EXCLUSIVE: Sony is finally getting it in gear on Metal Gear Solid, the live-action feature based on the top-selling video game. The studio is in early talks with Jordan Vogt-Roberts to come aboard and direct the film. Vogt-Roberts helmed The Kings Of Summer. The project is produced by Avi Arad, and it’s being steered by production president Michael De Luca. This is a long-gestating project because it just took so long for the game creators and the studio to find themselves on the same page in how to tell the story of protagonist Solid Snake. Created by Hideo Kojima, the game has been around on PlayStation since 1998. Snake is a soldier who infiltrates a nuclear weapons facility to neutralize the terrorist threat from Foxhound, a renegade special forces unit. Snake must liberate two hostages — one the president of a major arms manufacturer — confront the terrorists, and stop them from launching a nuclear strike.

I’ve always thought that the transfer of video games to movies has been largely disappointing considering how imaginative the games are, but Hollywood is running out of superheroes and kiddie toys, so maybe it’s high time vidgames took center stage. New Regency and Ubisoft have Michael Fassbender and Macbeth helmer Justin Kurzel poised to reteam on Assassin’s Creed, and they also have Doug Liman and Tom Hardy ready to go on Splinter Cell. Both movies seem to be on a fast track. Then there are others that should have but didn’t happen like Halo, which nearly got made as a Fox/Universal co-production with Neill Blomkamp directing and Peter Jackson producing, and then there was a version of Bioshock that Gore Verbinski planned to direct for Universal. Both of those projects faltered because the studios were wary of the budgets. Vogt-Roberts is repped by UTA.

EXCLUSIVE: In-demand Brit writer Jay Basu has closed a deal with Sony Pictures to write the feature adaptation of fanboy favorite video game Metal Gear Solid. The project is produced by Avi and Ari Arad and is being steered by production president Michael De Luca. Jordan Vogt-Roberts (The Kings Of Summer) is attached to direct.

Created by Hideo Kojima, the game was first launched on PlayStation in 1998 and follows the fortunes of Solid Snake, a soldier who infiltrates a nuclear weapons facility to neutralize the terrorist threat from Foxhound, a renegade special forces unit. Snake must liberate two hostages — one the president of a major arms manufacturer — confront the terrorists, and stop them from launching a nuclear strike.

This is the second big studio gig in a row for Basu. Deadline previously revealed that he was tapped by Universal Pictures to join its efforts to relaunch its library of classic monster movies. Basu’s action adventure The Pier, which he co-wrote with David Bowers, was recently voted runner-up in the annual Brit List of best unproduced screenplays. Basu also co-penned Vertigo Films’ sequel Monsters: Dark Continent with writer-director Tom Green, which is in postproduction.