Rockstar Games Didn't Like the BBC's 'GTA' Movie One Bit

Yesterday, the BBC aired The Gamechangers, a 90-minute drama based on Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar Games' clash with the infamous anti-violent video game lawyer Jack Thompson leading up to the release of the hugely popular Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Daniel Radcliffe played Sam Houser, one of the two brothers who co-founded Rockstar, and Bill Paxton played Jack Thompson.

Rockstar, which didn't cooperate with the production and even filed a lawsuit against it, didn't like what the final product, and said as much through its verified Twitter account.

@BBC Was Basil Brush busy? What exactly is this random, made up bollocks?
— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) September 15, 2015

To spell out the burn here if you're not familiar with British kids' shows, Basil Brush is posh fox puppet who has a family-oriented show on BBC1.

Mike Dailly, who was a programmer at DMA Design, the company that later became Rockstar Games, also called the movie out for completely ignoring the development process, which, you know, is how games are made.

Oh look! They mentioned developers! Wow… not claiming to have coded it themselves! (yet) #TheGamechangers
— Mike Dailly™ (@mdf200) September 15, 2015

but talking about the devs as though they are grunts in a room somewhere…. #TheGamechangers
— Mike Dailly™ (@mdf200) September 15, 2015

We need a new game engine! So…we've made a new game engine… *sigh* #TheGamechangers
— Mike Dailly™ (@mdf200) September 15, 2015

As our friends at VICE point out, the movie also misrepresents some basic things about the battle between Thompson and Rockstar. The movie makes it seem like Thompson hadn't heard about Grand Theft Auto until Devin Moore, a fan of the game who killed three people in an Alabama Police Station in 2003. In reality, Thompson has gone after video game developers before, including Rockstar.

This may have something to do with the fact that Rockstar didn't cooperate with the production at all, while Thompson, who's been disbarred and faded into obscurity since this controversy, was more than happy to talk to the movie's writer, James Wood.

If you still want to hate-watch The Gamechangers, or maybe just check out Radcliff rocking a full beard, you can watch it online on BBC's iPlayer if you live in the UK.