Daniel Radcliffe might play Grand Theft Auto III co-creator for the BBC
Famous little boy Daniel Radcliffe is finally old enough to buy Grand Theft Auto—and has been for about eight years—and it looks like he might celebrate by starring in the BBC’s drama about the history of the prostitute murder-based video game series. That comes from The Hollywood Reporter, which says Radcliffe is in talks to star as Rockstar Games co-founder Sam Houser, one of the game developers who helped turn Grand Theft Auto into the extremely successful vehicular manslaughter simulator that it is today.
The project—which is apparently titled Grand Theft Auto, which isn’t confusing at all—will be directed by Misfits and Black Mirror veteran Owen Harris. Rather than tell the story of precisely how the games are made, which would be profoundly boring, the BBC will instead teach viewers about the war between Rockstar Games and an attorney from Florida named Jack Thompson. Though he’s far from a household name for normal people, Thompson is infamous in the nerd world for his constant attacks on video games—and GTA in particular—in the early 2000s. Thompson believed that video games (and rap music and Howard Stern) were destroying America’s youth by glorifying sex and violence, but any cogent points he might’ve made were nullified in 2008 when he was disbarred for, essentially, being an ass.
Interestingly, Radcliffe is also set to star in Victor Frankenstein, which is another story about a guy who creates a monster that kills people.