After years of rumours and aborted projects, a Metal Gear Solid movie has been officially announced. Columbia Pictures has taken on the hit video game series, with Avi Arad set to produce.

The Metal Gear games have long been acclaimed for their cinematic qualities, and series creator Hideo Kojima is a self-confessed movie geek. However, attempts to bring the futuristic stealth adventure to the big screen have so far failed.

Boogie Nights and Moneyball producer Mike De Luca was working on an adaptation back in 2008, but that fell through two years later.

The latest attempt was announced at a celebration of the series' 25th anniversary in Tokyo on Wednesday. According to US game site, Kotaku, Arad, who founded Marvel Studios and produced the hugely successful Iron Man and Amazing Spider-Man movies, took to the stage during the event to announce the project.

He told audiences that he saw video games as the comics of today, and that Columbia would take its time to ensure its movie captured the nuances of the Metal Gear universe.

Game adaptations do not have an illustrious history – to put it politely. From the risible Super Mario Bros and Street Fighter tie-ins of the early nineties to the excruciating straight-to-DVD travesties of German director/producer Uwe Boll, video game licenses have often been seen as a quick and easy way to make cash.

However, Hollywood has made many many millions over the past five years by taking comic books seriously – and now that it is running out of major superhero characters to bring to screen, it may well turn its gaze to video game brands.

Arad already has two other big game adaptations on his books: the action adventure Uncharted and the sci-fi shooter inFamous.

The Metal Gear series, which started out on the cult MSX computer in 1987, but became world famous when it hit PlayStation in 1998, would seem to be highly suitable for movie adaptation.

The games are known for their long cinematic story sequences and film references. Plus, the convoluted plot, which involves espionage agent Solid Snake battling terrorist groups and rogue government agencies, is ripe for a long-running movie franchise.

Currently, the Metal project has no director and no actors attached, although Kojima expressed his admiration for Christopher Nolan. That may well be wishful thinking.