Oscar Isaac Set To Bring Solid Snake To Life In ‘Metal Gear Solid’ Adaptation

Actor Oscar Isaac has officially been tapped to bring one of video gaming’s most iconic characters to life on the big screen. As relayed by Variety, Sony Pictures announced on Friday that the 41-year-old is now attached to filmmaker Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ cinematic adaptation of Metal Gear Solid in the starring role of Solid Snake.

Isaac, who will next be seen in the Dune reboot, became a bona fide action star with his work on the Star Wars sequel trilogy and films like X-Men: Apocalypse.

Created by auteur designer Hideo Kojima, the Metal Gear gaming franchise dates back 33 years to its first installment on the MSX2 and Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987. In the late 1990s, it made the jump to PlayStation consoles with the Solid series before eventually finding its way to Xbox consoles and Microsoft Windows. It holds a clear place among the most well-known and critically lauded series in gaming history.

The action-adventure stealth video games put players in control of Snake, who is portrayed as a former Green Beret and special ops soldier, as he engages in solo stealth and espionage missions.

Snake’s presentation and backstory in the games have been noted for their likeness to that of the John Carpenter/Nick Castle-created cinematic character Snake Plissken. Played by actor Kurt Russell, Plissken was the main protagonist of Carpenter’s 1981 cult classic film Escape From New York and its glitzy, mid-90s sequel, Escape From LA.

Due to Metal Gear’s strong story elements and cinematic style, the franchise has long been considered fertile ground for live-action and/or animated adaptations. As announced by the series’ publisher, Konami, via the Internet Archive, X-Men and Spider-Man producers Avi and Ari Arad eventually optioned the property in 2012, with the aim of producing and distributing a Metal Gear Solid film through Sony’s Columbia Pictures.

Since that time, however, the project has endured a lengthy development cycle that has left fans with little hope it would actually see a widespread release.

Issac’s hiring is the first major development for the project since 2018 when, as relayed by MovieWeb, Vogt-Roberts revealed that a script had been completed. At the time, the Kong: Skull Island and The Kings of Summer director was effusive in his praise for the story that had been written.

“I think it’s one of the best scripts I’ve ever read. It’s one of the coolest, weirdest, most [Hideo] Kojima things. Even being involved with it, I look at it as someone who was, like, I would make the hell out of this movie. But if I wasn’t involved in it, then I would still look at that script and be like holy s***!”