One thing that always attracted me to the Grand Theft Auto games was the excellent cinematic quality, thanks to the top-notch voice acting and seemingly prominent Hollywood movie presentation style.
One primary example of the series’ cinematic presentation was the 26-minute in-game movie for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas titled The Introduction, which detailed much of the early development for several characters.
So what surprised me was this entry in Variety’s newly launched blog; studio executives and Rockstar Games were pretty darn close on making a full-blown, live action Grand Theft Auto movie. Last year, a deal was nearly in place for a major studio to back the Grand Theft Auto movie with even Eminem to possibly star but at the last minute, the deal was cut.
When initial plans were being drawn up years back, many big-named producers and movie studios were all salivating for a possible Grand Theft Auto film but Sam and Dan Houser, co-founders of Rockstar Games, eventually said no. What changed their minds last year that almost got the film on track though has yet to be determined.
Who could blame them though? Grand Theft Auto has the ability to literally print money since every game has continued to garner more critical and financial acclaim, along with plenty of controversy too. Also the Houser brothers pointed out that many Hollywood video games-turned movies tend to hurt the original game property then help. I wouldn’t blame them either.
Who knows, can GTA IV shed some light on a future Grand Theft Auto movie? It could be in the same boat as the Halo movie too.
