There are a lot of video game properties making their way to the silver screen these days. Dead Space, Castlevania, Gears of War, Prince of Persia, among others are all getting the Hollywood treatment. Whether or not this trend is good for the industry (or for Hollywood) is up for debate, but it's clearly something Dan Houser, vice president of creative at Rockstar Games, is not too happy about. It comes as little surprise then that GTA, one of the biggest franchises in gaming, is not likely to get a movie.
"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," Houser commented to the Los Angeles Times.
"It seems obvious to us that maintaining the long-term integrity of any entertainment property has been dependent on not making substandard spin-off products to people whose primary interest is making a quick buck. 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."
Frankly, we agree with Houser. A property like GTA is the very essence of what's so special about the medium of video games. Trying to take that interactivity in an open-world video game and translate it into a linear, passive film is not something that would benefit the IP or its fans most likely.
