Who knows if we’ll ever see the movie adaptation of the popular Metal Gear Solid video game franchise finally get made, but creator Hideo Kojima already has Luca Marinelli in mind if the long-awaited project comes to fruition. Since the very first Metal Gear game, which was originally released in Japan in 1987 before later becoming a big hit internationally on the NES, the Solid Snake character has served as the primary protagonist of the series. The 1998 sequel Metal Gear Solid gave him a unique look and voice, further expanding his personality as well with some clear inspiration from Kurt Russell’s Snake Plissken from Escape from New York.
As Russell is more suited to play roles like Santa Claus these days, he’s probably not the best person to call for the Metal Gear Solid movie that’s reportedly in the works at Sony Pictures. Because no casting announcements have been made for the planned adaptation, fans have been doing some speculation of their own as to who could make a good live-action Solid Snake. This includes Oscar Isaac, who has even agreed with the fan interest by publicly expressing his desire to take on the role. If you ask Kojima, however, he is currently leaning in another direction after catching Luca Marinelli in several movies that he enjoyed.
Straight from his personal Instagram account, Kojima had this to say when asked if any actors had his attention, noting that Marinelli would be great for playing the eyepatched agent:
“There are many actors that I follow. Luca Marinelli recently caught my eye after watching The Old Guard and Martin Eden. He played an impressive villain in They Call Me Jeeg Robot, but I think that he will break out soon, and his popularity will increase. Also, I think if he donned a bandana, he’d be a spitting image of Solid Snake!”
It wasn’t long before the internet took notice of Kojima’s suggestion, and before long, some interesting fan art was created to depict how Marinelli might look in the role. The popular digital artist BossLogic drew up a mock poster for a Metal Gear Solid movie, and seeing the actor in the Solid Snake garb makes it easy to see why Kojima sees some promise in the potential casting. “Wanted to quickly see what Hideo Kojima saw. He knows how to pick’em,” BossLogic writes in the caption. You can get a good look at that fan art in the Instagram post below.
This is not the first actor to be suggested by Kojima for the role of Solid Snake, as the planned Video game movie has been rolling around in development hell for years. After initially announcing plans to make a Metal Gear Solid movie in 2006, Kojima said he’d like to see Hugh Jackman as Solid Snake. In the years since, the project has stalled with many potential writers and directors. The latest iteration has been set at Sony with Jordan Vogt-Roberts directing, and as of December 2019, Vogt-Roberts said that the project was still in production with a completed screenplay. This news comes to us from Hideo Kojima on Instagram.
