Bay on GTA4
The popular online geeky column “Kotaku” reported today that Rockstar is in talks with Micheal Bay to direct the next Grand Theft Auto game. “I believe the line between film and game is beginning to blur.” Bay went on to say that he can easily see video games in movie theaters within the next half decade, “There are so many people who are content enough watching someone play a video game, why not bring that spirit of spectating to the theaters and home video?”. While theater-based video games are still to come, Bay draws comparisons between the two mediums. “Movies are lacking when compared to video games. Games are interactive and more engaging because you feel that you are there, part of the action.”
But according to Kotaku, this is something that has been done before and is only Hollywood’s attempt to break into the now booming video game industry. Jake Pulsner, Editor in Chief at Kotaku says, “There is a growing trend for filmmakers to turn well received video games into blockbusters, but it seems that more times than not they fall flat on their faces” naming Uwe Boll as a poster boy for games’ transitioning failure.”
Grand Theft Auto 4 is one of the best selling video games of all time, selling more copies in pre-orders than Halo 3 made the first 2 years of sales, previously the fastest selling game. The biggest surprise, however was when Bay announced that there will be a movie follow up of the video game he is slated to direct in late 2010. Bay concluded enigmatically by saying, “Let’s just say there be will a lot more action and a lot less worrying about what buttons to push on the controller.”
People have begun speculating at the type of film that would come from Bay who continues pushing the envelope of the Hollywood film with his most recent installment in the Transformers series, the wildly popular summer hit, starring Megan Fox. When asked if the new GTA film would be heavy on the CG Bay simply smiled saying, “We’ll see.”. Jean Reno is rumored to play the part of Niko Bellic’s cousin Roupert Bellic and will feature a fully functional motion capture controller using the PS3′s new camera. The game and film are both slatted for release in Winter 2011.
