The Insanely Popular Video Games That Will Never Get Hollywood Adaptions And It’s For The Best

Dan Houser spoke to The Guardian about the possibility of Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and other Rockstar Games properties getting an adaption years ago, saying, We’ve been offered, many times, and it’s never appealed,” adding, “Our small dabblings with Hollywood have always left us running back to games.” Hauser further elaborated on his position, saying, “The second you go near Hollywood, people seem willing, or have been forced, to lose a lot of that control,” adding, “That sort of amorphous ‘that won’t test well’ attitude is exactly how we don’t work.”

While Hauser’s statements may not apply to every video game adaptation, there have certainly been plenty of adaptations that match these statements, and it would be a shame to see some of Rockstar’s best franchises fall into that trap.

Beyond Houser’s reluctance to work with Hollywood on Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption games, it’s probably for the best that these adaptations don’t happen anyway. Despite the fact that both franchises are highly cinematic and certainly could be adapted, doesn’t mean that the adaptations would work. For one, half of the enjoyment that you get out of both of those games is slowly exploring the vast and expansive worlds that Rockstar builds, which would be difficult to capture in an on-screen adaptation.

While the storylines of games like Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2 (and its predecessor) are incredible, the tens, sometimes hundreds of hours, you spend with the characters running across random situations is what helps make the games so immersive. In order for either of these franchises to work as an on-screen adaptation, you would need to do a pretty expansive TV show with a massive budget. While there are likely studios that are now fully ready to throw money at highly profitable franchises like GTA and Red Dead, there is no guarantee that the money will translate into a quality adaptation.

Now, Dan Houser’s interview about Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption in Hollywood is many years old at this point, so Rockstar Games’ could very well change its stance on working in Hollywood in the future. Fallout did prove that massive open-world games can actually work as TV adaptations, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that GTA and Red Dead could get their due. But, it would be very important to get the right team behind it, and the series should likely take the Fallout approach, which means making original stories set in the world of those games rather than making 1:1 adaptations of the plotlines.

Most importantly, if Rockstar Games decided to start working with Hollywood, they might have less time to work on their games. We still don’t have Grand Theft Auto 6, so it’s safe to say fans would prefer to get that instead of a TV adaptation. At this point, we likely have many years ahead until we get another Red Dead Redemption game, so let’s all agree that should be a higher priority than a TV adaptation that may or may not be good.