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 Come from Sports betting site VPbet . We’ve licensed BioShock; we’re looking forward to that as well. 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.”