Kojima’s Advice to Jordan Vogt-Roberts on Metal Gear Solid Movie: Betray Your Audience

Jordan Vogt-Roberts has proven himself on the big screen. He’s capable of taking huge and iconic franchises and characters (like King Kong) and completely re-imagining them in his own way. As he prepares to do the same with Metal Gear Solid, Vogt-Roberts sought advice from the only person who could give it to him: Hideo Kojima. Watch below as Vogt-Roberts makes a passionate appeal to Kojima, asking him for his guidance in interpreting Metal Gear Solid in a new way:

Kojima’s advice is blunt and, on the surface, a bit confusing. “Do the same thing as me, betray your audience.” In other words, serve your unrelenting creative vision first and foremost, and never conceded to simply give the people what they want. The Metal Gear Solid games have always surprised us, sometimes in good ways and sometimes in bad ways, but it’s what makes the series so memorable.

You have to let the characters evolve in ways that are unique to their own, autonomous personalities. Like real human beings, Kojima’s characters rarely act or react in the way that we expect them to, or even wish they would. Some believe that Kojima is a master troll, while others hail him as a creative genious. It’s clear that Vogt-Roberts believes in Kojima as creative genius, and I can’t help but hope he takes his advice to heart.

Jordan Vogt-Roberts has a twinkle in his eye for Metal Gear Solid. After he saw massive success and critical attention for Kings of Summer, Vogt-Roberts had his pick of several large film projects to work on. When he saw that Metal Gear Solid was on the table, he jumped at the chance to pick the film up and make it his own. Sony dissuaded him at first, but he was relentless, and now he’s attempting to get a Metal Gear Solid movie off of the ground.

Hopefully it’s not long before we hear about casting and script. This is very much a work in progress, so I wouldn’t expect a trailer any time soon. We’re not going to get our first glimpse at Metal Gear Solid when we go see our favorite holiday movies later this year, so keep your timeline expectations in check. We trust Vogt-Roberts is going to take his time with this project and do it the right way and, hopefully, that means some huge surprises for us when it finally hits the big screen.