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A feature film adaptation of the beloved video game franchise Metal Gear Solid has been in the works for a long while now, but it gained some steam in February 2014 when filmmaker Jordan Vogt-Roberts—fresh off his unique Sundance indie Kings of Summer—signed on to take the helm for Sony. Vogt-Roberts soon thereafter became mighty busy as he took the helm of Warner Bros. and Legendary’s King Kong reboot Kong: Skull Island, but now that that film is about to hit theaters, Vogt-Roberts may have more time to devote to Metal Gear Solid.

But where, exactly, does that movie stand? Is it actually happening? Is it Vogt-Roberts’ next film? When Collider’s own Steve Weintraub caught up with Vogt-Roberts at the Kong: Skull Island press day, he asked the filmmaker for an update:

“Metal Gear Solid is probably the most important franchise to me on the planet. It is such a genius, idiosyncratic work and being able to spend time with [Hideo] Kojima recently has been like a dream. He’s the best and his whole team is the best. We are working on the script. That is a property that I will fight tooth and nail to make sure is done properly because it’s so easy to screw it up and so easy for a studio to try and make it into G.I. Joe or try and make it into Mission: Impossible or try and make it into something that it’s not. Metal Gear Solid needs to be exactly what it needs to be, which is Metal Gear Solid.”

Indeed, as Vogt-Roberts discusses the film his passion for the property becomes perfectly clear. He pointed out that fans might see a taste of his Metal Gear take in Kong: Skull Island, and noted that the video game franchise is unique in that it’s been shepherded by the same creative voice over the course of its lifetime:

“It’s so interesting because unlike a comic book that’s had 40 writers or 100 writers over the course of a decade or two decades or whatever, for decades now Metal Gear Solid has essentially had one voice. So you’re dealing with a highly, highly specific property that’s idiosyncratic to one persona and one person’s point of view and the way in which they interpret sort of culture and Western culture and twist that back around into this super pure amazing property that has a tone that I think is unlike anything else that is out there. I actually think that when people see [Kong] they’ll realize like, ‘Oh tonally there are things that sort of line up with this’ where this can be incredibly serious and dark and intense or it can also be incredibly goofy and kind of take the piss out of itself and be slapstick at times, much like Metal Gear. Luckily there are amazing producers on it, but that’s a property that is so pure and important to my soul, because it’s something that I grew up on, that I would love to shepherd into the film that it needs to be. I think it’d be a massive film, I think it’d be an incredible film, but it needs to be done in a way that completely honors what Metal Gear is because it’s a classic and it’s a seminal work not just in video games, but in media.”

Given that the Metal Gear Solid property revolves around Special Ops, the opportunity to make an R-rated movie is certainly there. But while Vogt-Roberts acknowledges that films like Deadpool and Logan have opened the door to R-rated blockbusters with smaller budgets, he says the Metal Gear Solid movie could go either way: