14 DAY TRIAL // Rockstar Games, the developer of the hugely popular Grand Theft Auto series, talked about the idea of a movie adaptation and confirmed that it's not appealing to the team because it would take away a lot of things that made GTA what it is today.
Grand Theft Auto titles have courted controversy over the years and have become a staple of the gaming industry, managing to sell tens of millions of copies with each release.
Now, ahead of the launch of GTA V, developer Rockstar is once again talking about the franchise, and co-founder Dan Houser tells The Guardian that the idea of a movie adaptation is unappealing because Rockstar would lose its control of the series.
"We've been offered, many times, and it's never appealed," Houser said. "The money's never been close to be worth risking one's crown jewels."
"Our small dabblings with Hollywood have always left us running back to games. The freedom we have to do what we want creatively is of enormous value. The second you go near Hollywood, people seem willing, or have been forced, to lose a lot of that control."
The focus on movies appealing to everyone and on not having controversial elements swayed Rockstar from even making a deal in Hollywood, according to Houser.
"That sort of amorphous 'that won't test well' attitude is exactly how we don't work. We've always tried to think of stuff that's innovative and new, and to go into a world where that's not encouraged would be horrible."
If an adaptation of the Grand Theft Auto series does appear, then Houser notes that a TV series would work much better than a movie, although it still requires lots of sacrifices.
"It's much easier to imagine GTA as a TV series, as the form is closer, but I still think we'd be losing too much to ever actually do it."
"We've got this big open-world experience that's 100 hours long, and that gives players control over what they do, what they see, and how they see it. A world where you can do everything from rob a bank to take a yoga lesson to watch TV, all in your own time. How do you condense that into a two-hour or 12-hour experience where you take away the main things: player agency and freedom?"
Considering Rockstar's emphasis on control, it's unlikely that a Grand Theft Auto adaptation will appear anytime soon.