GTA Movie Definitely NOT in the Works

[Logan Westbrook]

GTA Movie Definitely NOT in the Works

Turning games into movies seems to be all the rage right now, so will Rockstar be joining the party? Not a chance.

As every gamer knows, video game movies are almost universally bad; Silent Hill sucked, Resident Evil was terrible and Uwe Boll's films? We do not speak of such things.

It's a nice change then, to see a publisher not tripping over themselves to get some franchise or other up on the big screen. Speaking to the LA Times, Rockstar's Dan Houser said:

"We don't believe that the Grand Theft Auto games, which are massive in scope and structurally complex, can be adequately compressed into a two-hour movie ... If we ever decide to do a film, it will be because we have resolved our creative doubts, and while retaining enough control to ensure that if the movie is terrible, at least we will know we ruined the property ourselves."

Houser isn't ruling it out, but it's clear that Rockstar aren't going to let GTA be the next Super Mario Bros. Although, Bob Hoskins as Nico ... that could work.

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5322752/rockstar-pretty-much-kiboshes-the-idea-of-gta-film]


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[Casual Shinji]

All GTA games are based on movies anyway.
How would they make a movie outta that?

 

[NotAPie]

All GTA games are based on movies anyway.
How would they make a movie outta that?

Oh oh...
They would find a way.
Those evil basterds!

 

[Grayjack]

I don't see how you could make a movie out of GTA.

 

[Lyri]

Although, Bob Hoskins as Nico ... that could work.

Do not joke about such things!
The internet is watching your words.

 

[Diablini]

I'm glad that we can live peacefully, knowing that Uwe Boll is not going to butcher another franchise in to a movie which is missing every little thing that made the game good.

 

[Radeonx]

I think we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief.

Yes.
At least he recognizes that movies based on games come out horrible, and he doesn't want to sink that low.

 

[AndyFromMonday]

I admit I would love to see a GTA movie...heck I would love to see any movie "inspired" by a game, but sadly they are never good. I still think that the Grand Theft Auto would make a good movie tho.

 

[Therumancer]

Grand Theft Auto is generically about exagerrated crime, pretty much like in the movies. I really can't see how you'd translate this very well, you could turn out any crime thriller with decent amount of violence and call it "Grand Theft Auto". There really isn't much that defines the series as a whole that is unique enough to use. Now I could see them turning ONE of the games into a crime movie based on it, but a series movie would be basically impossible.

Also for the sake of arguement, what is a good movie is a matter of opinion. When it comes to video game movies one thing to consider is that translating information that is gained (for lore/backstory) from dissertations or reading in game diaries/scrolls/whatever does not translate well into a movie. What's more with series like Silent Hill where you have millions of fanboys argueing about what is really going on, they did as well as they could with a deritive movie. Rather than doing things the way they did, they probably should have takne one Silent Hill game (like the first one, which was self contained at a time when it wasn't sure if they would even get a sequel) and used that sort of verbatim for the script. I though that movie was 'okay' not quite into "OMG it blows chips" territory, but passable given what they did. They pretty much wanted to throw out iconic imagery like Pyramid Head where they really probably shouldn't have. Also doing the story while trying to avoid contreversy (how they changed the cult) kind of deafeats the purpose. Trust me once you've seen a guy taken out by the "Heat Seeking Chopsticks" attack, you will never criticize Uwe Boll again (and that whole fight scene is hard to forget).


I thought Resident Evil was actually pretty good overall, though like most series it became more strained with each sequel. Sure it really lost touch with the video games at points, but as movies based on the source material? That's about as good as it's gotten so far.

Mortal Kombat was probably the reigning champ for "best video game movie" for a while. That was fun and captured the somewhat goofy atmosphere. The sequel was aweful (and I kind of figured "Destroy all Expectations" as the tagline was probably intended as an in-joke by the producers) but the first one was pretty good.

As far as Uwe Boll goes, well he's not THAT bad overall. It's just people put him in the wrong context. People seem to think that they should be able to turn their favorite video game into some kind of sweeping academy award winning epic, like say Peter Jackson's "Lord Of The Rings" or whatever. Or better yet, seeing say "Silent Hill" replacing say Casablanca as the generally acknowledged greatest movie of all time.

I put Uwe Boll in the same catagory as say Troma. Yes he's an awful director, and in many cases he's working with what is admittedly awful material (face it, fanboyism aside, many video games just weren't intended to have their plots turned into movies). In the end he turns out some pretty amusing stuff. If you sit down to watch say "House Of The Dead" expecting an action-horror epic, that's not what your going to get. But if you can enjoy sitting down to watch pure cheese and laugh along with the movie team, it's pretty amusing and it seems like the people doing it were at least having fun with the movie. I mean honestly, few things have ever stuck in my mind like the guy talking about being a successful male underwear model, or the asian girl running around in a form fitting red white and blue body suit, answering to "liberty" and engaging zombies in close combat. Not to mention all the Sega banners at the "rave" site.

Stop and think about it, how many scenes from Uwe Boll movies can you remember as standing out in your mind because you were going "I can't believe someone put that into a movie".

My opinion on Uwe has waffled over the years, but I find it odd that so many people are still busting on him to this extent. Just go into his movies with the mentality that your about to see Troma fare like "Redneck Zombies" (animated by Radioactive Hooch!), "A Nymphoid Barbarian In Dinosaur Hell" (speaking of which Uwe Boll might consider resurrecting Dino Crisis), and of course the Iconic "Toxic Avenger" (though I feel Sergeant Kabuki Man NYPD was better).

 

[HardRockSamurai]

GTA IV's story was already on par with most major Hollywood releases (according to several well-known movie critics.)

Turning that into a movie would have just been stupid; really stupid.

 

[Altorin]

it's funny, because GTA is probably the easiest game to turn into a decent movie. It's basically a movie to begin with, and sure, it's scope is in the 20-30 hour zone, not the 2-3 hour zone, but If Rockstar did the writing, it could be good.

But we gotta hand it to them that they know their medium.. Just know Rockstar - you guys could actually do it and make it half decent..

All that praise being said, if I heard that movie preview voice over say the phrase "Grand Theft Auto" I'd probably piss myself laughing..

...

.. Good Call Rockstar.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

Nice to see Rockstar has some sense.

 

[FightThePower]

Phew. Another franchise saved from utter humiliation.

 

[Jon Etheridge]

Actually, if I'm not mistaken, they legally can never make a Grand Theft Auto. In 1977 a film was released called "Grand Theft Auto" by New World Films and directed by Ron Howard. Now I think Fox Atomic owns the rights to the movie and they've signed a contract saying basically "Rockstar can never make a Grand Theft Auto motion picture, and Fox Atomic can never make a Grand Theft Auto video game."

Technically a movie could be released, but it would have to be produced and distributed by Fox. shudder...

But Rockstar and Fox teaming up would be the only way I see this happening.

 

[Johnn Johnston]

I heard that Uwe Boll had been trying to make a GTA film. Now that I know he isn't...

yessssssssssssssssss.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

But Rockstar and Fox teaming up would be the only way I see this happening.

Seeing as everytime I hear about Fox it's because they've done something in which they've demonstrated the fact they do not know anything about their own customers, I take refuse in the fact that Rockstar is an intelligent company that does not need to sell out.

 

[Altorin]

I heard that Uwe Boll had been trying to make a GTA film. Now that I know he isn't...

yessssssssssssssssss.

he's busy making Far Cry as we type this.

 

[AmrasCalmacil]

GTA IV's story was already on par with most major Hollywood releases (according to several well-known movie critics.)

Which one of them is that intended to be an insult to?

I'd be interested to see a Grand Theft Auto movie though, an hour and a half of carjacking and vehicular homicide and then a shocking climax in which the cops arrest the hero and take all his favourate guns away, turning him away with naught but his fists and a long journey to the nearest safehouse.

I do enjoy imagining weird video game movies.