spin on the subject matter.
The Metal Gear film is rumored to be directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, who helmed the wonderful, quirky, not-at-all actiony The Kings of Summer back in 2013. The last indie director who got offered a bigtime tentpole gig by Sony was Marc Webb, and we got The Amazing Spider-man.
Writers and directors are an ocean of talents and there could be a surprise. Producers, on the other hand, are far more shallow. Only time will tell.
