You were probably bored during Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, but were you “film an entire documentary in Grand Theft Auto Online” bored? Grand Theft Hamlet is just that sort of project, and after winning the documentary feature jury award at SXSW this year, it’s going to get a theatrical and streaming release.
As reported in The Hollywood Reporter, independent and art house streaming service Mubi has acquired the rights to distribute Grand Theft Hamlet, a documentary that follows two actors who want to stage a production of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet in GTA Online‘s world. If the clip below is any indication, they run into some issues, as is expected for a game where provoking violence against others is part of the fun.
The film will release in the U.K. first at the BFI London Film Festival next week before coming to theaters in early 2025, although Mubi hasn’t revealed official details yet. An official Mubi post on X (formerly Twitter) called it “an innovative, immersive take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet.”
An innovative, immersive take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, shot entirely inside the world of Grand Theft Auto, Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane’s festival hit GRAND THEFT HAMLET is coming soon to US theaters + streaming globally. pic.twitter.com/6FMYCt5423
— MUBI (@mubi) October 10, 2024
Grand Theft Hamlet is a machinima akin to long-running Halo parody Red vs. Blue, where a creator films scenes entirely inside a game engine. While this is still practiced today — the most well-known, mainstream modern example is probably Skibidi Toilet, which is made in Source Filmmaker using a lot of Valve assets — it’s not as widespread as it was in the heyday of YouTube and the web series boom.
I doubt it’s going to usher in a new wave of successful machinima productions, but still, it’s rare that you see a movie like this hit theaters. In an industry full of video game adaptations, it might be worth it to see a game depicted as it is on the big screen. It’s unclear if it’ll hit theaters before the arrival of Grand Theft Auto 6, though.
