Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says the company doesn’t rule out a GTA movie or TV show, but is “very, very selective” about making one. Thirty years and six mainline games in, Grand Theft Auto still has no official film or TV adaptation.
Zelnick was asked on The David Rubenstein Show, Bloomberg’s interview series, why there still hasn’t been a GTA adaptation. According to GamesRadar+, his answer was that any film or series would depend on the company’s own creative teams wanting to make it. Bloomberg says the interview was recorded on 19 October in New York.
He explained that the company is wary of “line extensions”, its term for other mediums. He said, “This is a creative company and our goal is to make the best entertainment on Earth.” He then set out the test:
We would make a movie or a television show based on our IP if our creative teams were passionate about it. If they thought that would somehow engage and delight our consumers. It’s a high bar to do that, and of course there’s always the risk of failure. So we don’t rule it out, but we’re very, very selective.
Strauss Zelnick, CEO, Take-Two Interactive
GamesRadar+ framed the comments as Take-Two being selective about who it works with, but Zelnick’s own words are about his teams’ passion and the project itself. He didn’t name a studio, director, or project, and Notebookcheck notes he didn’t reveal whether Take-Two is discussing any film or TV work internally.
A long record of caution
Zelnick has been cautious about this before. According to GameSpot, on an earlier earnings briefing he called film and TV adaptations “typically very challenged asset classes” and a “relatively small opportunity” to make money. He was blunter still. Zelnick said, “We’re not going to bet this company’s future or the value of our intellectual property based on someone else’s execution in another area of the entertainment business.” He also told investors Take-Two won’t use its balance sheet to invest in film and television projects. He said the company “could see licensing in the future when there’s a creative imperative and an economic opportunity.” He named HBO’s The Last of Us and Universal’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie as rare successes.
Take-Two licenses rights only, so it doesn’t control the result. Licensing is how its other franchises reach screens: a Borderlands movie with Lionsgate and a BioShock film with Netflix. Rockstar once had its own outfit, Rockstar Films, which made the live-action opening for GTA 2 and the short Red Dead Redemption: The Man from Blackwater.
The closest thing to a GTA film so far is one Rockstar says it had no part in. The Gamechangers, a BBC docudrama starring Daniel Radcliffe as Sam Houser, covered the studio’s legal fight with Jack Thompson. In May 2015, Rockstar sued the BBC for trademark infringement, saying it had no involvement, and the film aired on BBC Two on 15 September 2015.
Game adaptations are everywhere. In 2026 alone, Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat 2 and Street Fighter arrived, and 2027 looks set to bring The Legend of Zelda movie and A Minecraft Movie 2. In GamesRadar+’s view, GTA is a unique case, since Rockstar and Take-Two “would have more to lose than gain” if an adaptation fell short of the games. Zelnick has called GTA “probably the most valuable intellectual property in the entertainment business”, and GTA V has sold more than 230 million units.
For now, the focus is the game itself. GTA 6 launches on 19 November, and Rockstar’s extended look for the game was set to premiere on Netflix before launch.
