While video games have become more cinematic over the years, we’ve yet to see someone’s gameplay make it onto the big screen. However, that’s set to change, as a company has picked up the rights to distribute a re-enactment of a Shakespearean play in GTA 5.
Mubi Picks Up the Rights to Show “Grand Theft Hamlet” in Cinemas
As spotted by Hollywood Reporter, the movie distributor Mubi has acquired the US rights and “exclusive global SVOD rights” to a title called Grand Theft Hamlet. The movie features two actors who were bored during the 2021 COVID lockdown and decided to take to the stage in the online mode of GTA 5. There, the pair attempt to act out all of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, while the usual multiplayer chaos plays out around them.
As the trailer shows, the movie is by no means a high-budget professional film. Performing a play in an online sandbox game goes as well as you may expect, with the audience consistently taking out their aggression on the actors, passers-by, and each other. Still, the pair have a blast trying to recreate Hamlet on the digital stage; you can hear an actor stifling their laughter as they deliver the line “Not a mouse stirring” while a police helicopter hovers overhead and sirens blare in the distance.
The following trailer contains instances of strong language. Viewer discretion is advised.
If you want to see the movie before everybody else, you can catch it next week at the BFI London Film Festival in the UK. Failing that, Mubi states that they’re eager to release it sometime in early 2025. And if you think you can make a better in-game movie than these two, check out these free tools for creating your own machinima.
