Oscar Isaac to play Solid Snake in live-action 'Metal Gear Solid' film

The video game that popularized the stealth genre is finally on its way to a live-action film adaptation, and the production has already found its leading man.

Metal Gear Solid, an action-stealth video game created by Japanese auteur Hideo Kojima and published by Konami, looks like it will finally hit the silver screen with news that its lead protagonist, Solid Snake, will be played by Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis, Star Wars).

According to an exclusive report on Deadline.com, sources have confirmed Isaac's casting on the long-gestating production which is currently in development at Sony Pictures, with Kong: Skull Island's Jordan Vogt-Roberts set to direct the film.

Tasked to write the screenplay is Derek Connoly, who had previously worked with Vogt-Roberts on Kong, and whose past writing credits include Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and Pokémon: Detective Pikachu.

The film will be based on the 1998 video game Metal Gear Solid which was written, produced, and directed by Kojima and released on the PlayStation console. The game's plot revolves around the exploits of Solid Snake, a soldier sent to infiltrate a nuclear weapons facility in the Alaskan region to neutralize a terrorist threat from a renegade military special forces unit.

Metal Gear Solid placed an emphasis on stealth, with its central character avoiding enemy encounters as much as possible. At the time, it was a revolutionary shift in established gameplay where video game heroes were often required to defeat enemies by killing them. It was also one of the first to present its story in a cinematic narrative style, reminiscent of the gameplay in the 1988 video game, Ninja Gaiden.

There is no word yet on when actual production will begin for Metal Gear Solid, however, audiences can already see Isaac's performance in another upcoming sci-fi and fantasy project, Dune, which is slated for release in October 2021.

(Images from Lucasfilm and Konami)