Highlights
- Dan Houser rejected a GTA movie due to lack of creative control and financial risks.
- Houser believed that games-to-movies adaptations often result in poor quality films.
- After leaving Rockstar, Houser founded Absurd Ventures to explore cheaper formats like audiobooks and graphic novels.
If you have ever wondered why so many popular video games have received a movie adaption, but the iconic Grand Thief Auto has been left on the shelf, Rockstar’s co-founder and former head writer Dan Houser has revealed why the company decided not to go down this route that many others have taken.
Not wanting to follow in the shoes of The Last of Us or Fallout, Houser didn’t feel like it was the right move financially and also that it would mean having to give up creative control of the game he helped build.
“They Thought We’d Be Blinded By The Lights And That Just Wasn’t The Case”
In an interview with The Ankler, via GamesIndustry.biz, Houser talked about how he had met with Hollywood executives regarding a GTA movie to discuss bringing it to the big screen. However, after “a few awkward dates,” Houser still didn’t see the benefit for Rockstar and began to question the purpose of the adaptation.
Houser expressed his concerns about giving up creative control and taking a financial risk with something that belonged to Rockstar. He ultimately decided that it wasn’t a good idea for the company.
Houser left Rockstar four years ago and founded Absurd Ventures with the goal of exploring new, cheaper formats like audiobooks and graphic novels to build potential major franchises.
“They thought we’d be blinded by the lights and that just wasn’t the case. We had what we considered to be a 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.”