Award-winning documentary shot entirely in GTA Online is coming to US cinemas

An award-winning documentary shot entirely within Grand Theft Auto Online is set to get a US theatrical run next year.

Grand Theft Hamlet was shot during the COVID-19 lockdown and tells the story of two unemployed actors who decided to try staging a performance of Hamlet within GTA Online.

As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, art house distributor Mubi has now acquired the US cinema rights and the global streaming rights for the documentary.

The film premiered at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival earlier this year and won the jury award for Documentary Feature.

A Hollywood Reporter review also called the movie “innovative, highly amusing and often touching”.

The film is set to play in the UK as part of this month’s BFI London Film Festival, but all five screenings are sold out.

“It’s January 2021,” its official description reads. “The UK has just entered its third lockdown and all theatres remain closed. For actors Sam and Mark, the future looks bleak.

“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 mid-life 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? 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?”