BBC to turn Grand Theft Auto development into TV drama

BBC 2 is going to make Game Changer, a TV drama that focuses on the genesis of the Grand Theft Auto series. Daniel Radcliffe to play Rockstar founder Sam Houser. Bill Paxton is attorney Jack Thompson.

With the announcement, the BBC confirms rumors that have been circulating for some time. The British public broadcaster is going to make a 90-minute TV drama for BBC 2 in which ‘the controversy surrounding the computer game Grand Theft Auto’ is central. The channel has chosen GTA because it is “probably the biggest English coding success since Bletchley Park”. It is unknown when the TV drama will be broadcast. For the time being, the program has the working title Game Changer.

The series presents a group of friends who have known each other from school and who together develop the concept of the game and make it a success. At the center is Sam Houser, one of the founders of publisher Rockstar Games and the creative brain behind the series. Houser is played by Daniel Radcliffe, the actor who portrayed Harry Potter. Another role is for Bill Paxton, best known for his part in Aliens. Paxton takes on the role of Jack Thompson, the American lawyer who, in the middle of the previous decade, tried with all his might to ban violent games in the US. Thompson went so far in his approach that he was disbarred in 2008 and no longer allowed to practice his profession.