Video games legend David Hayter was put on the wire about something he’s certainly no stranger to: Metal Gear Solid. David is well known for his voice-acting role as the legendary Solid Snake of the Metal Gear Solid series, but few know Mr. Hayter is also a well versed screenplay artist, penning blockbusters like “X-Men”, “X2” and “Watchmen”. A while back, it was announced that he actually completed a screenplay adaptation for Metal Gear Solid, and fans everywhere rejoiced. As someone so close to the original source, surely David’s creation would end the nightmare and become the first great video game-to-movie adaptation. However, according to a recent interview, the possibility of the “Metal Gear Solid Movie” ever coming into fruition might be as likely as Snake defeating a Metal Gear by means of a dance-off…
Talking with MTV blog recently, David confirmed he had been approached in the past about writing a screenplay, and accepted without hesitation.
“A couple of years ago, a producer friend of mine asked me if I would be interested in doing the adaptation. And I said ‘Of course. I know it pretty well.’ I think I can say without contradiction that I know it better than any screenwriter on the planet. I’ve said every word that Snake has said. So I felt well-qualified.”
Since then, news of the production has been at a stand still as a deal has yet to be made between Sony and series creator Hideo Kojima. All this news has come through the grapevine to Mr. Hayter, who has been kept out of the loop until internal agreements can be made, and the real work can begin.
“I did come up with a pitch for the movie which I thought was pretty cool and I would still love to do. But there are far larger issues in terms of who’s going to get the rights to do it and what sort of involvement Mr. Kojima is going to have. All that needs to be worked out before I would ever come up.”
Although the movie deal is in an indefinite limbo, Hayter has taken an oath of secrecy on his work. After all, a deal may transpire sometime in the future, and revealing the plot prematurely to fans would almost certainly result in a different direction for the film.
“I really want to spring some things on people,” [Hayter] explained. “Having been intimately involved with ‘Metal Gear,’ I would like to give people a story that will grab the fans. The fans will know the context that we’re talking about once they see the trailers. They’ll say ‘Oh my god, they’re going there.’ But they won’t quite know how the story is going to unfold or what some of the big surprises are going to be. And that’s really the only way to keep a movie [adaptation] interesting.”
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