The Metal Gear Solid movie is actually making some progress, snags Jurassic World writer

A Metal Gear Solid movie has been on fans' minds for a long time - series director Hideo Kojima announced that there were plans to adapt his uber-popular tales of tactical espionage action to the big screen way back in 2006(!), but it's only been in the past year or so that any real progress seems to have been made. According to Variety, the film made another step toward becoming more than a pipe dream this week by bringing on writer Derek Connolly.

Connolly's credits cover quite the wide variety of tones. He got his big break thanks to Safety Not Guaranteed (a quirky romantic drama), co-wrote the screenplay for Jurassic World and the upcoming sequel Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (action movies about dinosaurs), as well as Monster Trucks (a kid's movie), and is currently helping write Star Wars 9 (space opera science fantasy).

It's not clear if Connolly will be outright replacing Jay Basu (Monsters: Dark Continent), who was announced as attached to the project back in 2015, or if he'll simply be giving it another draft. In any case, with producer Avi Arad, director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, and now screenplay writer Connolly all onboard, it feels like this thing might actually get made.

Of course, there's still the matter of casting and finding a star to play our gruff hero, Snake. Back when this was still but a twinkle in Kojima's eye - 2012, to be precise - he said he was torn between picking an up-and-coming actor and... Hugh Jackman. I'm not sure Jackman could play the young version of Snake, but I can totally see him as Big Boss. Maybe Tom Hardy as his clone "son"? Someone get me Vogt-Roberts' number, I've got a few suggestions to make.

Sam Prell

Sam is a former News Editor here at GamesRadar. His expert words have appeared on many of the web's well-known gaming sites, including Joystiq, Penny Arcade, Destructoid, and G4 Media, among others. Sam has a serious soft spot for MOBAs, MMOs, and emo music. Forever a farm boy, forever a '90s kid.