I bet (everyone) are wondering how come we still haven't seen any development of GRAND THEFT AUTO (GTA) movie adaptation. After all, GTA is one of the biggest-selling video games for Rockstar and its popularity is just as sizable. So what gives?
During The Hollywood Reporter's interview with Dan Houser, the vice president of creative Rockstar where he is recently being honored as an Official Selection at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival, he explains his reasons for not embracing the idea of Hollywood adapting their games for the screen:
"Virtually all movies made from games are awful, while many games made from movies are also pretty horrible. This will change, but with an ever more discerning audience, the goals of taking something from film-to-games or game-to-film have to be more than financial. If you feel the property has something about it that is universal or could work in another medium, and it is not simply about making easy money, then that is something worthwhile."
He adds:
"We have explored a lot of movie deals, but we have just chosen not to make a movie. We love movies, but we also love games and that is what we remain focused on. If we were to attempt to make a movie, we would like to make it ourselves, or at least work in collaboration with the best talent, so at least if it is bad, we can know we failed on our own terms. But doing that takes time, and making games properly takes a lot of time. So, we may make movies one day, with the right property and the right partnership, but we have not found the time to do that yet."
Hmm... at least Houser does come to his senses. After all, video game-turned-movie is mostly rubbish anyway. But let's hope we really get to see a movie version one day.