Over Thirty Pieces Of METAL GEAR SOLID Movie Concept Art Revealed By Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts
To celebrate the 31st anniversary of the Metal Gear Solid franchise, Jordan Vogt-Roberts - who hopes to direct a big screen adaptation - has shared some concept art revealing what his take might look like.
To celebrate the 31st annivesary of the Metal Gear Solid franchise, Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts spent July sharing pieces of concept art for the upcoming movie he hopes to take the helm of should Sony Pictures give him the green light. He already has Hideo Kojima's stamp of approval as the video game reation has said, "I'm convinced that no one but him can direct Metal Gear Solid."
His passion for the project is clear to see and each of these pieces of artwork comes with his thoughts on them and what they might mean for the movie if and when it finally becomes a reality (it should).
There's nothing to say any of these ideas will make it into the film, of course, but the artists used by Vogt-Roberts do give us a slightly better idea of the direction the filmmaker might ultimately take and it looks nothing short of spectacular. Anyway, to check these pieces out, click the "View List" button.
There’s many beautiful+insane+iconic images to come...but I want to start with this piece by Nick Foreman. The bond we formed via mechs reinforced that we should be loud w/ our love of this franchise as we may find friends & collaborators in the process.
Cyborg Ninja & the Gekkos are two of the most iconic Hideo Kojima + Yoji Shinkawa designs. I wanted to see their potential in the same frame. Wish I could say more...
One aspect of Metal Gear that’s important for me to translate onscreen is the blending of horror imagery with stylized magical realism.
Dennis Chan was one of my art assassins on KONG. MGS is about the “cycle of pain” so we created a diptych to visually represent history repeating. Can’t wait for you to see my approach to the dense past & present timeline of this world. Zoom in. Enjoy.
I truly felt the world needed to see his heavy atmospheric style + Metal Gear.
Metal Gear is unique for the sorrow & loss you feel while “winning”. The death of Sniper Wolf rocked me when I first experienced it. I wanted to capture that melancholy victory.
This piece explores visualizing active-camouflage + integration into an environment. He nails the badass elation of stalking & the tension being stalked.
Ignacio Lazcano helped me nail the design of Marlow’s boat in KONG. He regularly helped me flesh out early concepts and he’s one of my go-to people. I wanted him to play with one of the most iconic scenes in Metal Gear history.
Joe Peterson is an artist I met specifically for this project and he is A+ Enjoy. NOTE: This artwork is NOT in any way representative of casting nor wishlist casting. It’s a common practice for artists to use actors in key frames. Nothing more than that.
How most people feel after comic con...Neither truly alive, nor truly dead, an undying shadow, in a world of lights. Now, in front of you, I can finally die." This Ben Mauro art is an exploration of Cyborg Ninja’s trapped & tortured nature."
The tragic relationship that occurrs between Naked Snake and The Boss is one of the most potent in the series. Loyalty to the end.
This is one my favorite pieces of art (much more than 31 days worth) that I created while working on the script. The relationship between tech and human nature is important to this film.
Portable Ops and Peace Walker are two of my favorite stories in the franchise and I couldn’t help but explore them visually.
Flowers shifting color + stylisized moments of magic realism are elements to embrace rather than fear.
Accurately bringing the MGS designs to life is one of my goals.
I haven’t focused much on our friend Revolver Ocelot, but as we know he’s one of the main pillars of the franchise. Such a fun character to write for. So ripe for amazing casting.
I wanted to see REX out of the hanger and in action. I love the idea of characters using Metal Gear as more than a walking tank, but instead also using it as a symbol for the times we live in.
Snake and Ninja in a ROCKY face off. "Now we can fight as warriors. Hand-to-hand, it is the basis of all combat. Only a fool trusts his life to a weapon."
Hal “Otacon” Emmerich. I can’t understate the importance of Otacon in this franchise. In many ways he was a reflection of us, the player. More importantly... he was a conduit to growth and pathos for Snake.
I worked with Form Language Studio on KONG. These guys always deliver. This beautiful photobash inspired by Walker Gear is an exploration of if bipedal technology proliferated into other countries earlier in history with their own spin on the design.
Metal Gear is full of what I call “military surrealism”. It’s a delicate balance between horror-inspired-supernatural (nanomachines) & manga-stylized-magical-realism. I wanted to explore and capture these odder moments.
Many people ask if I’m adapting a specific game and they usually assume MGS1 or 3. I think the original MSX games are also crucial to understanding the lore so I wanted visually experiment.
Another by the great Ignacio Lazcano featuring a young Ocelot. There’s a fine line in the Metal Gear universe between the extremely grounded and the extremely heightened.
In honor of today’s codec transmission, I have one more piece capturing the iconic Sniper Wolf. I wanted to explore pushing the magic realism and stylization. Letting her be the bloody, wounded angel she was.
"Whoever wins the battle does not end. The loser is set free from the battlefield, while the winner must remain there."
The design of the Scarabs are another uniquely original Kojima / Shinkawa achievement and I wanted to capture their unsettling swarm. Their presence after the exhaustive brutality of the microwave-corridor has always stayed with me.
These are very early renders of accurately replicating Snake’s iconic wardrobe + other MGS inspired designs.
The goal of the film is to tap into those same feelings and introduce them to a wider audience.
It always amazes me what sense of dread and wonder he creates at once. Men and machines. Nature and steel. In Metal Gear, wild technology is common place but still needs to be treated with a sense of awe.
Once again showing history repeating itself. I can’t believe there’s only ONE MORE DAY left. I’m going to miss sharing all of this art.
Snake and Rex activated. Something about this classic pairing just felt like the right thing to end this celebration on. This scene is forever engraved into my childhood brain.