GTA Co-founder Shares Disregard Making a Movie Based On The Game Series

It is no question what Grand Theft Auto is. Although the last mainline entry is more than a decade old, it has not ceased its sales since 2013. In fact, it was reported that more than 200 million units have been sold as of May 2024. What’s more, the series is finally returning with Grand Theft Auto VI. The title is projected to release sometime in fall 2025 next year.

Additionally, this will also mark the first installment with the absence of co-creator Dan Houser. The brother of Sam Houser since 2020 has been establishing a new firm – Absurd Ventures. The company is a new initiative to give platform to new & upcoming creators across multiple mediums. His most recent announcement includes properties ‘A Better Paradise’ & ‘American Caper’ back in November.

Recently when speaking to The Ankler, Houser revealed that discussions prior to his exit from the video game empire at one point included a film adaptation for Grand Theft Auto. “After a few awkward dates, we’d ask [the executives], why would we do this?” Houser shared on the encounter. In which was responded with “because you get to make a movie.” However, the idea for a motion picture did not seem the most practical for the series, Houser explained.

“And 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,” Houser expressed. This comes from an era when video game adapted films typically turned out poorly and were shrugged off at the announcement. “It’s a different time now,” Houser stated after.

“They thought we’d be blinded by the lights and that just wasn’t the case. We had what we considered to be multi-billion-dollar IP, and the economics never made sense. The risk never made sense. In those days, the perception was that games made poor-quality movies.” To a fundamental level, it also would not make sense for select games from Rockstar with the amount of influence already collected from inspired movies that influenced the stories & characterization of its casts.

Would you watch a Grand Theft Auto movie?

Source: The Ankler