Houser says GTA film unlikely

By Oli Welsh Published 27 July, 2009

Games too "complex" to be adapted.

Rockstar boss Dan Houser has once more poured cold water on the idea of Grand Theft Auto being adapted to film in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

"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 said.

As well as feeling the games' scale and depth could not be reflected in film, Houser was also concerned that Rockstar would have to retain creative control of the project in order to ensure it met the developer's standards of quality.

"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," he said.

"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."

Houser's comments come after the unveiling of Assassin's Creed and Halo short film series at last week's Comic-Con, as well as the announcement that Sam Raimi will direct a film based on Blizzard's World of Warcraft. Elsewhere in Hollywood, films based on game properties as cherished as Prince of Persia, BioShock and Shadow of the Colossus are in development.

Will any of these prove to be more than "substandard spin-off products"? We can but hope.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Canyarion #1 3 years ago

    Sounds like he's challenging film makers. I don't believe he really thinks it can't be done, he's just waiting for the best deal.

  • Ryboy #2 3 years ago

    Probably, but the qeustion must be asked what exactly would a GTA film be like? A film set in a city, in present day or the 80's, about gangsters, hookers, fast cars, guns and drug dealers. I gots me a feeling that may have been done before.

    No, no, I know! Let's make a movie about gaying your way up to level 80. That sounds much more appealing. Game & movie oligarch's need to get a fucking grip.
    Edited by 3 at 27/07/09 @ 11:12

  • AphoticCosmos #3 3 years ago

    The criminal/gangster film is oversaturated with garbage these days. No matter how good any GTA film may or may not be, nobody would bother seeing it because virtually everything else in the genre is shite.

    That said, if there was going to be a film, it should be of Vice City. Not enough 80s crime films around these days.

  • comissars_handgun #4 3 years ago

    Yeah the kind of things that are fun to do in GTA like exploring, driving around listening to the radio, randomly killing people etc would really not work in a film. The parts that would work- some missions, the cut scenes, would just make it a generic gangster film.

  • kangarootoo #5 3 years ago

    I'm not sure a game like GTA is particularly interesting material on which to base a game. Its just a gangster story.

    It might have been innnovative as a game, but as a film I can't really see what it would bring over any other well written, directed, acted and produced (all of which are more important than the initial pitch) crime drama.

  • Vice.Destroyer #6 3 years ago

    As much as I enjoyed GTA IV, isn't this feeling that "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", just about the height of arrogance? Taken on a thematic level, we have a protagonist with baggage, a sympathetic jamaican drug dealer, italian-american gangsters, irish-american thieves, african-american gangsters, as a matter of fact, virtually every single ethnic cliche you care to mention is present and correct.

    Throw in a kidnapping of the protagonists brother, a mata hari-type double agent, dodgy city official, in-fighting within the irish-american family and you have a film that I am sure that can and has been made before.

    One thing I agree with though, the film will likely not be any good.

  • Doctor_What #7 3 years ago

    They've already done it: it's called Eastern Promises.

  • Pulsar_t #8 3 years ago

    Arrogance indeed.
    /didn't get GTA4

  • OnlyMe #9 3 years ago

    Ahem: [link url=http://www.imdb. com/title/tt0076100/
    ]http://www.imdb. com/title/tt0076100/
    [/link]

    Also, notice the cover art.

  • Moribundman #10 3 years ago

    Yeah I was just going to say, didn't Ron Howard do this years ago? LOL.

    I imagine that the use of cover art was a fully self-aware typical Rockstar/DMA pastiche. Also worth noting that film only got a decent DVD release off the back of GTAIII, and the cover art was more in line with the rest of the series in the US.

    Seriously I am pleased to see that Mr Houser has some artistic integrity and isn't letting the PT Andersons and Uwe Bolls of this world make some shitty version starring Jason Statham, Rhona Mitra and Mila Jojovich...

  • Darren #11 3 years ago

    I think Houser does have a point here. Unlike most games, the GTA series have been very much story driven with deep characters that you get to know over the course of the 20+ hours you play the game. I don't see how that could be translated into a movie really unless it was made as a mini-series and shown over 10 hours or something at least.

    Are Hollywood so desperate for ideas that they want to make every game into a movie? I've just heard that Dead Space is being considered for a movie too and I'm sure there's dozens of others too. The thing is almost all of them haven't been very good, have they? The majority have been dire in fact. The best game-to-movie adaption I've seen was Silent Hill which captured the eerie atmosphere of the games superbly and was surprisingly enjoyable but even then it was far from perfect because characterisation was weak.

  • metalangel #12 3 years ago

    Substandard cash ins? Like GTA London, GTA for the Game Boy Colour, and (controversial) Chinatown Wars, then? What's the point of a proper World of Warcraft movie when that porn series (Whorecraft?) exists in all its big breasted pointy eared glory?

  • chub #13 3 years ago

    "That said, if there was going to be a film, it should be of Vice City. Not enough 80s crime films around these days. "
    Scarface!

    I know it's from 1983, but Vice City rips loads from it.

  • Ryboy #14 3 years ago

    LOL! Ron Howard for the win!

    But let's not take anything away from GTA IV, it was a stunning game that has only set the bar higher for games of this ilk.
    Edited by 1 at 27/07/09 @ 11:11

  • Ryboy #15 3 years ago

    Edited 4,344,222 times, because I'm a cretin and cannot type or spell most recently on 27/07/09 @ 11:11

  • Daymare #16 3 years ago

    There's nothing particulary new, worthwhile or special GTA could bring to the big screen, besides a bunch of potentially interesting characters.

  • rhubarbandcustard #17 3 years ago

    You could tell the story of GTA4 in a 10 minute short film. There is nothing complex about it at all.

    There has never been a complex, or particularly, intriguing story in any videogame. Ever.

    However, there have been several hundred quite brilliant videogames released over the last twenty years.

    GASP - videogames don't require good stories shocker.

    GTA4 was not a good story. Producer fellow - get over yourself.

  • Solvalou #18 3 years ago

    I totally agree with Houser, and I find hilarious that most comments here seem to misunderstand "structurally complex" with "good story" - that's missing the point entirely.

    And as far as the last question in the article - it's all too obvious that no good will come out from those flicks. Thanks Rockstar for not ruining your IP with quick bucks projects!

  • kangarootoo #19 3 years ago

    @Darren

    I'm pretty sure film makers have managed to present deeper characters that any of those that appear in GTA4, well within a 2 hour film slot. We surely aren't suggesting that GTA has characters of a complexity that has yet to be captured on film, are we?

    The key difference is that in GTA the characters are "presented" over 10 hours because for most of those 10 hours they aren't actually being presented. The player is off doing game things for most of that time, with relatively little characterful interaction.

    The actual depth of the core GTA characters could probably be covered within 30 minutes of dedicated, tightly directed, non-interactive story... if there was no driving about and shooting things getting in the way and eating up time.

  • frankfurter209 #20 3 years ago

    You guys couldn't have missed the point more if you tried. The GTA4-bored-me-to-tears idiot patrol is in full force this morning. The story and cutscenes are hardly the point of GTA, and certainly not why I loved GTA4. I'd like to see a film try to convey a realistic faux-New York and the thrill of exploration with dozens of fake cars and radio stations to go with it.

    Go back to sucking Infinity Ward's cock
    Edited by 1 at 27/07/09 @ 16:58

  • kangarootoo #21 3 years ago

    @Mappman

    I think you maybe have a good point to make, but it is being hidden by your over-riding urge to spout fanboy dismissals. What do collect-and-deliver missions really have to do with whether the game plot would make a good film? Plenty of good films are chock full of cliche and parody. It doesn't harm them one bit. And I suspect that if GTA was made into a film, they wouldn't actually incolude game missions in the script... don't you think?

    You clearly don't like GTA4, but the bee is visible poking out from under your bonnet and the reason you are getting negative karma (when others making exactly the same point as you are getting positives) is because you can't seperate "I don't like this game" sentiment from the discussion at hand.

  • kangarootoo #22 3 years ago

    @frankfurter209

    Hehe, you seem to be the mirror image of Mappman. Does that make you a member of the GTA4-made-me-smile idiot patrol?

  • Diabeu #23 3 years ago

    popcultural spam - making movies based on games that are based/inspired by movies

    I've got a headache

  • smelly #24 3 years ago

    the plots of gta games are basic to say the least.. they'd make shit films..

    gta was (I use past tense as gta4 sucked) a good game because of it's gameplay and "funness" (not a word), not because of its story!

  • smelly #25 3 years ago

    "Ahem: http://www.imdb. com/title/tt0076100/ "

    HAHAHAH!! Ace!

    (goes off to find the torrent)