Equilibrium writer targeted for MGS film Comments by Robert Purchese

Do not f*ck this up..!

Jesus Christ, not Equilibrium! the script was probably the worst thing on the movie

Do we really need a MGS movie? The games themselves play out like interactive movies, and are deeper story wise than any 90 minute movie could be. I can't see a live action movie doing anything the games can't.


Besides watching codec messages on the big screen would really be dull! :0

Uwe Boll

Wanker!

Sorry, impulse reaction.

Equilibrium was awesome !
MGS is awesome !

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, it could be SO awesome, that it goes beyond the scale of awesomeness and ends up being rubbish...

Or it may just end up being rubbish.

Damn it! I get the impression that Uwe Boll is the most well-known German in the UK and the US these days! Nobody here in Germany knows him!

jeez its gonna be like 10 hours long and i bet snake won't even be in it.

Kurt Russell or fail!

They *could* pick some other (better) screenwriter..

David Hayter himself could pull it off I think

Equilibrium is overrated and Ultraviolet is complete shit. Another promising game-to-movie adaptation then.

And Sean Bean has the perfect look for the role of Snake. David Hayter simply has to dub whoever plays him though, if he's not in the running himself.

"Equilibrium is overrated"

Don't be ridiculous - Equilibrium was possibly one of the most underrated films ever. It hideously bombed everywhere it was screened, despite being pretty good. It only made some money back on DVD sales.

"Equilibrium was possibly one of the most underrated films ever."

Nonsense. It's the staple film brought up online as a great example of modern sci-fi, when it's nowhere near good enough to be that. I neither know nor care how it performed on its original release (if it did bomb, that sounds about right to me), but now it's just horribly overexposed and overrated amongst the online film community.

@ Aretak

In fairness it is quite a good movie, certainly not one of the most underrated movies ever but very watchable and worth a look at least.

I liked Equididdlybum, but not especially because of the script. It's just Farenheit 451 with added 'gun-kata'.

Mind you, I hate Metal Gear Solid (and only about 50% because of the script, but that's another story) , so I probably won't be going to see this anyway.

nicely said WIRED PROTOCOL!kitamura would be a perfect choice!after all he directed twin snakes and most of his movies ROCKS!!

I liked Equilibrium allot.

Christian Bale or Eric Bana as Snake. I really can't see someone else pulling it off.
Unless a young Clint Eastwood is cloned...

Kurt Wimmer is the right man for an MGS film because he prooved with Equilibrium that he can pull off a very stylish action movie on a rather moderate budget. Equilibrium was WAY BETTER than Matrix 2, which was released at roughly the same time, while being produced at a fraction of the budget for Matrix 2. Ultraviolet turned out bad because the suits at sony ruined the film by forcing Wimmer to cut and alter large chunks of the film and the whole story.

Equilibrium was sub-standard generic sci-fi dross. Part 1984, part Matrix, all crappy. From the opening shot of them torching the Mona Lisa, to the strangly emotional Taye Diggs (did he read the bit where it said NO emotions?), to the god awful 'Look, he loves a puppy so he MUST be feeling' bit, to the point Brian "What the fuck are you doing in this film?!" Conley shows up. Shite.

"Equilibrium was WAY BETTER than Matrix 2"

So is a lapdance from Barbara Cartland. Still wouldn't want to sit through more that 10 secs of it.

Seriously, Equilibrium is one of those films touted as good by folk who think Event Horizon is a masterpiece.

Both Event Horizon and Equilibrium are well done from a technical point of view and that's exactly what counts here. Konami isn't looking for the next Kubrick here, they want an aesthetically skilled and genre experienced director who knows the drill and doesn't have a problem with what will surely be a rather medium sized budget.
Btw, your lapdance analogy is just plain stupid...I guess Pac Man ate your logic too.

Even though I find the prospect of an MGS film conceptually redundant - the dialogue and story sequences were executed in the format of a film anyway - if we are to get one, I certainly wouldn't want Ryuhei Kitamura within ten miles of it. His over-directed cutscenes were one of the things I disliked most about Twin Snakes; extravagant action scenes are all well and good, but not when they jar horribly with the established tone, style, and worst of all, characterisation.

As for casting, my votes would have to go to Rupert Everett as Liquid Snake, Queen Latifah as Vulcan Raven, and Brian Blessed as The End (or, failing that, as anyone). They can work their way up from there.

"Both Event Horizon and Equilibrium are well done from a technical point of view and that's exactly what counts here."

That's as maybe but both Event Horizon and Equilibrium bombed spectacularly both in the US and internationally making back with the former making back less than 50% and the latter 20% of their respective budget (and that's before P&A) so I'm not sure Konami are looking for the same here. Ultraviolet only just scrapped back it's budget thanks to the overseas market.

It doesn't matter what the film looks like, it's whether it can be made a compelling enough offering to attract punters into the cinema, raise the profile of the brand and make money.

If all you are doing is appealing to the fanboys then what's the fucking point of making it?

Equilibrium was a great movie, better than matrix 2 onwards, special effects were quite good, surprisingly good cast (Christian Bale rocks in pretty much every single thing he has ever been in, Sean Bean was Boromirtastic, Sean Pertwee was good, Taye Diggs was ace, Robert the Bruce off brave heart and two of the dudes from prison break in minor blink and you'll miss em roles), great idea concepts (gun-kata, population controlled through drug use etc), and fantastic fight scene choreography. all with a tiny budget, as a film student i was impressed.

Ultra violet on the other hand was a great big steaming pile of poo.

plus the subject matter is a video game, this doesn't bode well.

If all you are doing is appealing to the fanboys then what's the fucking point of making it?

All these game-based movies are just appealing to the fanboys. Why else would anyone go and see a substandard action movie with 80s sensibilities, which is invariable what these films all turn out to be? And with the writer of Equilibrium on board, I can't imagine this one will be much different.

"That's as maybe but both Event Horizon and Equilibrium bombed spectacularly both in the US and internationally making back with the former making back less than 50% and the latter 20% of their respective budget (and that's before P&A)..."

While I can't check your numbers I'm pretty sure that both did very well (considering that both films had rather small budgets) on DVD. Especially Equilibrium did definitely NOT bomb as rental or retail DVD and there's even a beautiful japanese HD-DVD out there. DVDs (including Blu-Ray of course) are where the profit is when it comes to game adaptations.

"While I can't check your numbers I'm pretty sure that both did very well (considering that both films had rather small budgets) on DVD. Especially Equilibrium did definitely NOT bomb as rental or retail DVD and there's even a beautiful japanese HD-DVD out there. DVDs (including Blu-Ray of course) are where the profit is when it comes to game adaptations."

Equilbrium was made for approx. $20-25m and made back $5m at the box office, Event Horizon was made for approx. $60-65m and took $30m.

You are correct that DVDs are where the profits come for the vast majority of films but you expect to make back your shooting budget at the very least from box office. If not then no matter how well it does on DVD you are up against it as the box office dictates how much TV sales etc are worth. These films needed to make $20m alone on DVD/VoD/TV sales just to break even, and as I said before that's before prints and advertising costs.

They will, more than likely, break even in the long run (even Waterworld has ended up making a profit) and could well be in money now but that's still very far from being a success story.

Ultraviolet was really bad, tried so hard to be all martixy and it ended up irritating me. Plus i lost track of the plot anyway.

Kurt Wimmer is a buffoon. He can't write for toffee. Are you mental?

Equilibrium is one of my all time favourite films. I watched it in the cinema when it first came out and loved it. Yeah it aint exactly cerebral and the corny moments are just embarassing. The plot is pretty ridiculous and most of the acting is hammy. But "grammaton cleric" i mean you cannot come up with a better title than that.

I'm not gonna bother intellectualising it or giving it the status of best sci fi flick ever etc etc, all i know is i loved it and i bought the DVD. so long as wotsisface does his homework and swots up on MGS back story i reckon he'll do a good job. MGS itself is overly dramatic and bombastic, it doesnt need some highbrow director f***ing it up and turning it into brokeback mountain or whatever rubbish won the oscars this year. So long as the action is as good as Kojima's cut scenes and the characters are true to their gaming heritage it will do for me.

NO!, just NO!

this film (which isnt ever getting made) needs someone like ridley/tony scott to do it....or james cameron ..but i guess then itd be out in the year 3000 in holotronoforce vision

Hideo has said before he'd never let Uwe Boll touch MGS so why even mention him?
David Hayter, who does Snake's voice btw, is a writer(X-men 1 and 2), director and actor himself. He also knows the characters and story extremely well. He's said he'd love to do it and has played through all the games, even more then once. He couldn't possibly be more perfect. Harry Gregson-Williams should also do the score. Where else would you get this opportunity?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45RrpygZp1E

"It doesn't matter what the film looks like, it's whether it can be made a compelling enough offering to attract punters into the cinema, raise the profile of the brand and make money.

If all you are doing is appealing to the fanboys then what's the fucking point of making it?"

So it doesn't matter about making a film you're proud of? Jesus, you have been swallowed up by the industry. Some of the best films have flopped financially. Sounds like your media course took away your love of film. Good luck as a producer.