In what should be considered definitive proof we live in the objectively worst timeline, Rockstar actually rejected a pitch for a Grand Theft Auto movie starring none other than Marshall Mathers, Eminem himself. Worse, it was during the height of Slim Shady's powers, in 2001, fresh off the success of both the record-breaking Marshall Mathers LP and the Academy Award-winning film 8 Mile.
The news comes to us via an interview between the BBC and games industry veteran Kirk Ewing, a personal friend of the Houser brothers, Sam and Dan, the founders of Rockstar. According to Ewing, a Hollywood agent approached the brothers with a $5m offer for the rights to a movie, starring Eminem and directed by Tony Scott of Top Gun fame. Sam Houser reportedly responded to the offer with a simple "not interested".
Ewing elaborated, noting that "they realised that the media franchise that they had was bigger than any movie that was going on at the time." Ewing himself designed State of Emergency, published by Rockstar Games and released on PS2. Around the time the offer was made, GTA 3 was itself blowing up in a major way. These days, the Grand Theft Auto franchise is a sales juggernaut, with a sixth mainline entry in the series currently in development, which suffered an unfortunate and high-profile leak a little while back.
Could you think of a single human being better suited to star in a Grand Theft Auto movie in the early 2000s than Eminem? Do you think polite society would have literally imploded if such a thing had come to pass? Lose yourself in the moment, and don't ever let it go in the comments section below.
[source bbc.com]
Comments 27
Legendary sub header, well done.
And yes, I concur, this would have been epic.
This would have been a train wreck I would have loved to seen
@thefourfoldroot1 i cant see how a grand theft auto movie could possibly survive the potential backlash from todays moral gaurdians..the whole thing about gta for me was the characters and story lines and the risque dialogue. These days it would be so watered down and played safe to appease those who would deem it a corruptable influence on society. Eminem is a brilliant rapper but after his last few albums i think he has lost that spark that made him the force he once was..
@thefourfoldroot1 That's why they pay me the big bucks Appreciated!
@Khayl You’re my kinda guy with all these references. The type to like mum’s spag bol.
Probably would have been objectively terrible but anything Eminem has acted in is still highly watchable.
"Dear Rockstar, I wrote you but you still ain't calling"
They’d have got it so wrong back then. GTA didn’t have the identity it had only a few years later, and they were making awful video game films like Tomb Raider.
A bit later on, with a bit more awareness and maybe a younger Eminem though…
@Northern_munkey true, but this was over 20 years ago. The world wasn’t so screwed up back then.
Nothing against Grand Theft Auto (or Eminem though I haven't been interested in his work since atleast 2004) but urban crime movies are a dime a dozen and you can slap the GTA moniker on almost any of them. I can't see how an actual GTA movie would have been seen as any different other than being a video game adaptation.
This kind of thing rarely works tbf.
Ahhhh, really???? Eminem ... GTA .... maybe gettin worried but then you throw Tony Scott in the mix and I am like "Whyyyyy did they miss iiiiiit !!! " BTW, cool sub headline !
Imo you need good unknown actor’s like when The Wire series started. If they would make a GTA adaptation it must be very raw made story with crazy plots
I for one think the world really doesn't need a movie based on GTA...
"In what should be considered definitive proof we live in the objectively worst timeline, Rockstar actually rejected a pitch for a Grand Theft Auto movie starring none other than Marshall Mathers, Eminem himself. "
More like NOT the worst, cause that sounds cringe af
Even I would have rejected it for a mere 5m -.-'
Appreciate the remedial chaos theory reference, but in what way would the world be bothered by this favourable outcome?
As a huge gta fan.im happy.i dont want that.and now i know that.i still dont want it.haha.word up son
Thank god, Eminem is the worst
@Northern_munkey yeah that's why I'm sadly not as excited for GTA 6 as I once was years ago. Considering the new latin female protagonist you can tell its going to be filled with woke garbage that nobody in the world outside of a minority in US Twitter cares about.
Goes to show a lot of people here didn't see 8 mile!
Would've been great to see him in more movies.
@RawnDawn I agree. I don't really listen to his music, but I thought he did a great job in that movie.
Would have been a crappy movie no matter who played lead.
You guys should really adopt the "Random" tag NL uses.
@HeeHo We do use it: https://www.pushsquare.com/tags/random
We were not denied, but saved.
I would have seen it in theaters! Loved GTA4 on PS3.
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