BBC hypes “Grand Theft Auto” movie
The BBC has released its first trailer for "The Gamechangers," a movie that will explore the mass popularity of the Grand Theft Auto franchise and its supposed influence on real-world violence. You can watch that trailer on YouTube below.
The 90-minute feature stars Daniel Radcliffe of "Harry Potter" fame as Sam Houser, one of the brothers (the other, Dan) who created Rockstar Games and revolutionized the Grand Theft Auto series by producing the third installment in 3-D.
Bill Paxton plays attorney Jack Thompson, who led a crusade against the franchise after it supposedly spawned several real-world, violent events. The movie reportedly follows the case of Devin Moore, an 18-year-old who in 2003 shot and killed two police officers and a dispatcher in Alabama. Moore had apparently played Grand Theft Auto: Vice City prior to the shooting and compared life to a video game in statements after his arrest.
Moore was convicted of murder and has been sentenced to death.
Rockstar has sued the BBC, claiming copyright and trademark infringement as they were not involved in the movie's production. The movie is scheduled to premiere in England on Oct. 15, and it's being directed by Owen Harris, best known for his work on British TV series "Misfits" and "The Secret Diary of a Call Girl." Harris just finished "Kill Your Friends," a movie based on a novel of the same name by John Niven. Starring Nicholas Hoult, the film is set in England in 1997, at the end of the Britpop craze. It will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival this month.
As a huge fan of the Grand Theft Auto series (I gave the most recent entry a perfect score in my PS4 review), I'm excited to see what Daniel Radcliffe does with the (in)famously reclusive Houser, and whether Paxton plays Thompson as over-the-top as he appeared in the early 2000s.
Do you think violence and video games are linked? What kind of video game documentary would you like to see (an adaptation of David Kushner's "Masters of Doom" - which was reportedly in the works for awhile - has the potential to be amazing, methinks)? Let us know in the comments below.
