GTA-maker Rockstar Games’ cofounder on why there isn’t a GTA or Red Dead Redemption movie yet

GTA 6 is coming out next year

GTA 6–Rockstar Games’ next grand entry into the GTA franchise and open-world RPGs in general–is set for a Fall 2025 release. With gaming IPs like Doom, Halo, Warcraft, Resident Evil, and more recently, The Last of Us and Fallout, getting either movie or TV show adaptations, the Grand Theft Auto and the Red Dead Redemption franchise is certainly likely to be lapped up by fans were it to be smartly (and carefully) made into a movie (or a TV show). But according to Dan Houser, co-founder of Rockstar Games and video game writer, that wouldn’t sit right with the publisher since they already have a “multi-billion-dollar IP”, and the economics and the risk “never made sense” considering the common perception that video games made poor movies.

In a recent interview with The Ankler, Houser revealed that he was approached for a GTA movie many times during his tenure with Rockstar Games.

"After a few awkward dates we'd ask [the executives], why would we do this?" Houser reveals in the interview. The executives would reply: "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," Houser explains.

"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."

GTA VI: All locations in Leonida we know so far

A GTA or a Red Dead movie does not sit well with Rockstar Games because the publisher is not comfortable giving any studio rights to GTA or Red Dead Redemption. Losing control over how the film studio handles the movie adaptation and the risk that comes with it are the key reasons Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser kept GTA and Read Dead Redemption solely as video games.

The Last of Us and Fallout TV shows 

Talking about video game-to-TV adaptations, Naughty Dog's action-adventure RPG series 'The Last of Us' and Bethesda's Fallout--two immensely popular gaming franchises set in post-apocalyptic universes--recently got their TV shows. The first seasons of both were received favourably and the second season is confirmed.

Rights for The Last of Us TV show were snagged by HBO and stars Game of Thrones actors Pedro Pascal (GoT’s Prince Oberyn ‘the Viper’ Martell) and Bella Ramsey (Bear Island’s Lyanna Mormont) as Joel and Ellie from the games. HBO’s streaming rival Amazon secured the Fallout TV show for Prime Video and cast Ella Purnell as Lucy MacLean and Walton Goggins as Cooper Howard, among other notable actors.