Hollywood, in recent years, has really begun to crack the code of video game movies. The impressive success of adaptations such as Sonic the Hedgehog and The Super Mario Bros. Movie” cemented the fact that we've really turned a corner in that regard. As it is, almost every major video game is likely to be targeted by the studio in the coming years, and Grand Theft Auto will undoubtedly be on that list. Interestingly though, a really great movie set in the world of GTA has recently hit theaters, with the full support of GTA creator Rockstar Games, no less.

One would be forgiven for not knowing about it since it's a small film, but the Hamlet Grand Theft documentary recently hit theaters via the folks at Mubi. For those unaware, as the title implies, it merges the worlds of GTA and William Shakespeare, with a group of angry actors staging a production of Hamlet in the sprawling world of Grand Theft Auto Online. It's as confusing and wonderful as it sounds. I've been after it since I saw it at SXSW last year. The movie was shot entirely within the game, without a single bit of live action or talking heads.

I recently had that luck speaking with the film's directors, Sam Crane and Pinny Grylls, in honor of its release. In the course of the conversation, I wondered how they got permission from Rockstar to publish. After all, we're talking about a multi-billion dollar enterprise here, which the company surely wants to protect. Fortunately, that wasn't a problem because Rockstar very much understood what the filmmakers were trying to do. As Grylls explained:

"Rockstar actually knew about the project very early on. When Sam made a couple of very short films that he posted on YouTube, just doing the opening scene of Hamlet with Mark... it kind of went semi-viral, and we got word from people that we knew that people who worked at Rockstar had seen it and they were kind of tickled by it."

It would certainly be one thing if Crane and Grylls were trying to do an adaptation of the game in some way, shape or form. After all, Hollywood has called in the past and A big part of the reason why the Grand Theft Auto movie never happened is because Rockstar is pretty protective of IP. But as Crane explained in our conversation, the studio was very understanding that the film was as much a love letter to the game as it was a production of a beloved play:

“They never wanted to have any control over it or make it their own movie, but I think they liked what we were doing with it, basically. It's pretty clear, I think it's kind of a love letter to the game in a way. , as much as a love letter to Shakespeare."

Interestingly, this movie continues the trend of some of the best video game movies for video games, rather than direct adaptations of them. 2024 also saw the release of Netflix's Criminal Unseen The Extraordinary Life of Ibelin, which focuses heavily on World of Warcraft, but it is not the narrative of the game, per se. Other successful films such as "Free Guy" and "Wreck-It Ralph" are, similarly, about the love of games, so to speak. Mercifully, Rockstar understood what these filmmakers were trying to do and didn't hinder it because of some misguided corporate directive.

You can hear my full interview with the directors on today's episode of the Podcast / Film Daily:

Grand Theft Hamlet is in theaters now.