Sony’sMetal Gear Solidis adding a fresh yet familiar talent to its writing team. Back in 2012,Derek ConnollywroteSafety Not Guaranteed, a good indie flick that went unseen by most moviegoers. Luckily, one of the folks whodidsee the Sundance hit was a fella by the name ofSteven Spielberg. That changed everything. In 2015, Connolly was part of the writing team forJurassic World, a bad, big-budget film that was seen by millions. That success was followed up by the bizarre one-two punch ofMonster TrucksandKong: Skull Island, the latter being a collaboration between Connolly and directorJordan Vogt-Roberts. Connolly and Vogt-Roberts will now reunite for Sony’s big-screen adaptation of Konami’s classic video game franchise.
Varietyreports that Connolly has come aboardMetal Gear Solidto take a crack at the latest draft of the script. And that’s pretty much all the detail that’s available at the moment. But as Connolly finds himself increasingly busy writing high-profile projects, the lesson here is clear: Just get yourself noticed by Spielberg and everything else will sort itself out. Connolly also has scripts for such tiny films asJurassic World: Fallen KingdomandStar Wars: Episode IXto his credit.
Here’s what else we know aboutMetal Gear Solid: Vogt-Roberts spoke about his vision for the adaptationearlier this year, saying:
“Metal Gear Solidis probably the most important franchise to me on the planet. It is such a genius, idiosyncratic work and being able to spend time with [Hideo] Kojima recently has been like a dream … That is a property that I will fight tooth and nail to make sure is done properly because it’s so easy to screw it up and so easy for a studio to try and make it intoG.I. Joeor try and make it intoMission: Impossibleor try and make it into something that it’s not.Metal Gear Solidneeds to be exactly what it needs to be, which isMetal Gear Solid.
“I want to make the version of the movie that is most true to what it needs to be, so if that is aDeadpoolorLoganroute where you go with a smaller budget and you’re able to make it R, great. If you need to blow it out more and really get that bigger budget and go PG-13, I think it could exist in both avenues … Those characters sort of are these walking philosophies, so I think nailing that part is far more important necessarily than thinking about the rating at this point, because right now we’re just trying to get the best version of it.”
More recently, Vogt-Roberts talked about working on other non-feature film projects as a bit of a mental break followingKong: Skull Islandand before diving intoMetal Gear Solid. But make no mistake, once he officially starts production on the highly anticipated film, he’ll be going all out. The addition of Connolly as a collaborator adds some familiarity to the project and will hopefully ease any creative rough spots along the way. Keep an eye out for more on this project as it develops over the upcoming months.
