ROCKSTAR is one of the biggest game developers in the industry, creating two of the world’s biggest and best IPs.
As the developer of both the Red Dead and Grand Theft Auto series, it’s home to some of the best-selling games of all time.
Recently, TV and film fans have had an increased interest in gaming following the excellent adaptations of video games like The Last of Us and Fallout.
The popularity of these shows has raised the question: why don’t we have movies or shows based on Rockstar games?
Speaking to The Ankler, the studio’s co-founder Dan Houser explains what happened when executives reached out to him for a film deal.
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Houser said: “After a few awkward dates, we’d ask [the executives], why would we do this?
“Their response [was], ‘because you get to make a movie.’
“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.”
Around the time of these discussions, movies based on video games were known for their poor quality.
These films were known to have low ratings, and were often flops at the box office.
While fans have often asked for live-action versions of Rockstar games, Houser didn’t want to take this risk with its IPs.
He continues: “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.”
Houser left Rockstar in 2020 to create a new studio called Absurd Ventures.
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He admits that “It's a different time now,” suggesting that those currently working at Rockstar could now have a different view.
If you want to read more about Grand Theft Auto, check out everything we know about GTA 6.