We're all on the edge of our seats waiting for news on Grand Theft Auto 6, but with 2022 nearing its end, it's beginning to look like we can forget about any sort of first look this side of the holidays.
One of the most innovative and best-selling video game franchises of all time, it's definitely surprising to think that we've never seen the property adapted to film or television. As it happen, we did once come somewhat close to getting a movie, as Kirk Ewing, a Hollywood agent in the early 2000s, has now shed some light on a pitch that was submitted to Rockstar.
Talking on BBC's Bugzy Malone's Grandest Game podcast (via ActioNewz.com), he revealed that a Grand Theft Auto movie was pitched to GTA franchise developer Sam Houser that would have seen Top Gun director Tony Scott at the helm. The star? It would have been prolific rapper and actor Eminem.
"Because of the relationship that I had with Rockstar and I had with Sam, I actually tracked them down to a hotel room one night, where I knew he was going to be staying, and we stayed up late and talked about the possibility of making a film," Ewing recalls. "This was just after [Grand Theft Auto] III, and I think at that point, it was still in Sam’s mind that it might be something that he wanted to do."
"I remember taking a call at about 4 a.m. from a producer in Los Angeles with an offer to make a film, and he said, 'Kirk, we’ve got Eminem to star, and Tony Scott to film, $5 million on the nose, are you interested?' I phoned up Sam, and I said, 'Listen to this, they want Eminem in the Grand Theft Auto movie, and Tony Scott to direct.'" And he said, 'Not interested."
"At that point, they withdrew from any conversation about making a film when they realized that the media franchise they had, what they had, was bigger than any movie that was going on at the time."
Considering the fact Grand Theft Auto 6 is guaranteed to be a record-breaking hit when it's finally released, we're sure a movie will continue to be far from a priority for Rockstar. While video game adaptations have found greater success in recent years, nothing is a sure-fire hit, and the developer would likely rather avoid tarnishing the franchise with a bad adaptation.
Would you like to see Grand Theft Auto brought to TV or theaters one day?