A real golden goose for Rockstar, the Grand Theft Auto franchise is today a pillar of the video game universe that no one can ignore. Its success across the world is undeniable, as evidenced by the enormous sales figures of GTA V which was ported to three generations of consoles, or the highly anticipated GTA VI, for which everyone is quickly hoping for a more precise release date than the fall 2025 period. With such enthusiasm, it is understandable that fans are demanding an adaptation of their favorite license on the big screen, but for Dan Houser, this “never had any interest”.
Too great a risk given the brand's reputation
Some will probably feel disappointed when reading these lines, but the co-founder of Rockstar, now retired from the company, was keen to detail his position on the subject during an interview conducted for the site The Ankler.
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While he readily admits that the project of a GTA film was on the table for a while, discussions concerning it quickly fizzled out, because the financial risk was too great given the reputation of the Grand Theft Auto brand.
He also adds that Rockstar would have lost creative control of the franchise since it would have been entrusted to a production company:
After a few awkward meetings, we would ask the leaders, “Why would we do this to ourselves?”
Their answer: Because we can make a film.
And we were like, No, what you've described is that you're making a movie and we have no control and we're taking a huge risk that we're going to end up paying for with something that's ours.
They thought we would be blinded by the lights, but we weren't. We had what we considered to be multi-billion dollar intellectual property, but the economics never made sense.
The risk didn't make sense. At the time, it was thought that games made for bad movies, but things are different now.
Strauss Zelnick (CEO of the parent company of Take-Two Interactive) also shared a vision quite similar to that of Houser in 2019, declaring:
Partly, if we were to do something like this, we would want to have complete creative control to make sure that we express GTA in the way that we want and that would mean that we would need to finance this film.
Film concepts left in the closet
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Rumors surrounding a GTA film have often ignited the web in recent years, even if nothing has ever really materialized. Lately, rumors from the corridors suggested that a GTA film could see the light of day with Eminem, before Rockstar buries all hope at the end of 2022.
Can we still believe in it despite everything? The truths of today are not those of tomorrow, everything remains possible.