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So... this was sort of a hefty non-bombshell.
https://theankler.com/p/dan-houser-absurd-ventures-hollywood-videogames
This piece actually means a lot for something I wanted years ago, but this was ultimately just the big name telling me what was already well known then.
**Regarding a Grand Theft Auto movie**
Houser: Why would we do this?
Cheapshot executives: Because you get to make a movie.
Houser: No. what’ve you’ve described is you making a movie, us having no control and taking a huge risk that we’re paying for with something that belongs to us.
Smart cookie.
And mind you, this never struck me as a real thought or necessity around the time of the original GTA Trilogy. It was more specifically Grand Theft Auto IV and the original Red Dead Redemption that first brought this type of talk on - - before the later hyper-graphic sequel installments waltz’d into fame. They had already made a Hollywood tier script just with IV alone.
A good reason why this also doesn’t apply to the trilogy is because, well... the trilogy was already built on American film.
• GTA III was this melting pot of mob flicks and other traditional US pop culture. Really set the standard for how Rockstar would handle all of that in their following titles.
• Vice City’s a glorified love-letter to Scarface and Miami Vice, with a hint of Goodfellas in there.
• San Andreas went all over the map, but yeah. Boyz N The Hood and Menace II Society.
They did such a great job honoring the source material that millions of players would easily pick it over the source material. That’s really enough without even having to factor in “vidya game movie bad.”
Houser says there’s more liberating control over IP these days, and eh... might wanna flip on the Halo show and tell me that again. It might be a little less shitty compared to back then, but I’m not gonna go jump the gun on that.
And for what it’s worth, Grand Theft Auto actually already has an official movie. Technically. It’s a short film on GTA2/3 but I like it a lot. Shows you the death of Claude Speed (first GTA protagonist) and it’s really top work for what it is.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ALicfH_CsJc&pp=ygUPZ3RhIDIgbW92aWUgaGQg
