A Metal Gear Solid movie is finally moving forward at Sony

After years of false starts, delays and near-misses, a live-action Metal Gear Solid movie is finally moving forward, and it’s coming together quickly.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein have been tapped to helm the project for Sony Pictures, as part of a major first-look deal with the studio.

If those names sound familiar, it’s because the duo are coming off the back of Final Destination: Bloodline, a revival of the long-running horror franchise that ended up being both a box office hit and one of the best-reviewed entries in the series. That success has effectively fast-tracked them into one of the more in-demand directing teams in Hollywood right now.

Under the new deal, their production company Wonderlab will develop and produce projects across Sony’s various film labels, with a focus on big, commercial, character-driven genre films. The Metal Gear Solid adaptation is one of the headline projects to come out of that agreement.

For anyone who’s been following this one, it’s been a long time coming. A film adaptation of the franchise, created by Hideo Kojima, has been stuck in development since 2012, with various directors, ideas and casting rumours coming and going over the years.

At one point, Jordan Vogt-Roberts (best known for Kong: Skull Island) was attached to direct, and Oscar Isaac had been lined up to play protagonist Solid Snake. There’s no confirmation yet on whether any of those earlier plans will carry over into this new version.

What is clear is the scale of the ambition. The original Metal Gear Solid games blended stealth gameplay with dense, cinematic storytelling, mixing military espionage with sci-fi elements in a way that was pretty groundbreaking at the time. Translating that to film has always been the challenge, and the reason it’s taken this long to get off the ground.

Lipovsky and Stein seem fully aware of that legacy. In a statement, they described the game as “a groundbreaking cinematic masterpiece” and said they’re aiming to bring its “iconic characters and unforgettable world” to life on screen.

There’s no release date or casting confirmed just yet, so it’s still early days. But after more than a decade of development limbo, the fact that it’s now locked in with a studio, directors and a broader production deal suggests this might finally be the version that sticks.

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