21 Years Ago, Rockstar Games Made This Chaotic Cult Classic Movie — and Then Quit Hollywood Forever

Rockstar Games is famous for its monumental video games, like the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption series. Their passion for storytelling is unrivaled in the gaming industry. Despite the new wave of video game movies, Rockstar is reluctant to expand into filmmaking. After one messy attempt to produce a film in the early 2000s, Rockstar left the film industry for good, but the movie they left behind is worth checking out.

Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption fans will know Rockstar can’t resist recreating iconic film scenes in their story campaigns. Their games are jam-packed with homages to classic cinema, and movies often inspire the games themselves. Scarface and Miami Vice formed the basis for Vice City, while portions of Red Dead resemble scenes from films like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, and Django Unchained. Grand Theft Auto V even recreates the iconic desert shootout scene from No Country For Old Men, where the player can find a briefcase full of cash. Surprisingly, Rockstar’s original film, The Football Factory, had nothing to do with Hollywood movies; instead, it’s firmly rooted in British culture.

The Football Factory is a violent, chaotic love letter to British culture, and like many of Rockstar’s games, it’s as relevant today as it was when it was released. The film follows Tommy (Danny Dyer), a well-meaning Londoner who gets entangled in football hooliganism. While it may sound silly initially on the surface, hooliganism is a serious issue in some places in the U.K., as specific football fan groups operate as organized crime units. They coordinate with large groups of club supporters to incite violence after matches, plan attacks on rival teams, vandalize property, and start riots.

In a sense, the film could be seen as a British response Scorsese’s more grounded, slightly-comical take on the Mafia in Goodfellas and Casino. The Football Factory echoes the very same issues young men face today in the age of the internet. Like many online subcultures, hooliganism became a trap for emotionally vulnerable, isolated males who lacked direction. Fight Club is often praised for being ahead of its time in addressing the current societal issue around young, alienated men joining toxic online communities. But The Football Factory novel was released only a year later, tackling the same themes across the pond.

Rockstar’s quintessential dark comedy and masterful tone balance give the film an edge. Despite covering rather serious, dark material, the film is undeniably hilarious. Danny Dyer was a fantastic choice to play Tommy. Dyer was a people’s champion in 2000s British cinema. He embodied the traditional working-class Englishman, which gave him an ideal everyman quality that audiences could relate to. Dyer’s onscreen presence helps deliver the film’s message that anyone can fall into a gang, and get sucked into a life of crime. But like the rest of the cast, Dyer also balances comedy with tension, and his blunt narration serves the film’s overall aesthetic. The Football Factory does not skimp on the inevitable chaos that comes with diving headfirst into world of football hooliganism, making for an entertaining watch. Billy Bright also does an excellent job conveying that relentless, scathing British humor that made shows like The Inbetweeners so popular, possessing a unique ability to instantly shift from witty to menacing, echoing Joe Pesci in Goodfellas.

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Rockstar Hated the Process So Much They Quit Cinema

Ensemble cast of The Football Factory — Image via Rockstar Games

While The Football Factory is a British cult classic, it didn’t perform well at the box office when it was released. Critics found it rather tasteless, but its Rotten Tomatoes score tells you everything you need to know. With a 38% critic score and an 83% user score, the film has won over the British audience. However, Rockstar was so unhappy with the filmmaking process that they quit the industry and haven’t returned since.

Ex-Rockstar Co-CEO Dan Houser has previously cited the studio’s frustration when trying to produce films in the past. In an interview with The Ankler last year, he discussed how Rockstar was often pitched film adaptations that left them with little creative control in years past. “What you’ve described is you making a movie and us having no control, and taking a huge risk that we’re going to end up paying for with something that belongs to us,” he said. Ultimately, the studio always walked away.

Houser’s caution made sense at the time. Back then, video games still carried a stigma, often dismissed as juvenile or niche, and most adaptations were poorly received studio-driven misfires that failed to stay true to their source material. What’s more, most people underestimated the industry’s potential. “We had what we considered to be multi-billion-dollar IP,” Houser said. “In those days, the perception was that games made poor quality movies.” That perception has now changed as video games eventually surpassed the stigma of the early 2000s. Today, video games generate more revenue and are more profitable than the global film industry.

Will Movies Ever Be Back on the Table for Rockstar Games?

Cropped poster of Grand Theft Auto V - 2013 — Image via Rockstar Games

In the years since Football Factory, countless studios have approached Rockstar pitching adaptations. As Houser explained, “They thought we’d be blinded by the lights, and that just wasn’t the case,” per The Ankler. Rockstar Games is more successful than most major Hollywood studios. Grand Theft Auto V remains the highest-selling entertainment product of all time. That includes movies, music, and everything in between.

Their biggest titles, like GTA V, have generated more money than any single Star Wars or Avatar film, and they don’t get starstruck quite so easily. Today, Rockstar has enough sway to maintain complete creative control over any potential adaptations, so it’s possible they’ll re-enter the film scene at some point.

Rockstar thoroughly enjoys satirizing American culture. Their exaggerated parody of early 2000s America ironically foreshadowed what the U.S. has become today. But they had no trouble mocking their own culture before pointing the finger across the pond. The Football Factory may not have been Rockstars’ ideal debut movie, but it embodies all their best traits, from social commentary and tone to memorable characters and unique comedy.