TheGrand Theft Autofranchise is best known for its open-world element, but the games’ storytelling has been consistently brilliant over the years and each installment has featured unforgettable characters. So, a film adaptation of the games might be on the cards one day, especially as franchises dominate more and more of the moviegoing landscape and studios grab at any existing intellectual property they can turn into the next MCU.
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There are some directors who would be perfect for a movie adaptation of theGTAgames, while there are others who would undoubtedly screw it up and make the whole endeavor feel pointless.
10Should: Quentin Tarantino
The casually crime-ridden streets of Quentin Tarantino’s Los Angeles are the perfect template for depictingGTA V’s Los Santos on the big screen. While he’s beenfocusing more on westerns recently, Tarantino’s early crime movies still rank among the genre’s most influential works.
However, Tarantino has pledged to retire after his next film and it’s unlikely that he’d make a video game adaptation ashis final contribution to cinema.
9Shouldn’t: Zack Snyder
Zack Snyder seems to be able to get his hands on any beloved property he wants to adapt, but he should be kept away fromGrand Theft Auto. TheGTAgames have a sumptuously naturalistic color palette, capturing the authentic grit of classic crime movies likeLe DoulosandThe French Connection.
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If Snyder adapted them for the screen, he would saturate the colors and fill the action scenes with arbitrary super slow motion. The games also have complex storytelling and nuances that movies like300andBatman v Supermanlack.
8Should: Guy Ritchie
To successfully adaptGrand Theft Autointo a movie, a director would need to be well-versed in both gritty crime movies and explosive, big-budget studio action movies. Few filmmakers have mastered both genres as well as Guy Ritchie.
A Ritchie-helmedGTAmovie could have the dazzling action ofThe Man from U.N.C.L.E.mixed with the biting dialogue ofLock, StockandSnatch.
7Shouldn’t: Paul W.S. Anderson
Owing to his increasingly dire work on theResident Evilmovies, Paul W.S. Anderson is notorious for messing up video game adaptations. He shouldn’t be let anywhere near aGTAmovie.
The latest video game property he’s taken a stab at isMonster Hunter, but the recently released trailer hasn’t inspired much hope from fans.
6Should: Nicolas Winding Refn
The slick neo-noir style of Nicolas Winding Refn’s work could be the perfect conduit to bring the crime-infested world of theGTAfranchise to the screen.
Refn’sGTAstory would likely revolve around a brooding, softly spoken protagonist like the Driver trapped in a neon-drenched criminal underworld.
5Shouldn’t: Len Wiseman
Len Wiseman is a Hollywood action director who’s often called upon to deliver a solid, middle-of-the-road action tentpole likeLive Free or Die Hard. There’sa lot to love in John McClane’s Wiseman-helmed fourth outing, but it goes way too far in a lot of places (like when McClane jumps onto the wing of a fighter jet and then slides down a broken highway to escape its explosion).
Plus, Wiseman totally botchedTotal Recall. He made a remake ofTotal Recallthat didn’t go to Mars. If he did aGTAmovie, it might not feature any cars.
4Should: Martin Scorsese
Essentially, a film adaptation of theGTAgames would be a crime movie in an urban setting, and the undisputed heavyweight champion of the city-dwelling crime film is Martin Scorsese.
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Scorsese could bring Franklin Clinton or Niko Bellic or Tommy Vercetti to life with as much detail and pathos asTaxi Driver’s Travis BickleorMean Streets’ Charlie orGoodfellas’ Henry Hill (who, like Tommy, wasplayed by Ray Liotta).
3Shouldn’t: Todd Phillips
Thanks toJoker’s mostly undeserved praise, Todd Phillips is currently one of the most talked-about directors in Hollywood. If aGTAmovie was in development at a big studio, then the guy who made an R-rated brand-name crime film for $55 million that went on to gross over $1 billion might come up.
But ifWar DogsandJokerare anything to go by, all Phillips would do with aGTAmovie is a pale imitation of what Scorsese would do. He’d copy Scorsese’s style, but leave out the substance.
2Should: Michael Mann
In the mid-‘90s, Michael Mann already made the quintessentialGrand Theft Automovie, exceptGrand Theft Autodidn’t exist yet and he called itHeat. The intensity of the action inHeat– particularly the shootout following the bank heist – comes close to capturing the adrenaline rush of physically engaging in firefights inGTA.
Ultimately, eachGTAgame is a study of crime in the American city.Heatis the definitive example of this in cinema. It heavily influenced Christopher Nolan’s depiction of Gotham inThe Dark Knight.
1Shouldn’t: Michael Bay
The bombastic, explosive, go-big-or-go-home filmmaking style of Michael Bay (creatively dubbed “Bayhem”) might be able to adequately recreate the carnage of a Sunday drive in theGrand Theft Autouniverse, but the action is just part of what makesGTAgreat.
The storytelling and character work in theGTAgames is genuinely nuanced. Bay would lose this aspect – subtlety is hardly his strong suit.
