Hideo Kojima seems to love jamming his video games with notable Hollywood stars, something his upcoming Metal Gear Solid-like and newly Xbox-branded title Physint is continuing with its stacked cast. There’s an obvious affection for cinema stars from the long-standing and respected game developer, and now Physint‘s lead actor, Bill Skarsgård, is returning the warm sentiment.
Skarsgård mentioned his thoughts about Kojima in an interview on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz. Horowitz brought up the legendary game creator and cinephile and Skarsgård spoke about how he used to enjoy the Metal Gear Solid games in his youth and said it was a “big deal” for him to star in Physint.
“Specifically, [I played] the Metal Gear Solid games,” said the Pennywise actor. “I played every single [one], at least the ones on platform.”
It’s unclear exactly what he meant by “platform,” however, it’s possible he intended to say “console” and misspoke. Regardless of the semantics, he talked about the original Metal Gear Solid on the first PlayStation and, seemingly, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain — the latter of which he referred to as “the last one” — before revealing what attracted him to Kojima’s work.
“I was very enamored by him and the mythology and the universes he creates, but also the mystique and allure about him, as well” said Skarsgård. “I was really into it growing up. He is [not just] an auteur, but he’s a video game auteur. He’s fluent in filmmaking and film and cinema.”
He then recalled the handful of times over the years various entities have tried to get a Metal Gear Solid film off the ground. Skarsgård said he asked Kojima if he’d ever do a film, to which Kojima responded “no” because he was, in Skarsgård’s words, “inventing a new medium.”
Skarsgård then said Physint will have around “eight hours worth of narrative” and feature performance capture. The latter point isn’t exactly a surprise, as Kojima has consistently had performance capture in his recent games.
Given the murky way in which Skarsgård spoke about Kojima Productions’ games, it seems at least somewhat clear he’s not a huge gamer or hasn’t been in some time. He was reluctant to give specifics and only spoke vaguely about Kojima’s prior work.
Kojima’s other more Hollywood-focused collaborators tend to run the gamut of familiarity with Kojima Productions’ past games. Director Guillermo del Toro, co-director of the ill-fated Silent Hills game and the physical likeness of Death Stranding’s Deadman, has repeatedly shown an intimate knowledge of Kojima’s work and is a big gamer himself, often sharing his love for Metal Gear Solid, Red Dead Redemption, BioShock, and Shadow of the Colossus. Troy Baker — Higgs in the Death Stranding series and Ocelot in Metal Gear Solid 5 — has also talked highly and specifically about various Metal Gear games.
Other actors and directors, like Norman Reedus, Elle Fanning, Nicolas Winding Refn, Fatih Akin, Léa Seydoux, Tommie Earl Jenkins, and George Miller have often spoken more to Kojima’s style, mind, and his love of cinema over overt specifics about his gameography.
Are you excited to see Bill Skarsgård in Physint? Tell us in the comments.
