Why Hollywood Can't Make A Grand Theft Auto Movie

Because everyone has been wondering, Nikki Finke explains why Hollywood probably won't make Grand Theft Auto: The Movie.  In its first week, Grand Theft Auto IV sold approximately 6 million copies worldwide and grossed over $500 million, more than most movies make theatrically. So it seems only logical that Hollywood would be interested in bringing the the controversial video game series to the mainstream. As it turns out, Fox Atomic actually owns the rights to "Grand Theft Auto", but not a film based on the game. Atomic is developing a remake of the Ron Howard directed / Roger Corman produced film with the same name from 1977. And by "developing", we mean that it is one of hundreds of projects that Fox Atomic has sitting around waiting for a screenwriter.

And I've never heard this before, but Finke claims that a legal settlement dictates that Fox can't make a video game out of the Ron Howard film, and more importantly, Rockstar isn't allowed to make a feature film based on their video game series. And as much as fans of the game would love to see a big screen movie, I'm not sure that it could capture the free-roaming magic of the game. Besides, many aspects of the game series are closely inspired by the classic mob films. I even remember reading interviews with Rockstar where they admit this obvious fact. What's to stop a big screen adaptation of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City or Grand Theft Auto 4 from feeling like a Scarface rip-off?