Variety: Grand Theft Auto movie almost happened

by Alexander Sliwinski { Feb 5th 2008 at 10:30AM }

Starting its new video game blog off with a bang, Variety reports that last spring a Grand Theft Auto movie was almost ready to roll into full production. The story goes that after years of trying, some studio actually navigated the bureaucracy of Take-Two/Rockstar and was ready to start production -- "quite possibly" with Eminem as the star. The reason this even came to be after so many years of stonewalling by GTA's rights holders is that current Take-Two chair, Strauss Zelnick, comes from traditional media at BMG music and 20th Century Fox.

Variety goes on to say that the movie was so close to being finalized that its own reporters were prepping stories, with sources at Take-Two saying it was a done deal. At the last moment though, the whole thing fell allegedly apart after the publisher couldn't finalize terms with the studio. Whether it was an issue about money or giving away the movie rights (Rockstar is very protective of its brand) is still an unanswered question. Oh well, we've gotten used to movies based on modern mega-franchise games falling apart.

Tags: grandtheftauto, gta, movie, variety

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

StarFoxA @ Feb 5th 2008 10:40AM

Eminem as the star? lol

Nigeria @ Feb 5th 2008 10:42AM

GTA + Film + Eminem = Disaster of mass proportions.

This seriously sounds like a terrible idea and it would have probably left another ugly carcase on the long list of bad game to film translations.

I mean, GTA barely has a story. It's just a bunch of go from point A to point B missions. With some horrible gunplay thrown in-between.

Intentless @ Feb 5th 2008 10:50AM

If you didn't skip through the cut scenes and were just ignoring everything there was an actual plot as to WHY you had the missions... There was never a point where they just said. Go from a to b. They usually said this guy at point a needs to get to point b safely. He snitched on blah blah blah... or go take out the yakuza at points a b and c because we need to disrupt their business... or any other scenario...

Nigeria @ Feb 5th 2008 10:52AM

Yeah, you're right.

That's exactly what happened.

Michael Corey @ Feb 5th 2008 10:42AM

Ironically, it probably wouldn't receive any scrutiny for causing violence.

paragraph @ Feb 5th 2008 10:44AM

Naw, it probably would have, Rap "star" as the lead, based on a violent video game... it would have gotten some sort of flack.

paragraph @ Feb 5th 2008 10:43AM

Uwe Boll is pleased

baby sea tuna @ Feb 5th 2008 10:45AM

Doesn't Eminem weigh like 350 lbs now?

paragraph @ Feb 5th 2008 10:46AM

I honestly thought he was dead... so anything about him is news to me.

Nigeria @ Feb 5th 2008 10:47AM

Rapid weight gain was a feature of San Andreas.

baby sea tuna @ Feb 5th 2008 10:53AM

Good point! Maybe he's bulking up for his new role.

Or maybe he's just trying to fill the hip-hop niche left by Biggie, Pun, The Fat Boys, Sir Mix-A-Lot, and Heavy D...

thechihuahua @ Feb 5th 2008 3:06PM

Sir-Mix-A-Lot still raps, he sucks but he still raps.

Spiza @ Feb 5th 2008 10:51AM

You really just need one huge Video game movie and then everything will be made. That's what happenned to comics. They were a few here and there since superman, but look what happenned after spider-man. Now we are getting flushed with them, and many of them do look good (Iron Man anyone?), but many are bad: Hulk, elektra, DD, etc. But they are still making lots of them.

Intentless @ Feb 5th 2008 10:51AM

Iron man looks tight..

Fernando Rocker @ Feb 5th 2008 10:56AM

There are a few comics that do good videogames...

Like Ducktales on the NES =)

paragraph @ Feb 5th 2008 11:00AM

Want to Co-Produce "Videogame Movie"?

We could reference every video game ever made...

Better yet:

Uwe Boll's History of Video Games: Part 1

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Feb 5th 2008 11:08AM

But a Grand Theft Auto movie did come out.

Crank.

WiNG @ Feb 5th 2008 11:19AM

I heard if you have a modded movie theatre you can view an unrated hot coffee scene.

Jack @ Feb 5th 2008 11:24AM

Why bother to make a GTA movie when GTA games are bad composites of prior movies? GTA III cribbed from GoodFellas, Vice City ripped Scarface, and San Andreas riffed on Boyz N The Hood.

It's sort of the inverse of Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game. Whereas that was game -> movie -> game, this would be movie -> game -> movie.

Rich @ Feb 5th 2008 11:34AM

aw, that's too bad--because we all know movies based on video games are great!

paragraph @ Feb 5th 2008 11:46AM

Uwe (Boll) Know it!

I'll never get tired of dropping his name...

serotoninzero @ Feb 5th 2008 3:23PM

A GTA movie would be one of those movies that if you hadn't heard of the game, you wouldn't have any clue there was a connection. Running around and stealing cars to complete missions just doesn't sound like a good screenplay. Or killing hookers. But, maybe I'm wrong.

B1gC72 - PSN: KillaKornbread @ Feb 5th 2008 1:22PM

dear god, every game doesnt have to be a movie lol. a movie is never going to be able to replicate the feeling of the game. i hate cash ins.

343 Guilty Fart @ Feb 5th 2008 1:59PM

I wonder how many points that guy got for that crash? This is crash mode isn't it??

Worst Review Ever @ Feb 5th 2008 3:00PM

Meh. It would do better as a reality show. Can't you just hear the announcements?

"We take one dangerous criminal with nothing to lose and turn him loose on one major city."

They'd have to take steps to ensure that he didn't leave the city, gps implant or something, but it would definitely be less dangerous and better for peoples' souls than American Idol.

t_m @ Feb 5th 2008 3:49PM

Did everyone miss the plots in all the GTA games?

1 & 2 (haven't played san andreas) all had good plots, great writing, cross and double cross, love stories, memorable characters, plus loads of random weird stuff thrown in.

Plus most of the voice acting was done by real actors who could be drafted in to be in the movies. Even if they were basically just massive collections of homages and riffs on existing movies... that doesn't mean that approach wouldn't work for a movie.

PS/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076100/

jaybcorreia @ Feb 5th 2008 3:54PM

wouldn't it just be better as a series like on HBO or Showtime that way they can show more and do more then broadcast TV and also just using the GTA world like the city name and the stores and stuff, and use some of the characters as cameos and mentions idk thats just my opinion what do you think about it.

luckycharms711 @ Feb 6th 2008 3:30PM

why is everyone hating on eminem, he did a decent job in 8 mile although it is not really hard to play yourself. Besides Mos Def and possibly Tupac he is alot better then most rapper/actors.
It could have been worse they could have cast DMX

Batzarro @ Feb 5th 2008 6:32PM

Eminem isn't meant to be the GTA lead. He's supposed to be Nightmare/Siegfried! But I digress...

It doesn't take that much to make a crime movie. Al Pacino has done, like, a million of them. It's not like trying to translate Ico, or Final Fantasy, or Tetris into a film. So, while hardcore fans would have been angry by the lack of stars in the corner of the screen, or how the vehicles are REAL cars and not unlicences facsimiles, but in my mind it had more chance of being good than say...Crazy Taxi?

Fernando: Your effort at presenting a good comics-based-game was noble. However, I think Duck Tales was a Disney cartoon. For good comic-to-games examples see the Capcom fighting games, Maximum Carnage, or Batman Forever(almost gotcha with that last one!) Pero, puede ser que me equivoque. Eso pasa!