Kalhan Rosenblatt is a reporter covering youth and internet culture for NBC News, based in New York.
At the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, two actors decided to alleviate their boredom and put on a production of “Hamlet” entirely inside the online world of the Grand Theft Auto V video game. Four years later, their ambitious attempt is being broadcast to the world in a new documentary titled “Grand Theft Hamlet,” which is being released on the streaming service Mubi on Friday.
The project, which began filming in 2021, was created by Pinny Grylls, Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen, three U.K.-based friends who said they were inspired by how alive the world of Grand Theft Auto felt at a time when everything in the world was more closed off due to the pandemic. The extremely popular GTA franchise — which launched in 1997 — is an action-adventure video game series that follows players driving around fictional cities to complete missions. Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” which has been reimagined and adapted across mediums for hundreds of years, is a tragedy that follows the prince of Denmark, who is advised by the ghost of his father, the former king, to avenge his murder. The two cultural staples, coupled together, became what the project creators described as the perfect escapism during the global pandemic. Crane and Oosterveen are actors by trade, and Grylls is a documentary filmmaker. With theater, “because it’s live, anything can happen,” said Crane, who starred in the “Hamlet”/GTA crossover as the play’s titular character. “You can’t have complete control over it. And you get that same sense in online games as well. That’s what’s the fun of it.” The group’s play within a game — and subsequent documentary about the making of their production — joins a small list of other movies and shows that have been made inside of video games, including the popular Halo-based “Red vs. Blue” from Rooster Teeth. Setting a production within a video game has been lauded by fans as an innovative way to merge mediums. “Grand Theft Hamlet” was filmed and takes place entirely in the world of the nearly 12-year-old video game. To pull off the endeavor, Grylls, Crane and Oosterveen first set out to cast other gamers to occupy the world within a world, putting out a notice on GTA V’s in-world social media. Next, they tried to find a location in the game where they would stage the show. As time went on, they tried to get national theaters to watch the performance but were met with little enthusiasm. Throughout it all, they encountered repeated setbacks like constantly fighting with other players. At one point, a crucial member of the cast dropped out, causing a brief rift between Crane and Oosterveen as they attempted to salvage the show. But through it all, the group discovered “surprising truths about life, friendship and the enduring power of Shakespeare,” according to a post on the film’s Instagram page promoting the project. When Grylls and Crane finally pulled together the “Hamlet” performance within GTA V, they livestreamed it on Twitch and YouTube in July 2022. At the time it was streamed, the crew was excited to see dozens of viewers tune in. Fans online appeared charmed by the scrappy cast of characters who were hell-bent on finishing the Shakespearean work. Now, with their film’s expanded distribution, the trio behind the project said they are eager for more people to know of their efforts. “I would say that this film is also a statement about how important it is not to be perfectionist in a way,” Grylls said. “We are obsessed with creating perfect films, perfect pieces of theater, perfect pieces of media and making ourselves look perfect as well. And it’s rubbish.”
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