NEW YORK (AP) â Film productions often wrestle with shifts in the weather, the threat of the crew going into overtime or the fading of a dayâs light. Less common are concerns over the cast slipping off the top of a blimp.
But that was one of the quirks of making âGrand Theft Hamlet,â a about a pair of British actors, Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen, who, while idled by the pandemic, decided to stage âHamletâ within the violent virtual world of âGrand Theft Auto.â When Shakespeare wrote of the âslings and arrows of outrageous fortune,â he may not have imagined the threat of a python loose in a bar or Hamlet wrestling with whether âto beâ on a helipad. Yet âGrand Theft Autoâ might be an oddly appropriate venue for a play where nearly everyone dies.
âThe first time Sam did a bit of Shakespeare in that space, he said, âI imagine this is what it was like in Shakespeareâs time at the Globe when people would throw apples at you if you were rubbish,ââ says Pinny Grylls, who wrote and directed the film with Crane, her husband. âNo oneâs really watching you but theyâre occasionally looking around and listening to the poetry.â
which Mubi will release in theaters in January, opens with Crane and Oosterveenâs avatars, fleeing police and careening into an outdoor amphitheater. One says loud, âI wonder if you could stage something here?â
They arenât the only ones who have drifted into virtual spaces and wondered if it might be a rich landscape for a movie. In the which debuted Friday on Netflix, director Benjamin Ree plunges into âWorld of Warcraftâ to tell both the life and virtual life story of Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer who died from Duchenne muscular dystrophy at age 25.
streaming on Metrograph at Home, takes place almost entirely within the survivalist role playing game DayZ. The filmmakers went in with âPRESSâ badges across the chests of their avatars and seeking interviews with high-kill-count players. âDonât shoot!â one yells during one approach. âIâm a documentarist!â
All three documentaries enter video game realms with curiosity at what might be discovered within. For them, the surreal life inside these virtual spaces, and the possibilities there for real human connection, are just as worthy as anywhere else.
âFilmmakers want to make films about the world we live in. And more and more people are living in these virtual gaming spaces online,â says Grylls. âAs filmmakers weâre just putting a mirror to the world and saying, âLook whatâs happening here.ââ
As the gaming industry has emerged as the dominant entertainment medium (by some estimates it dwarfs film, television and music combined), the lines between movies and video games have increasingly blurred. Thatâs not just in big box-office but in the smaller films known as machinima (a combination of âmachineâ and âcinemaâ) that use gaming engines to make narratives of their own.
But âThe Remarkable Life of Ibelin,â âGrand Theft Hamletâ and âKnitâs Islandâ are first-of-their-kind feature forays in bridging the gap between virtual and cinema.
âThis is only the beginning,â says Grylls. âWeâre right at the foothills of it. Itâs nice to think weâre part of that evolution of cinema.â
When Ree first read about Steenâs story, he was tremendously moved. When Steen died in 2014, his parents, Robert and Trude, had the impression that their son had missed out on most of life. As Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a rare disease without a cure, progressed, Steenâs life was increasingly relegated to playing video games from a wheelchair in their basement.
But after Steenâs parents posted news of their sonâs death on his blog, they were stunned by the response. Messages poured in, eulogizing Steen, known to most as the strapping Ibelin Redmoore of âWorld of Warcraft.â Ree rewinds his film to start over, retelling Steenâs story using thousands of pages of archived texts to animate Ibelin/Steenâs vibrant life within the game. In the game, Steen, as Ibelin, experienced his first kiss.
Ree knew that to make a film about Steenâs life, he needed to illustrate it through âWorld of Warcraft.â Though he, himself, wasnât a player, Ree sought out gamers on who posted fan videos on YouTube. Rasmus Tukia, a 28-year-old, self-taught 3-D animator, led two other animators in rendering the game environment with the same models used for gameplay videos.
Reeâs goal wasnât to exactly mimic the game â that can come off as clunky or too herky-jerky. So for three years, without permission from the gameâs maker, Blizzard Entertainment, they animated Steenâs/Ibelinâs experiences in âWorld of Warcraft,â but with a slightly more cinematic touch. Along the way, they showed drafts to Steenâs online friends for feedback.
âWhen I showed them the film after working on it for three and a half years, the response after the screening was: âThis is exactly how we remember Ibelin,ââ Ree says. âThen they said, âBut youâve made one mistake. Ibelin liked women with more leathery clothes.ââ
Only after the film â a small, independent Norwegian production before Netflix acquired it â was nearing completion did Ree reach out to Blizzard. He traveled to their offices in California to screen it for executives.
âI was so nervous. I hadnât slept for days. We didnât have a plan B. I had to take some extra doses of asthma medication in order to breathe before the meeting,â Ree says. âWe showed them the film and right after we saw they were crying. The boss turned around and said, âThis film is fantastic. You will get the rights.ââ
Virtual reality also meant freedom. At one point, the âGrand Theft Hamletâ makers realized they could essentially perform Shakespeare âon a billion dollar budget.â Theirs is the first âHamletâ to feature the car from âBack to the Futureâ or a cargo plane.
Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
