For fans of the Grand Theft Auto series, the announcement of a GTA movie was head-explodingly delightful news. And then not so much, once it was revealed the GTA movie was actually a true-to-life drama about the battle between Rockstar Games and lawyer Jack Thompson, who was set on erasing GTA from game stores in his crusade against violent videogames.
Now, it turns out the movie might not even happen at all. It turns out that the BBC (who's producing the film, titled Game Changer) never actually received Rockstar's permission to use their logos, name, and the Grand Theft Auto series. And now Rockstar Games (also, Rockstar's parent company Take-Two Interactive) has filed a lawsuit to ensure that Game Changer never gets made.
"Take-Two Interactive has filed suit against the BBC for trademark infringement based on their movie currently titled 'Game Changer' as it relates to Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto video game series," Rockstar Games declared in a statement.
"While holders of the trademarks referenced in the film title and its promotion, Rockstar Games has had no involvement with this project. Our goal is to ensure that our trademarks are not misused in the BBC's pursuit of an unofficial depiction of purported events related to Rockstar Games. We have attempted multiple times to resolve this matter with the BBC without any meaningful resolution. It is our obligation to protect our intellectual property and unfortunately in this case litigation was necessary."
GTA's fans number in the hundreds of millions (at least according to the latest sales figures), and if they really wanted a historically-accurate making-of-GTA movie made, they'd certainly have the numbers (and the wallet size) to sway Rockstar's opinion. Without them? It sounds like Game Changer might have to call it quits. Daniel Radcliffe and Bill Paxton were originally up for the starring roles, as Sam Houser (the president of Rockstar) and Jack Thompson, respectively.
Join the Conversation