Metro 2033 isn't just a game, as it's also a novel from Dmitry Glukhovsky that was due to get a film version, however, the writer has revealed to VG247 that this project has been put on hold and that the rights have been transferred back to him.
"The project with MGM optioning this book and developing a script had brought us to nothing and the rights reverted to me," Glukhovsky explained. "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."
The film was meant to be set in Washington DC, but Glukhovsky explains that some of the themes don't quite transfer over when set in an American city as opposed to Russia.
"A lot of things didn't work out in Washington DC," he said. "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."
"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."
For now then it seems we'll have to wait to see a Metro 2033 film come along, but with Metro Exodus releasing in two months it's not like we have nothing to be excited about at all.
What would you want to see from a Metro film?