Death Stranding looks like it will be a great, remarkable game- and one of the most interesting things about it is the participation of some pretty big stars, who appear to have been rope in to lend not just their voice work, but also their likenesses to the game. From the trailers we have seen for the game so far, we already know that Death Stranding will have The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus, and Mads Mikkelsen.
So how did it happen? How and why did Kojima end up bringing them on board? “I think It was around the time of ‘Valhalla Rising’ (2009) and ‘Casino Royale’ (2006),” Kojima explained. After seeing his past featured films, I found out that he was in Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘Pusher’ Trilogy (1996-2005), so I got ahold of Mads through Nicolas.
“Valhalla Rising’ was recommended to me by Hollywood film director Ryuhei Kitamura who insisted, “There’s this incredible movie, you have to watch it now”. Of course, I immediately purchased the imported Blu-ray. Nicolas’ ‘Drive’ (2001) was released in Japan right after that. I really enjoyed the film, and wrote a commentary about it. I couldn’t meet Nicolas in Japan, so I contacted him while in London. To my surprise he came all the way from Copenhagen to meet me.
“Director Guillermo del Toro introduced me to Norman. He was the one who discovered Norman’s talent, so I asked him for Norman’s home address. He said “sure!” and sent an email right then and there to Norman saying, “Hideo Kojima wants to work with you”. Norman quickly replied “Oh Great! O.K.” [laughs]. And then I went off to meet him.”
It’s amazing that Kojima managed to get such big TV and Hollywood stars to appear in his game- but then again, Kojima is also one of very few developers who could actually get away with something so audacious. Death Stranding is due out on PS4, with a PC release to follow later.