Grand Theft Hamlet, a new documentary filmed entirely inside Grand Theft Auto 5, is coming soon to a screen near you. Directed by Sam Crane and Pinny Grylls, the film follows a duo of struggling actors as they attempt to stage a production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet during the middle of the COVID pandemic.
The film consists of nothing but in-game footage from Rockstar’s award-winning 2013 classic, and interestingly enough, it’s winning awards, too. Grand Theft Hamlet won this year’s documentary film competition at SXSW and has been praised by critics throughout its film festival run. The 89-minute genre-bending flick is set to arrive on the Mubi streaming service sometime in 2025. Mubi has also stated that the film will have a theatrical release.
An innovative, immersive take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, shot entirely inside the world of Grand Theft Auto, Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane’s festival hit GRAND THEFT HAMLET is coming soon to US theaters + streaming globally. pic.twitter.com/6FMYCt5423
— MUBI (@mubi) October 10, 2024
“It’s January 2021. The UK has just entered its 3rd lockdown and all theatres remain closed. For actors Sam and Mark, the future looks bleak,” reads the film’s official website. “As the pandemic drags on Mark who lives alone is increasingly socially isolated, while Sam is panicking about how he is going to support his family. They channel their midlife frustrations by immersing their avatars in the horrifically violent yet beautifully rendered virtual world of Grand Theft Auto Online. They steal cars and shoot strangers, but also find moments of calm reflection walking through meadows of wildflowers. In one gaming session they stumble across a theatre and have an idea. Why not stage Hamlet inside the game?”
“[Grand Theft Hamlet is] groundbreaking and necessary–especially at a time when more and more of our lives (even a cultural artefact as ancient as live theatre) move online,” the film’s creators shared in a statement on its website. “The documentary asks what is this space? How do we use it now and what else is possible inside it? Can we transport this ancient story inside a brand new one? And will it still make sense? The cinematic potential of Los Santos is immediately apparent, with its glittering, mind-blowingly detailed cityscape and surrounding countryside, the ray-traced rendering of light, ever-changing weather systems and intricate sound design.”
So how, exactly, does one film a feature-length documentary inside of a video game? GTA 5’s in-game cell phone, naturally.
“By using the in-game phone camera we were able to get intimate close ups and cinematic pans across landscapes–enabling a more cinematic visual language and moments of pathos, emotion, and lyricism to exist within the chaos and violence of this undiscovered country,” Crane and Gyllis explained.
Mubi has not announced a specific release date, though it has confirmed the film will arrive on the streaming platform and in theaters early next year. In the meantime, Grand Theft Hamlet’s U.K. film premiere is set for October 15, with another showing on October 20.
GTA 5 developer Rockstar Games has yet to comment on the documentary.
