Metal Gear Solid Creator Kojima Was Nearly Sued for Allegedly Ripping-Off Movie

Director John Carpenter, the man behind cult hits Halloween, The Thing, and Escape from New York, has revealed how he stopped Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima from being sued.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Carpenter explains that CanalPlus, the French company who share the right to Escape from New York, were keen to sue Konami over perceived copyright infringement of the classic 1982 sci-fi movie.

"[They] wanted to go after the video game Metal Gear Solid, which is kind of a rip-off of Escape From New York," he said "But I told them not to do that. I know the director of those games, and he's a nice guy, or at least he's nice to me."

This follows the news last week that Carpenter and CanalPlus did indeed successfully sue director Luc Besson's company EuropaCorp for plagiarising Escape from New York in the 2012 film Lockout.

The French ruling awarded a total of $91,000, a figure that the director explained was far below what CanalPlus were seeking. "Any great dreams of retiring wealthy were shattered because they didn't give us as much money as CanalPlus wanted," he told The Hollywood Reporter.

Metal Gear Solid's similarities to Escape from New York largely end with its main character, who does bear a striking resemblance to the film's hero Snake Plissken, played by Kurt Russell, even down to the fact that he's called Solid Snake. However, last year Kojima tweeted that this wasn't the reason at all, stating, "The reason I used Snake as code name in MG was snake was the most appropriate symbol of living thing that hides his presence."