Clint Ourso spent years working on Saints Row when it competed directly with Grand Theft Auto for the open-world crime game crown. Now he's speaking openly about where he believes the massive franchise should head next after its fictional take on Miami, Florida, in Grand Theft Auto 6. The designer believes Rockstar is sitting on one of the biggest untapped opportunities in all of entertainment: a GTA film.
While GTA already dominates and influences everything from music trends to internet memes, the series has stayed exclusively in video games (sort of - a poorly received documentary-style film was made about the creation of the franchise, and an in-universe short was released before GTA 2 for marketing purposes, but this is non-canon) . Ourso thinks this is both a strength and a missed opportunity.
In an interview with GamesHub Ourso shared that, during his time at THQ (the company behind Saints Row) executives with Hollywood connections explored turning their game into a film. Those discussions never materialized into an actual project, but the experience taught Ourso that video game movies aren't as impossible as many believe. Plus, you know, there have been plenty of video game movies made, to varying degrees of success.
Ourso is a big supported of seeing Rockstar flex its creative muscles in a GTA feature film. The series already pulls from cinema for inspiration. The aforementioned Vice City, initially the setting of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, channeled Miami Vice and Scarface. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas drew from West Coast crime films of the 1990s.
Every entry feels like it could be a movie already, with cinematic camera work, memorable characters, and stories that mirror crime dramas. Advanced tech allows this to shine through even more in the HD Era titles. Ourso believes Rockstar could make the jump to film successfully if they wanted to, but only if they maintained complete creative control.
Then again, that particular hurdle explains why we haven't seen a GTA movie despite decades of speculation. Rockstar has kept the brand pure, avoiding dilution through questionable spinoffs or adaptations despite calls for crossovers with equally revered franchises, like the Breaking Bad universe, for example. Movies aren't the only frontier Ourso sees for the franchise.
Elsewhere in the interview, the creative shares his vision for GTA possibly leaving American shores, the base game itself having more multiplayer features, and his support for a higher price point for GTA 6.
Whether Rockstar will pursue any of these directions remains to be seen. After all, they've proven time and time again that they beat to their own drums. However, coming from someone who helped shape one of GTA's biggest competitors, these insights feel less like wishful thinking and more like a roadmap the industry giant could realistically follow.
In the meantime, those who want to see a GTA movie can check out Grand Theft Hamlet, which is a recreation of the Shakespearean play in Grand Theft Auto Online.
