Latest news with #GrandTheftHamlet
Top Gear
20-05-2025
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Opinion: what's next for Grand Theft Auto online?
Opinion The growth of GTA online might have surprised its developers, but now its huge, where do they go from here? Skip 1 photos in the image carousel and continue reading It's easy to forget that Grand Theft Auto is a game ostensibly about cars. That the 'auto' in the title is short for 'automobile', rather than 'automatic weaponry'. Or perhaps 'autopsy backlog'. Or even 'auto-erotic hand gesture'. I've seen that one a few times after losing a round of Team Deathmatch in GTA Online . Back when the concept for the original Grand Theft Auto was percolating inside the massive brains of some 1990s video game developers, it had the extremely twee working title of Race'n'Chase , which suggested even greater emphasis on driving and less on unloading an entire magazine of ammunition on a group of mobsters. Advertisement - Page continues below Grand Theft Auto these days is basically unrecognisable when compared to its humble automotive origins, telling sprawling, complex crime stories in an utterly convincing simulation of a North American metropolis, where even the flip flops accurately flip and flop like they're supposed to. That was some animator's job for a week. This mutation only accelerated with the introduction of GTA Online , the enormously popular and thus lucrative multiplayer version of GTA V . Sure, Rockstar provided the broad structure of this online mode, but once players were let loose in the sandbox, it didn't take long before they were making their own fun. You might like I was reminded of this while watching a documentary film called Grand Theft Hamlet , in which bored, out of work actors stuck at home during the pandemic decide to stage a performance of Hamlet inside GTA Online . If you've ever played GTA Online you'll have immediately identified the problem with that scheme: that you're likely to be interrupted, at any time, by a surprise airstrike from someone with a username that can't be repeated on a respectable website like this one. I don't know much about Shakespeare, but I know Hamlet is supposed to die at the end, not halfway through from a hellfire missile attack. Still, the award winning film, shot entirely inside the game, is an uplifting way to spend an hour and a half. Grand Theft Hamlet did get me thinking about what the GTA 6 incarnation of Online might look like. There are zero concrete details, beyond assumptions the new Miami-inspired Vice City map will become a playable location in multiplayer. In the past couple of years, though, Rockstar has quietly invested in modding teams who have been instrumental in facilitating weird and wonderful new ways to play the game, such as 'roleplaying' servers where everyone plays a character rather than the usual enigmatic murderous psychopath. Advertisement - Page continues below It suggests that while developers at Rockstar might have been as surprised as we were by how GTA Online has grown out of its petri dish, this time they'll be ready. If you're already struggling with fitting trivial things like work, family and exercise in around the important business of playing GTA Online , it's about to get a whole lot tougher... Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox.
CBC
17-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
What if Hamlet was set in Grand Theft Auto?
Actor and director Sam Crane talks to Q's Tom Power about his new film, Grand Theft Hamlet Sam Crane is the director and star of Grand Theft Hamlet — a documentary that follows how he and a friend mounted a full production of Shakespeare's Hamlet inside the video game Grand Theft Auto Online. Crane joins Tom Power to talk about the project, what the process of making it looked like, and why Shakespeare translates so well to the ultra-violent world of Grand Theft Auto. WATCH | Official trailer for Grand Theft Hamlet:
NBC News
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
How three friends pulled off a production of 'Hamlet' inside Grand Theft Auto
At the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, two actors decided to alleviate their boredom and put on a production of 'Hamlet' entirely inside the online world of the Grand Theft Auto V video game. Four years later, their ambitious attempt is being broadcast to the world in a new documentary titled 'Grand Theft Hamlet,' which is being released on the streaming service Mubi on Friday. (It was released in select theaters in the U.K. and Ireland in December, and made the rounds at various film festivals last year.) The project, which began filming in 2021, was created by Pinny Grylls, Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen, three U.K.-based friends who said they were inspired by how alive the world of Grand Theft Auto felt at a time when everything in the world was more closed off due to the pandemic. The extremely popular GTA franchise — which launched in 1997 — is an action-adventure video game series that follows players driving around fictional cities to complete missions. Shakespeare's 'Hamlet,' which has been reimagined and adapted across mediums for hundreds of years, is a tragedy that follows the prince of Denmark, who is advised by the ghost of his father, the former king, to avenge his murder. The two cultural staples, coupled together, became what the project creators described as the perfect escapism during the global pandemic. (Rockstar Games, the company behind the game, did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the 'Hamlet' crossover.) Crane and Oosterveen are actors by trade, and Grylls (who is married to Crane) is a documentary filmmaker. With theater, 'because it's live, anything can happen,' said Crane, who starred in the 'Hamlet'/GTA crossover as the play's titular character. 'You can't have complete control over it. And you get that same sense in online games as well. That's what's the fun of it.' The group's play within a game — and subsequent documentary about the making of their production — joins a small list of other movies and shows that have been made inside of video games, including the popular Halo-based 'Red vs. Blue' from Rooster Teeth. Setting a production within a video game has been lauded by fans as an innovative way to merge mediums. 'Grand Theft Hamlet' was filmed and takes place entirely in the world of the nearly 12-year-old video game. To pull off the endeavor, Grylls, Crane and Oosterveen first set out to cast other gamers to occupy the world within a world, putting out a notice on GTA V's in-world social media. Next, they tried to find a location in the game where they would stage the show. As time went on, they tried to get national theaters to watch the performance but were met with little enthusiasm. Throughout it all, they encountered repeated setbacks like constantly fighting with other players. At one point, a crucial member of the cast dropped out, causing a brief rift between Crane and Oosterveen as they attempted to salvage the show. But through it all, the group discovered 'surprising truths about life, friendship and the enduring power of Shakespeare,' according to a post on the film ' s Instagram page promoting the project. When Grylls and Crane finally pulled together the 'Hamlet' performance within GTA V, they livestreamed it on Twitch and YouTube in July 2022. At the time it was streamed, the crew was excited to see dozens of viewers tune in. Fans online appeared charmed by the scrappy cast of characters who were hell-bent on finishing the Shakespearean work. Now, with their film's expanded distribution, the trio behind the project said they are eager for more people to know of their efforts. 'I would say that this film is also a statement about how important it is not to be perfectionist in a way,' Grylls said. 'We are obsessed with creating perfect films, perfect pieces of theater, perfect pieces of media and making ourselves look perfect as well. And it's rubbish.'
