A detailed explanation on why Rockstar Games never pursued a GTA or Red Dead Redemption film has been given by the company’s co-founder Dan Houser. Mr Houser who created the company with his brother Sam, has just taken part in a rare interview.
Spotted by gamesindustry.biz, The Ankler got to interview the creative. He offered some experiences he had meeting with Hollywood execs over GTA films and how he shut them down. Plus, where the industries are going and what he is looking to do with his new venture.
Rockstar Games had no control
Houser tells The Ankler (paid article) that he had “a few awkward dates” and afterwards would ask “why would we do this?” They would reply with “Because you get to make a movie.”
Dan, Sam, and co were smart and knew it wasn’t how they would want to do it. Dan explains that “we’d be like, no, what you’ve described is you making a movie and us having no control and taking a huge risk that we’re going to end up paying for with something that belongs to us”. As the man who has had some of the most creative input in Rockstar’s games for over two decades, it is no surprise he saw through it.
A big risk and changing times
At this point in time, GTA and Red Dead had become multi-billion-dollar IP and “the economics never made sense. The risk never made sense.” Dan tells The Ankler. We saw several adaptations of video games but they were never really well received and it is one of the reasons why GTA did not come to the big screen. “In those days, the perception was that games made poor-quality movies.” said Mr Houser.
Though in recent years we have seen a shift in quality and perception of adaptations of video games. Dan Houser goes onto say “It’s a different time now” and that he’s “ready work with Hollywood” in order “to create an IP pipeline”.
Dan is back in the news over 4 years after leaving Rockstar Games to create a new multi-media studio, Absurd Ventures. In the past few weeks, they have released their first project and are working on a new open world action/adventure game.
The writer and producer of the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption games is hard at work with some of his former Rockstar Games creatives building new franchises across different mediums. The team are starting out with podcasts and graphic novels before moving into video games.
Eminem was cast for a GTA film
Back in 2022, we learned from former Rockstar Games developer Kirk Ewing took a call from a Hollywood producer. This was about making a GTA film starring Eminem and directed by Tony Scott (Director of Top Gun). Kirk called up Sam Houser about this opportunity to which Sam responded with “not interested”. You can learn more about this story here.
Speaking of GTA films, a 88 minute feature filmed entirely in GTA Online premiered at film festivals earlier this year. It has also earned a rights deal. We’ve got plenty of info on this fun project here.
To keep up to date with all Rockstar Games news, stay tuned to RockstarINTEL and sign up to our newsletter for a weekly round-up of all things Rockstar Games.
Subscribe to our newsletter to get all of the must-read Rockstar Games news stories delivered to your inbox. Plus, we’ll sometimes include some PlayStation and Xbox gift codes for you so keep on the look out!
