GTA movie with Eminem couldn’t get greenlit

An industry insider has revealed that a Grand Theft Auto movie featuring Eminem was reportedly in the works, but Rockstar turned it down

New details have come to light on a proposed Grand Theft Auto movie that would have starred rapper Eminem, but series developer Rockstar decided they were better off without it.

The revelation comes courtesy of a BBC podcast called Bugzy Malone’s Grandest Game, where guest Kirk Ewing dropped the juicy details, TheGamer! reported.

According to Ewing, he once had close connections with Sam Houser, co-founder and president of Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar Games. Ewing reportedly tracked down Houser at a hotel and pitched the idea.

“Because of the relationship that I had with Rockstar and I had with Sam [Houser], I actually tracked him down to his hotel room one night … the two of us stayed up late and talked about the possibility of making a film,” Ewing said, “This was just after [GTA] 3. And I think at that point, you know, it was still in Sam’s mind that it might be something that he wanted to do.”

The Grand Theft Auto series has been running since 1997, spanning five main series games and dozens of spin-offs. Picture: Rockstar Games

After the conversation about the movie idea, Ewing reportedly set about trying to make it happen behind the scenes. He says he pulled every string he had in Hollywood trying to get the project off the ground, and eventually got all the pieces in place.

Ewing says that he’d eventually gotten a call from a Los Angeles producer who was ready to make an offer to Rockstar for the film rights. He goes on to say that the producer had secured Eminem to take a starring role in the film, with Top Gun director Tony Scott attached, for $5 million USD “on the nose”.

Unfortunately, when Ewing pitched the film to Rockstar, it was knocked back almost immediately. Sam Houser reportedly offered little more than a sharp “not interested”, and the movie that could have been was lost to time. Ewing suggested that Rockstar knew it didn’t need a movie to be successful, saying that the studio “realised that the media franchise that they had was bigger than any movie”.

Rapper Eminem was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, alongside Dolly Parton and Duran Duran. Photo: Theo Wargo/Getty Images

Rockstar recently suffered a cyber attack that saw the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6 leaked, with the hacker asking to make a deal to prevent the release of the information. Ultimately, around 90 videos of the in-development game as well as many stills and extraneous information was leaked to the public.

Rockstar responded to the massive Grand Theft Auto leak shortly after, stating that the cyber attack would not disrupt any live game services “nor [have] any effect on the development of [its] ongoing projects). The company said that it’s working hard on delivering an experience to players that exceeds expectations.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.