Why a GTA Movie Won't Happen

Do you want to see a movie based on Grand Theft Auto? With Grand Theft Auto 5 talk everywhere at the moment, it's only natural that the adaptation question might be raised (again). But as far as Rockstar Games' co-founder Dan Houser is concerned, you probably shouldn't hold your breath for a GTA movie…

While talking to The Guardian about GTA 5, Houser said that Hollywood has come calling in the past.

"We've been offered, many times, and it's never appealed," he says. "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. 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."

Houser does seem to think that GTA would work better on television than in the movie house, not that that would ever happen either in his opinion.

"There's still plenty of kudos in doing a film, but you shouldn't ever do anything in your life for kudos," he says. "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?"

What do you guys think? Should Grand Theft Auto be adapted for the screen (big or small)? Or is it better left in its original form as a game?

Talk to Senior Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottIGN, on IGN at scottcollura and on Facebook.

Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com