Take-Two Interactive Licenses Games for Movie Adaptations

Take-Two Interactive has licensed some of its video game IPs to be adapted into films, according to an MCV article. Take-Two Interactive is the parent company whose subsidiaries include 2K Games, the company behind the popular Borderlands and BioShock franchises, and Rockstar Games, the developer of the critically acclaimed Grand Theft Auto series and Red Dead Redemption, which has sequel coming later this year.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has reportedly acknowledged the historically “spotty” transition from video games to film, which is why Take-Two will not be using any of its own money to fund the adaptations. For example, last year’s Warcraft and Assassin’s Creed were both panned by critics. Instead, Take-Two will license off the rights to make the adaptations to other companies while retaining creative control over the final products.

It has not been announced which games or series have been licensed to be adapted. A Borderlands movie is already in development and has been since 2015. BioShock was once set to be adapted into a film, but the project was cancelled in 2013. Maybe this project will be revived in a new licensing deal? Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption and L.A. Noire are both very story-centric games, which may lend them well to film adaptations. Then there’s always Grand Theft Auto, one of the most popular video game franchises of all time. According to recent earnings call transcriptGrand Theft Auto V has sold 75 million units since its release in 2013. Regardless of how it would be received by critics, there’s probably big money to be made in a Grand Theft Auto film adaptation.

Dylan Siegler: Dylan Siegler has a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Redlands. He has copy edited novels and short stories and is the editor of nearly all marketing materials for RoKo Marketing. In addition to his professional work, Dylan is also working on several of his own projects. Some of these projects include a novel that satirizes the very nature of novel writing as an art and a short film that parodies buddy cop movies. His short story “Day 3658,” a look into a future ten years into a zombie apocalypse, is being published in September of 2017 in Microcosm Publishing’s compilation Bikes in Space IV: Biketopia. His political satire "The Devil's Advocates" is currently available for free (the link to this story can be found on his Facebook page).
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