Why a Grand Theft Auto Movie Will Never Happen

A Grand Theft Auto movie, based on the video game, seems like an obvious cash cow for Hollywood, but it’ll probably never happen due to rights issues. In an interview with GameCulture, Mark Neveldine, who co-directed the recent thriller Gamer, said he was “going to be hired” to write a Grand Theft Auto movie after he finished working on Crank. He did a lot of “research” — playing lots of Grand Theft Auto — but the studios pulled the plug before the film could get off the ground. At issue is a 1977 film called Grand Theft Auto, directed by Ron Howard, and a dispute over the name.

We’ve heard this story before. In 2008, Nikke Finke’s Deadline Hollywood reported that Fox Atomic and Rockstar Games had a deal: Rockstar would never make a game based on the Ron Howard film, and Fox Atomic agreed never to make a film based on the game. Neveldine’s story confirms Finke’s report. Because the name is locked up, it’d be tricky, if not impossible, for any studio to make a Grand Theft Auto movie. For what it’s worth, Rockstar doesn’t seem too keen on the idea anyway. In 2008, the developer heard a proposal for a GTA movie starring Eminem, but quickly dismissed it. “This proposal was no more interesting than the numerous others we receive. We never entertained proceeding with the project,” the studio said. [via GameCulture]