Kojima starts a movie studio

 Seeking new horizons

Hideo Kojima is an... interesting figure to say the least. Starting off a career making games about penguins and going onto to create international superspy thriller games that do such a good job aping famous movie franchises that the latest James Bond movie literally stole it's super virus threat concept from 'MGS 4: Guns of the Patriots'. He's a lover of movies and will tell you so exhaustively, and that can be handily seen from any game he has got his hands on and the famous film maker techniques he brings into the development room in order to sell his oft fantastical and/or high-concept storylines. He has revolutionised video game storytelling mostly for the better, although in doing so he did (I assume unwittingly) embolden a generation of game directors considerably less talented and creative as him to try and copy his style, which has handed in abject disaster from time to time. And now, he's finally opened up a movie studio which honestly feels like it's been his endgoal all along.

This news came just as I personally was finally getting the chance to play his science fiction epic 'Death Stranding' for the very first time, so I can say for myself that it was hardly a seismic shock to my system or anything like that. Death Stranding is pretty much an otherwordly high concept (high budget) sci-fi TV show that borders on cheesy with it's premise but wows so much with it's creativity that you can't help but respect the whole package. And yes, I did just call it a 'tv show' instead of a 'game' because I'm just under 10 hours in right now and the actual game portion of the game feels like a pale shadow compared the world and story underneath it all. This feels like a small screen product haphazardly ported through the Chiral network into our home consoles, (or in my case: the computer) and given he's even arranged the story beats of this narrative into 'episodes', something he did in MGS V as well, it's no secret that the man holds tight his bias towards traditional viewed media. Making movies has been a long time coming.

And to be clear, I'm not saying that his games need to be moved into the film and television space, and in fact I think the many existing movements to do so largely miss the entire point of the property in question. Take the apparently still-upcoming Metal Gear movie that is in the works. I understand the appeal, since it's jump to 3d the Metal Gear games have been defined by their cinematic quality cutscenes which, oftentimes, are the primary way in which the narrative is carried forward. That cinematic quality comes from their framing, positioning, scene composition and even the nature of scripted language that leans closer to the dramatic. (With the iconic Kojima wordless exclamations thrown in there for good measure) A laymen might loom at all those elements and go "There's already a movie here, we just need to stick it on screen!" but they would be missing the point.

Metal Gear Solid isn't a series created to make a satisfying passive viewing experience to players, it's an active interactive experience bolstered by the trick and tips of cinema in order to justify it's narrative and make it seem more worthy, thus enriching and heightening the stakes behind the gameplay. All of those cutscenes with their dramatic angles and monologue-style-dialogues have no interest in satisfying the viewers desires, they merely tee up the gameplay sections where the real knock-out punch lies. Metal Gear would be nowhere as universally loved without it's gameplay, meaning that any attempt to translate that series into a movie format will need to figure out how to handle transforming all of that gameplay too. So what is the gameplay in question? Stealth? Yikes...

Here's my thing with that; watching someone stealthily sneak around a base is never going to be interesting to watch, because it's an action exemplified and rewarded by nothing happening. Sure, there's tension to be had for the 'will he get caught or won't he' portion of the stealth, but there's only so far you can stretch tension and I can only imagine a scene like that working maybe once in a movie. The promise of Oscar Issacs playing Solid Snake it at least a solid pick, but I can't help but feel if the K man himself were involved in the production of this film, he'd have picked a more visually interesting narrative to adapt, like Rising Revengence, or even just invented a brand new story to further the Metal Gear storyline. Not because he's a genius, but just because he understands what mediums are best served in what ways.

This studio is set to be a new division of the impressively forward-thinkingly named 'Kojima Productions', and it said to have a key interest in expanding the reach of Kojima Production's various games. I suppose that means despite my joking, Kojima isn't going to turn around and become an indie movie director out of the blue and leave gaming behind for good, but with his reputation I don't think such a career move would either be a surprise or even something that any would try to stop him from doing. His team would probably follow him into hell and back and Sony would still fund it just so long as they get to stick their production logo on the poster. Instead we can expect projects tied into current and future KP properties, maybe some wild projects here and there and probably a decent amount of production work for industry friends. Remember, Kojima and his people are respected artists, I can imagine their visual eye being sought by some of Kojima's many movie world friends from time to time.

But does this mean we're going to be getting a Death Stranding movie in the near future? I wouldn't discount a short movie, perhaps even an animated one, diving into the simply sumptuously dour circling-oblivion world-scape of Death Stranding. It would almost be a disservice not to return to a world this meticulously sprawled in some strange fashion. But I think what we're much more likely to see is a bunch of content for their upcoming projects, like that horror game we know they're working on. Afterall, horror sometimes has a hard time translating to gaming, but movies- pfff, that's a breeze. I wouldn't at all be surprised to see a small-scale movie project made to promote the company's upcoming Silent H- I mean, 'untitled horror game that we know nothing about'... yeah...

It's nice to see someone I respect coming into their true selves even after a career as fulfilling and wild as his has been so far, showing that one can never quite be content and the pursuit of happiness is a doomed exercise in never-ending voracious hunger that will rule you from death to birth in singular obsession. Hmm... there's probably a considerably more positive take away from that. How about a cookie cutter "You've never too far along to start something new and shoot for your dreams?" Yeah, that sounds boiler-plate and greeting's card worthy, doesn't it? Personally, I'm just excited to see a mind as provenly deep as Kojima's, and a staff as talented as his, getting their chance to spread their bizarre talents to yet another medium so that they make an entire new audience tear out their hair for the first act whilst screaming at the screen "What the hell is going on? What is that, why is their name so dumb, why is this narrative so unexpectedly sappy, and why have I seen Kojima's name pop up 5 times in the credits within the first ten minutes?" Indie movie watchers have no idea what they're in for...