Ex-Rockstar Boss Says He Never Wanted To Make A GTA Movie, Even Amid Pressure From Executives

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.

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“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 but after “a few awkward dates”, Houser still didn’t understand how the adaption would benefit Rockstar and began to question what the purpose of it all was. “Why would we do this?” Houser said. As the industry execs pawed over the concept of joining forces to make a GTA movie, Houser didn’t buy into it and thought it was a terrible idea.

“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 went on to say that he wasn’t swayed by the bright lights of Hollywood, and it just didn’t make financial sense because Rockstar was already in a good position at that time with GTA and Red Dead so handing that over to someone who could do anything with it wasn’t part of his agenda.

Sam Houser, Aaron Garbut, Dan Houser, Leslie Benzies — Sam Houser, Aaron Garbut, Dan Houser and Leslie Benzies

“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.”

Houser left Rockstar four years ago and, since then, the writer and producer of the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption games set up a new studio called Absurd Ventures with other Rockstar veterans with the purpose of “building potentially major franchises via cheaper formats, such as audiobooks and graphic novels.”