Daniel Radcliffe’s place among the Grand Theft Auto drama – set to be entitled Game Changer – has been confirmed, BBC Films announced today. As we reported last week, the Horns star will join the project as Sam Houser, one half of prestigious developer Rockstar Games and the man who become embroiled in a legal battle with Jack Thompson over the issue of video game violence.
BBC Films has tapped Bill Paxton to portray the lawyer in the forthcoming feature, which will largely be based on David Kushner’s novel, Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto.
Since its inception in 1997, Rockstar’s GTA has been no stranger to controversy, with may pointing fingers for the alleged glorification of violence. It’s a matter that Thompson took umbrage with in the early years of the 21st century, calling for the game to be removed from shelves indefinitely. Over the course of his campaign, the shrewd lawyer gained a lot of traction, and it’ll be fascinating to see Paxton’s version of the character go up against Radcliffe’s Sam Houser in the final product.
Filming is due to commence in South Africa before long and will be helmed by Owen Harris, whose previous credits include British cult drama Misfits. Stay tuned for more information pertaining to the director’s Grand Theft Auto-inspired court room drama as we learn more. For now, you can feast your eyes on the official synopsis, which bills Harris’ Game Changer as an “important chapter” in the franchise’s iconic history.
“Conceived for an adult audience, this special 90-minute drama tells the story of the controversy surrounding the computer game Grand Theft Auto – arguably the greatest British coding success story since Bletchley Park. Its triumph was down to a bunch of British gaming geniuses who had known each other since their school days, and at the heart of it all was GTA’s creative mastermind, Sam Houser. In autumn 2013 its latest iteration – GTA:V – earned $1bn in its first three days, becoming the fastest selling entertainment product in history.
“But the violent gameplay coupled with its outstanding commercial success leads to fierce opposition: from parents worried about children immersing themselves in such a violent world; from politicians, alarmed at the values they say it encourages; and above all from moral campaigners, who fight passionately to ban it. At the vanguard of this crusade is the formidable campaigning lawyer Jack Thompson, a man determined to do whatever he can to stop the relentless rise of Grand Theft Auto.