Oscar Isaac to star in film adaptation of 'Metal Gear Solid'

The game is being turned into a movie, 33 years after it was first released

Oscar Isaac will play the role of Solid Snake in the film version of 'Metal Gear Solid'. Courtesy Sony Pictures

Oscar Isaac is set to take on the lead role in Metal Gear Solid, a film adaptation of the popular action-adventure video game.

Best known for playing Poe Dameron in the latest Star Wars trilogy, the Guatemalan-American actor will be playing Solid Snake in the adaptation.

Metal Gear Solid is a part of the Metal Gear series, which first launched by Konami in Japan in 1987. Metal Gear Solid was debuted in 1998.

The games centre on the character of Snake, a special forces operative, attempting to destroy Metal Gear, a walking tank with nuclear capabilities.

The film, which is set to be made by Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, has taken six years to reach this point, but now has Jurassic World trilogy co-writer Derek Connolly and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse producer Avi Arad on board.

Metal Gear Solid will be the latest in a long line of games that have been made into feature films. However, many have not been well received. Super Mario Bros. was made into a film in 1993 and was roundly panned, despite having Bob Hoskins and Dennis Hopper in lead roles. The smash game Tekken was made into a film in 2010 but pulled in only $1.6 million at the worldwide box office.

There have been some successes however. The Tomb Raider series of films, which first starred Angelina Jolie and more recently Alicia Vikander, have pulled in more than a total of $705.8 million, while the film version of Pokemon Detective Pikachu raked in $144m in its first six months.