GTA and RDR not being turned into movies yet stuns Jack Black

Comedian and actor Jack Black is shocked that GTA and RDR, two legendary Rockstar Games series, haven't yet gotten movie adaptions. He said this during an interview about his role in the upcoming Borderlands movie by Eli Roth.

Several video games have recently been adapted into TV series, such as Paramount+'s Halo, Amazon Prime Video's Fallout, and Peacock's Twisted Metal. There's also the previously mentioned Borderlands movie that's set to be released in August 2024. Meanwhile, some Rockstar fans have been clamoring for a Red Dead Redemption movie or television adaptation for quite some time.

With his recent statements, Jack Black seems to have echoed the sentiments of these fans. Here's more about what he said on the topic.

---

Jack Black in disbelief over GTA and RDR not being turned into movies yet

While speaking with Total Film (via GamesRadar) about his upcoming role as Claptrap in Eli Roth's Borderlands movie, Black was asked which video games he wanted to see made into motion pictures. He expressed his surprise that no Rockstar Games title has yet to be adapted into a movie, specifically mentioning Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. He said:

"I can't believe they haven't already started making a movie of any of the Rockstar Games – Grand Theft Auto, but especially Red Dead Redemption. Those things are already like movies, you know? I guess that's the thing. Some video games are already halfway there to telling those kind of stories, and there are some movies that are like video games."

Many fans of the Rockstar Games franchises already share Black's sentiments. Rockstar is quite renowned for its cinematic storytelling, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the GTA and RDR games, which were influenced by several popular movies. Red Dead Redemption 2, for instance, is often hailed as a masterpiece of the Western genre, mainly due to how lifelike and convincing most of the characters are.

The Grand Theft Auto series has also become history's most profitable entertainment product. Grand Theft Auto 5 holds multiple Guinness World Records, including the highest revenue generated by an entertainment product in 24 hours.

Grand Theft Auto 6, the highly anticipated Rockstar Games title set to release in 2025, broke the record for the most-viewed video game trailer on YouTube in 24 hours. The GTA 6 trailer has over 182 million views as of this writing.

However, Rockstar has repeatedly shown that they're not interested in a GTA movie. In 2022, Rockstar Games co-founder Sam Houser revealed in an interview with the BBC Radio 5 Live podcast that he had turned down a pitch for a GTA movie starring Eminem. Meanwhile, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick stated in an investor call late last year that pursuing another media for the IP was not worthwhile.

So, despite what Jack Black and a large number of Rockstar Games fans feel, it seems unlikely that GTA and RDR will get adapted into movies anytime soon. In the meantime, fans have other things to worry about, such as the rumors of a GTA 6 delay that might push back its release date.