Hideo Kojima, creator of acclaimed games like Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding 2, is an avid moviegoer, as anyone who follows him on social media can attest. Kojima admits he has doubts about realising his aim of becoming a filmmaker.
At the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, Geoff Keighley presented a post-screening Q&A with Hideo Kojima, the subject of the documentary Connecting Worlds.
Keighley questioned Kojima if he wants to make films in addition to video games because Glen Milner’s documentary explores Kojima’s passion for movies and friendships with Hollywood actors like Guillermo del Toro, Mads Mikkelsen, and Léa Seydoux.
Through an English interpreter, Kojima countered, “For me, motion movies are special. And since it’s so special, I just can’t.”
Kojima is optimistic about the Death Stranding movie adaptation, but he also said that he is “a perfectionist,” and that the tried-and-true methods he used as a video game director would not work with the faster production schedules of movies.
You can never reach perfection in a video game, no matter how hard I try. Since movies are usually over two hours long and I need to include everything, I doubt I’d ever finish production on one. I plan to make it a regular habit.
In 2015, Kojima severed ties with publishing giant Konami after a highly successful run with the Metal Gear Solid franchise. Kojima re-established Kojima Productions as an independent studio and developed the hit video game Death Stranding in partnership with Sony, both of which will be released in 2019.
Kojima claimed he had “a great deal of deals” to make films shortly after leaving Konami. Kojima claims he has no interest in directing a movie at this time since he is too busy running a video game studio. Kojima has been quoted as saying, “If I were to movie and direct a film, I would need to leave the studio for about a year, and I can’t do that.”
Nonetheless, Kojima has considered modelling his work after that of his inspirations, directors such as David Cronenberg and Stanley Kubrick. He admitted that turning sixty later this year had prompted him to think about what else he wanted to accomplish while he still had the chance.
Kojima also shared his thoughts on AI, stressing that it must never “be above” human creativity.
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Freelance writer and Rutgers University alumnus Eric Francisco covers the world of home entertainment. He is your man if the movie or show you’re watching features superheroes, spaceships, kung fu, or John Cena. His byline has appeared in publications such as Vulture, The Daily Beast, Observer, and The Mary Sue, and he was previously a senior writer at Inverse. He may be heard screaming during New Jersey Devils hockey games and can be seen dodging bullets in Call of Duty: Warzone.
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