Terrible movie adaptations have long brought humiliation to video games. There’s the god-awful Angelina Jolie take on Tomb Raider, Jake Gyllenhaal’s downright shameful Prince of Persia, and, of course, the infamous Bob Hoskins and Dennis Hopper-helmed Nintendo movie from the '90s. But our luck may be about to change. Thanks to visionary director and video game enthusiast Jordan Vogt-Roberts, an upcoming Metal Gear Solid film is stacking up to be the first truly formidable video game film adaptation. And it seems it has attracted the attention of Golden Globe-nominated actor Oscar Isaac.

Metal Gear is one of the most beloved game franchises, a series that has spanned over three decades and countless consoles and handheld devices. Created by legendary developer Hideo Kojima, with its first release dating all the way back to 1987 on the MSX home computer, it is known for gripping stealth gameplay. The main character of the series is usually Solid Snake, who became iconic in 1998 when he appeared in Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation. He dons a gray tactical uniform and long, flowing headband, and always speaks into his earpiece with a groveling, melodramatic voice. Today, Snake is easily one of the most recognizable video game characters of all time, even recently appearing in Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on the Switch.

Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid V. Konami

In a recent roundtable interview with IGN about his upcoming Netflix movie Triple Frontier, Isaac brought up the possibility of filling the combat boots of Solid Snake. “Metal Gear Solid, that’s the one,” Isaac said when he and his castmates were asked if they’d be open to appearing in any video game film adaptations. “I’m throwing my hat in for that one.”

Shortly after, a kickass imagining of Isaac as the moody soldier-hero appeared on digital artist Bosslogic’s Twitter account.

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"I'm throwing my hat in for that one." - Oscar Isaac on #MetalGearMovie pic.twitter.com/PYtKeDzvVk — BossLogic (@Bosslogic) March 4, 2019

As it turns out, the idea behind the visual mashup came from none other than the project's director. According to a tweet, the mastermind behind the extraordinary Kong: Skull Island film had DM’d Bosslogic after the IGN roundtable to request a photoshop of the pairing. Vogt-Roberts also made it clear "the full process required to cast an icon hasn’t even started," but said that "the ball’s in Oscar’s court."

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THIS-MUSING-IS-NOT-NEWS-PSA:



To everyone asking how I feel about Oscar Isaac saying he wants to be Solid Snake.



The full process required to cast an icon hasn’t even started, but..



Ask @Bosslogic where the idea for his brilliant mock up came from.



The ball’s in Oscar’s court. pic.twitter.com/DKM1gw0Oc2 — Jordan Vogt-Roberts (@VogtRoberts) March 4, 2019

Vogt-Roberts is the key element here that will hopefully set the Metal Gear film apart from a decades-long string of atrocious video game film adaptations. Unlike so many of the directors who have tried to conceptualize video games for the cinema medium, Vogt-Roberts is a fan of video games. He actually plays games and has been a loud, prominent voice within the gaming community. And not only that, but he’s made a few incredible short films based on recent video games, such as his recent, thoroughly faithful trailer for the indie battle royale game, PUBG.

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The 34-year-old director could certainly stand as a leading figure for his generation of filmmakers. Kong: Skull Island offered a vision for blockbuster movie-making that harkened back to the American director-driven days of the '70s (even touting very clear references to 1979’s Apocalypse Now), and his first major film, The Kings of Summer, was a Sundance hit and indie darling of 2013. Shortly after Kong, Vogt-Roberts became something of a reclusive persona, moving off to be an expat in Vietnam, where he was beaten near to death in a nightclub. He spent the next several months of his life in recovery while tracking down his assailants with journalist Max Marshall, who wrote a captivating piece about the dark episode for GQ.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Definitive Experience amazon.com $19.99 Buy

After Vogt-Roberts left the Hollywood scene for Vietnam—and as the GQ story shows, especially after his assault—it seemed the director might never return to filmmaking. But between his recent short-form video game films and this highly anticipated Metal Gear production, it looks like Vogt-Roberts is gearing up to make an adaptation that may represent one of the most stunning comebacks Hollywood has ever seen. (The Metal Gear film has yet to be given a release date.)

Leading blockbuster presences such as Michael Fassbender, Aaron Paul, and Alicia Vikander have placed their bets on video game franchises, but with roles in Star Wars, X-Men, and a whole slew of award-winning indie titles under his belt, Isaac may be among the most respected leading figures to express interest in a video game film adaptation. Between him and Ryan Reynolds with Detective Pikachu, it seems that the genre is about to receive a gigantic spark of bankability. Time will tell if the movies can hop over the precedent set by disasters like Super Mario Bros.

Dom Nero Video Editor Dom Nero is a staff video editor at Esquire, where he also writes about film, comedy, and video games.

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