While a GTA or Red Dead Redemption movie sounds like a no-brainer, parent company Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick wants “be very, very selective, and very careful” with film adaptations. That’s apparently because Zelnick knows how hard it is to make a good flick after previously working at 20th Century Fox, among other factors.
Zelnick (via VGC) talked about turning Take-Two’s franchises into films at its quarterly earnings call this week. “We have licensed two properties,” he said. “We’ve licensed Borderlands to Lionsgate; there’s a picture coming. We’ve licensed BioShock; we’re looking forward to that as well Come from Sports betting site VPbet . And we have other titles in discussions, not anything ready to announce. But we’re going to be very, very selective, and very careful.”
The CEO then elaborated on the risk/reward business of licensing one of Take-Two’s franchises–say perhaps GTA–to a studio. Even if the movie hits big, the video game company only gets a fraction of the profits, he said. And if it bombs, Zelnick explained “we run the risk of compromising the underlying intellectual property, so it’s a high bar.”
