The BBC has confirmed it has cast Daniel Radcliffe and Bill Paxton for its upcoming GTA drama.
Confirming earlier rumours, the BBC has officially announced casting and plot details for its upcoming 90-minute drama special on the GTA game series.
Harry Potter, aka Daniel Radcliffe, will star as Rockstar Games co-creator Sam Houser. Bill Paxton, famous for his roles in Titanic and Apollo 13, will play the role of lawyer Jack Thompson.
Thompson was notorious for being a lawyer with a strong anti-gaming activist lean. The drama will detail Houser’s clashes with Thompson, who believed GTA showed unacceptable levels of videogame violence.
In fact, Thompson went as far as to say the GTA series was “molesting minors for money”.
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By 2003, Thompson was seeking $246 million in damages from GTA publisher Take Two Interactive, Sony for the PlayStation platform and Wal-Mart for selling the game after a 16-year old boy shot a friend to death.
The lad was a self-proclaimed GTA player and Thompson believed the game was to blame.
Thompson also represented the families in a civil law suit holding Take Two responsible after three police officers were killed by another self-professed GTA: Vice City gamer.
Thompson continued to target Rockstar for GTA and its other titles including Bully and Manhunt, as well as games from other publishers such as Mortal Kombat.
He was eventually permanently disbarred from the Florida bar for inappropriate conduct.
In the official synopsis for the BBC GTA Special, the broadcaster describes it as “arguably the best British coding success story since Bletchley Park.”
“Game Changer tells the story of an extraordinary chapter in the history of this iconic game, and reveals the major impact it has had on our cultural landscape.”
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
