Topics: Gaming, Grand Theft Auto, Film and TV, Entertainment, History, Books
Fans have been hailing an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet shot entirely in Grand Theft Auto as a ‘crazy undertaking’.
Unparalleled creativity: that’s what we’ve seen from a smattering of surreal cinematic outputs this year.
Pharrell curated Piece by Piece to tidily chronicle his rise to fame and fortune through a PG lens and Lego bricks. Meanwhile, Robbie Williams optioned a CGI Planet of the Apes monkey to portray him in his biopic Better Man, and now I’m ecstatic to say we have Shakespearian soliloquies in GTA.
Check out the trailer below:
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While the aptly named Grand Theft Hamlet may not be getting an official US release until January 2025 via the ambitious visionaries at Mubi, it’s already won big.
After premiering at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, it took home the Jury Award for best documentary feature. It also picked up a couple of gongs at the British Independent Film Awards for good measure.
Grand Theft Hamlet charmingly documents Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen while they attempt to cast and produce a virtual production of The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark in GTA Online.
It’s understood the pair were initially willing away the hours of the UK’s third lockdown in the online world of Grand Theft Auto, supposedly stumbled across a theatre.
It’s not known whether this theatre was The Weazel Dorset - which features both in Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online - or one of the game’s movie theatres. But regardless, Sam and Mark were inspired.
“Suddenly [they] have an idea to stage a full production of Hamlet within the game,” reads an official synopsis.
“Why not stage Hamlet inside the game? Well, there are several reasons why not, chiefly that most people in the game are intent on murderous destruction, not polite appreciation of a theatrical production.
“But wasn’t theatre just as dangerous and rowdy a business in Shakespeare’s time, and isn’t Hamlet, a play about revenge the perfect choice for this place?”
To put a brand-new spin on Shakespeare’s longest and most puzzling play, which follows the form of a traditional ‘revenge tragedy’, the team utilised the in-game phone camera, curating intimate close-ups and cinematic pans across landscapes.
The 90-minute flick, produced by Grasp The Nettle and Project 1961, is set entirely inside the online world. It uses Los Santos as its glittering backdrop to tell the story of how Grand Theft Hamlet came to be.
And it’s fair to say that viewers are charmed. As we speak, the pioneering project has a solid 3.6-star rating on Letterboxd and a whopping 94 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Fans across social media have been going wild too, with one writing: “GTA Hamlet before GTA 6.”
Someone else penned: “As someone that makes short films using GTA V, this is a crazy undertaking and I can't wait to see how they ultimately pull it off.”
A third typed: “It will be hilarious this film will be get an Oscars 2026 Best Animated Feature nomination.”
Another remarked: “When your game is featured in a high brow cinema circuit, you know you've reached pop culture legendary status.”
If you like what you see and you’re into the sound of Grand Theft Hamlet, then be sure to check it out when it premieres in US cinemas on January 17, 2025.
