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Metal Gear Solid movie star says he loves the "strangely isolated, mournful, lonely" game

"Can you explore those themes in a really interesting way on film?"

Oscar Isaac - who's set to play Solid Snake in the upcoming Metal Gear Solid movie - says he took the role because he "loved the game".

In an interview with Total Film, Isaac talked about his current commitments, which include the Metal Gear Solid film from director Jordan Vogt-Roberts.

Cover image for YouTube videoThe complete story of Metal Gear - just in time for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain

"I just loved the game," Isaac said (thanks, GamesRadar+, via NME). "I love the feeling that the game would give me every time I'd play. It's just a strangely isolated, mournful, lonely game to play that has these incredible moments of violence and terror, with these weird, psychedelic concepts and villains. But, yes, it's kind of like psychedelic military horror things that happen.

"And the truth is, underneath the whole thing, it's an anti-war story. So I think those are the elements I really love. And, like I said, I love the feel of playing it, and the big question of: can something like that be transferred - or can you explore those themes in a really interesting way - on film?"

As Martin summarised a couple of years back, the Metal Gear movie was first announced in 2006 and has, over the years, had names such as Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman and even acclaimed director Paul Thomas Anderson attached to it. Momentum has built ever since Arad Productions got onboard in 2012, though, and in 2014 Sony Pictures finally secured director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, who is also a life-long gamer.

"If I was smarter and knew more about math there's an alternate reality in my life where I'd have gone into games development," Vogt-Roberts told us at the time. "The influence they've had on me as a person, as a filmmaker, it's so intense and intimate and rewired my brain at a very young age - the language of the way video games work is so important. Video games I've played are as influential to me as films that I've watched."