Metro 2033 är som bekant inte bara ett spel, utan det bygger faktiskt på Dmitry Glukhovskys novell som även var tänkt att filmatiseras. Nu meddelar dock författaren via VG247 att projektet avbrutits och att han fått tillbaka filmrättigheterna. Han säger:
"The project with MGM optioning this book and developing a script had brought us to nothing and the rights reverted to me. So currently we are speaking with a new set of producers about a possible adaptation but this is a very long and difficult process. I'm still optimistic. We'll see if the release of Metro Exodus can push the IP across a little bit the oceans and see how that works."
Till skillnad från böckernas ryska tunnelbana, var filmen tänkt att utspelas i Washington DC, men enligt Glukhovsky fungerar inte grundtemat när det flyttas till USA:
"A lot of things didn't work out in Washington DC. In Washington DC, Nazis don't work, Communists don't work at all, and the Dark Ones don't work. Washington DC is a black city basically. That's not at all the allusion I want to have, it's a metaphor of general xenophobia but it's not a comment on African Americans at all. So it didn't work.
They had to replace the Dark Ones with some kind of random beasts and as long as the beasts don't look human, the entire story of xenophobia doesn't work which was very important to me as a convinced internationalist. They turned it into a very generic thing."
Då kan man ju undra varför filmen inte bara utspelas i Moskva precis som boken, men Glukhovsky har redan tänkt på saken och säger:
"They're kind of afraid of setting it in Moscow because Americans have a reputation for liking stories about America. Again, with Metro Last Light and Metro 2033 - the books and the games - selling millions and millions of copies worldwide, it's probably not as improbable now that people would accept a story happening in Moscow because that's going to be the unique selling point. We've seen the American version of apocalypse a lot of times and the audience that like the genre are educated and saturated and not really wishing to get anymore of that."
Om Metro 2033 blir film så småningom, vilket vi såklart hoppas på, lär det i alla lägen dröja eftersom det alltså inte längre finns någon pågående produktion. Lyckligtvis släpps dock Metro Exodus om två månader, så vi gamers får vår behövliga dos Metro ändå.
Tror du en Metro-film skulle bli lyckad?