Tony Scott almost helmed a film set in the Grand Theft Auto universe with Eminem in the lead. At least that’s what Hollywood agent Kirk Ewing claims in a new interview.
During an interview with the BBC Sounds podcast, Ewing and Chris Warburton broke down the history of the GTA franchise. During the interview, Ewing dives into a story where they was almost a Grand Theft Auto film around 2001.
Ewing recalls, “This was just after 3 [released], and I think at that point it was still in [Sam Houser, co-founder, and president of Rockstar Games]’ mind that it might be something that they wanted to do.”
Ewing revealed that he had received calls from a producer in Los Angeles to make a film based on Grand Theft Auto, with Eminem starring in a movie directed by Top Gun’s Tony Scott. Ewing claims the film would’ve seen Rockstar Games receive around $5 million for the project. Sadly, it never got out of the early development phase.
Ewing said the Rockstar Games’ Houser shut down the idea: “At that point, they withdrew from any conversation about making a film when they realized the media franchise they had was bigger than any movie that was going on at the time.”
No matter how you feel, Sam Houser’s vision for GTA worked out well. After the third entry, we’d see the franchise enter its golden era with entries like Vice City, San Andreas, and the insanely popular GTA V.
We are still waiting on the launch of Grand Theft Auto 6, as the game is in early development, and we just saw a massive amount of leaks not too long ago. Whether the franchise will eventually make the jump to the big screen remains to be seen…
