As it turned out, he had a chance to lead the filming. In an interview with The New Yorker, A24's head of film, Noah Sacco, admitted that he initially offered Kojima to write the script himself and direct the film in live action format (using real actors and real locations, rather than animation and computer graphics). The creator of Death Stranding politely declined. According to Sacco, the producer even asked again if Kojima really didn't want to direct, in order to finally confirm his decision.
The reason for the refusal is related to the schedule. Kojima has already said that he is busy developing two projects for Xbox and PlayStation — OD and Physint. He is also overseeing the creation of an anime based on Death Stranding.