There’s money to be made in a GRAND THEFT AUTO movie. No, I don’t mean a remake of that Ron Howard 70’s movie, I mean in a movie that is based, or even loosely based on the awesome video game series created by Rockstar Games. After shipping over 65 million units, that hardly takes a frikkin’ genius I know but it’s just baffling to say the least how it hasn’t happened yet.

And I wouldn’t say it could be adapted JUST into a big money vehicle, I think there’s a cool film of some quality there if they got the right talent on board, something that the GTA games have never had trouble with in the past with names like Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Madsen, Ray Liotta and more providing extensive voice work.

I’m convinced it could be a huge movie… and according to a guy who writes for Variety named Ben Fritz who has started his own cool blog over there called The Cut Scene, we were apparently extremely close to hearing about a new movie that nearly went into development last Spring.

A GRAND THEFT AUTO movie… with Eminem? All is revealed below…

So last Spring those guys at Variety were said to be in close discussions with “one major Hollywood studio” and had even started putting together a news article that said a GRAND THEFT AUTO movie was in development, with the word being that Eminem was going to star. The movie was to be only his second movie after his kind of biopic 8 MILE, where he gave an astonishingly good performance. He was surprisingly really good in that, though I guess he was playing himself to a great degree.

So what happened then, why didn’t that GTA movie happen?

Well although no-one knows for sure, it seems that the movie might have broken down because of a management change at Take 2 which led to either the studio balking out of the deal or Take 2 shying away from giving up the theatrical rights.

Rockstar (Take 2’s subsidiary) though were quick to quash this report after Ben Fritz reported it but did however admit that in the past and possibly concurrently they have had several offers from studio’s to make a GTA movie. Here’s what they said…

Rockstar was not involved in this project in any shape or form nor is it something that we’re currently interested in. There was no GTA movie in the works as far as Rockstar is concerned. Some movie producers were trying to put something together to entice us to make a movie, as studios and production teams frequently have done in the past. This proposal was no more interesting than the numerous others we receive. We never entertained proceeding with the project.

What I’ve always thought that GRAND THEFT AUTO did so well was create this massive universe that you could easily find yourself immersed in, with the extensive research in the settings, the cars, the music, the characters. It just feels like one big movie already and with the game being so adaptable… you could create any story you liked for your hero… it wouldn’t matter because unlike say METAL GEAR SOLID, there isn’t a fixed GTA story. It’s a hell of a lot easier not to piss anyone off.

And you have to remember it’s almost one big homage game. It takes so much from the best movies of whatever period they are setting their new game in (SAN ANDREAS – early 90’s America, VICE CITY – 80’s Miami) and I think this could easily translate into a kick ass movie.

We’ve already seen a couple of movies try to make an unofficial GTA film. I believe HARSH TIMES from David Ayer is very much a film in the vain of the video game, though that movie wasn’t great… I think a big budget movie from Michael Mann or Joe Carnahan could be something very special indeed. Paul Greengrass would be just out of this world awesome.

Especially something in the vain of VICE CITY. That could be the new MIAMI VICE movie we all hoped the 2006 Colin Farrell/Jamie Foxx movie would be.

A GTA movie will be made sometime, IMO it has a even better chance of getting made than HALO does because it doesn’t need to be as epic or ambitious as an adaptation of that futuristic game. Fan demand will make this happen, it’s just a matter of time but it’s execution won’t be an easy one.

 Loading ...