Home Entertainment BBC Television developing Grand Theft Auto docudrama

BBC Television developing Grand Theft Auto docudrama

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gta games

No, they’re not developing a TV series based on the insanely-popular and best-selling video game series; they’re developing a 90-minute docudrama based on the people who brought the franchise to life. Although now that I think about it the second game in the series was GTA London 1969, so a remake for BBC TV and directed by Guy Ritchie wouldn’t be so bad would it?

It forms part of a BBC initiative to increase young peoples’ interest in learning digital skills, as (via BBC) “the UK is facing a significant skills shortage, with 1.4 million ‘digital professionals’ estimated to be needed over the next five years.” So what better way to appeal to young people than by airing a docudrama based on the people behind the R18 video game franchise they’re all playing right now.

Rockstar Games, the developers of the franchise, were the recipients of a BAFTA Fellowship Award last year in recognition of their work for “outstanding achievement in the art forms of the moving image”. On acceptance of the award studio heads Sam and Dan Houser said (via Geeky Tyrant):

Rockstar was founded [in Britain] with a mission statement that video games were the next mass-market entertainment medium, that they were uniquely interesting and powerful. And that we as a company would serve two masters to prove this fact, combining the production values of movies with an obsession of gameplay above all else. Back in 1999, we began shouting this to whoever would listen. A few people laughed at us for our hubris, both in ourselves and in the medium. Most people simply ignored us.

With a long history of pushing the boundaries as well as controversies dogging the franchise, from the glorification of violence, abuse of women, torture and the infamous “Hot Coffee” sex mini-game, it should be interesting to see how the creators dealt not only with public perception of their work; but also how they surmounted technical challenges as the game series went from this…

gta-original

To this…

gta v

I wonder if I’ll be able to stream it online to my PC.

Last Updated: March 19, 2015

4 Comments

  1. Imagine a GTA TV Series shot entirely in top-down view. Now THAT would be amazeballs.

    Reply

  2. RinceThis

    March 19, 2015 at 12:46

    Stream what on your PC? GTAV? BWahahah COUGH.

    Reply

    • Blood Emperor Trevor

      March 19, 2015 at 13:05

      Reply

  3. Aries

    March 19, 2015 at 17:13

    I thought it was amazing how they went from GTA II to GTA III in two years

    Reply

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