BBC About To Be Sued By Rockstar’s Parent Company
A few months ago, the BBC announced they were producing a new TV movie called Game Changer, a “dramatic recreation” of the events concerning the creation of the Grand Theft Auto series. The movie would star Daniel Radcliffe as Rockstar’s co-founder Sam Hauser and Bill Paxton as the story’s cackling villain, now-ex-lawyer Jack Thompson. All this is still planned, but it won’t be for long if Rockstar Games can do anything about it.
Y’see, they kinda never asked permission from Rockstar to be making this kind of movie, and the video game company would rather they didn’t, as they suspect it’s going to be less than accurate and has the potential to harm their brand. Some members of the original team have pointed out an accurate rendition of GTA’s creation would be beyond boring to watch. It’s not like Jack crashed through their office walls like a giant ape and kidnapped Sam.
Rockstar’s parent company, Take-Two, thinks they have BBC’s number in the fact that they’re using the GTA and Rockstar names without permission — a sue-able offense. “While holders of the trademarks are referenced in the film title and its promotion, Rockstar Games has had no involvement with this project,” Take-Two said. “Our goal is to ensure that our trademarks are not misused in the BBC’s pursuit of an unofficial depiction of purported events related to Rockstar Games. We have attempted multiple times to resolve this matter with the BBC without any meaningful resolution. It is our obligation to protect our intellectual property and unfortunately in this case litigation was necessary.”
The BBC provided no statement in response.
Game Changer was originally called Grand Theft Auto, but altered because of possibilities like this. The BBC will still move forward with production unless legally ordered not to.
