Metal Gear Solid Movie Stalls Due To “Lack Of Coordinated Will”

Well, perhaps it's just as well. Nobody really wants a black mark on the highly esteemed Metal Gear Solid franchise, now do they?

Even so, it's a wee bit disappointing. According to Collider.com , producer Mike De Luca says the "Metal Gear Solid" movie probably won't happen, despite his claim that everything was moving right along a few years ago. Due to a lack of a "coordinated will" and the fact that the video game companies and film companies seem to have conflicting "agendas," this ambitious project appears to be on indefinite hold. Said De Luca:

"I don’t think it’s going to move forward because I got the sense that there may not be enough of a coordinated will at this point on the side of certain parties to see a movie get made. And I get it because the problem with a lot of these adaptations is it’s such a huge franchise for the video game company. A movie can only hurt. If the movie’s great, you’re probably not going to sell more games. It’s such a separate thing. The franchise being as big as it kind of helps the movie…I’m not sure the movie does the same thing for the game."

Now, the article does make the point that if films based on games start to perform better in the box office and don't entirely piss off fans of the video game in question, perhaps this project will get back on its feet. But for some reason, we're getting the feeling that Hideo Kojima may not have liked the direction in which the movie was headed, and that may have created the first significant bump in the road. Added De Luca:

"The video game companies are very protective of their property and there are certain things a studio requires freedom-wise to market and distribute a movie effectively in a global marketplace and sometimes getting those two things to match up is really hard. And in the case of Metal Gear Solid, the agendas just…not because the parties weren’t amicable, it was just kind of impossible to get the agendas to match up."

There's some definite beating-around-the-bush and vagueness going on in these comments, as if De Luca doesn't want to come right out and explain the problem. But that's okay; it tells us not to expect an MGS movie. At least, not for the time being.