Rockstar Games announced Thursday that it has officially filed a lawsuit against the BBC in an attempt to get it to scrap the planned biopic surrounding the creation of the company. The film is slated to star Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe in the lead role as Rockstar’s co-creator, Sam Houser.
The company released a statement to IGN that stated in no uncertain terms that they aren’t happy with the BBC going forward with this project over their objections. In part, the company said, “While holders of the trademarks referenced in the film title and its promotion, Rockstar Games has had no involvement with this project. Our goal is to ensure that our trademarks are not misused in the BBC’s pursuit of an unofficial depiction of purported events related to Rockstar Games. We have attempted multiple times to resolve this matter with the BBC without any meaningful resolution. It is our obligation to protect our intellectual property and unfortunately in this case litigation was necessary.”
For its part, the BBC isn’t commenting publicy because they don’t comment when it comes to pending legislation. The made for television project started shooting on April 20 and is slated for release later this year. While Grand Theft Auto is the company’s most famous project the firm has worked on a number of popular projects over the year. Most likely, the reason the BBC is focusing on GTA is because of the controversy that surrounded the game when it was first released. It’s unclear whether or not this lawsuit will be settled before the project is aired.
