On Friday, January 17th, Grand Theft Hamlet will be released in U.S. theaters. The hook is simple: directors Sam Crane and Pinny Grylls have created a documentary about staging a production of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Grand Theft Auto Online. While the concept sounds somewhat absurd, fans of Grand Theft Auto should take it somewhat seriously; Grand Theft Hamlet currently holds a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with more than 40 critics having weighed in on the film so far. The film has also won multiple awards already, including the Jury Award for best documentary feature at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival.

Grand Theft Hamlet is a machinima production, similar to other high-profile projects like Skibidi Toilet and Red vs. Blue. The theatrical release for Grand Theft Hamlet is being handled by MUBI, and a trailer for the documentary can be found below.

Once Grand Theft Hamlet has been released in theaters, it will be interesting to see how audiences react. The challenge with a film like this is that it has two very different audiences to appeal to. On one hand, streams of GTA Online have done extremely well on Twitch, so it’s likely fans of the game will give it a chance. However, casual viewers might be hesitant about watching a documentary play out entirely within a video game. That’s going to be a tough sell for some theater goers. Apparently the audience does eventually get to see the cast, but not until the very end (presumably once the credits roll).

The concept of a documentary shot entirely in Grand Theft Auto Online came about as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the lockdowns, artists were looking for ways to continue to stretch their creative muscles, and we got to see a lot of creativity as a result. Video games in particular became an outlet for many different people. Around the same time Crane and Grylls were creating a documentary in GTA Online, Rogue One co-writer Gary Whitta developed a talk show created entirely within the Nintendo Switch game Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Similarly, various sports games were used to fill the void left by in-person events, with major athletes competing in iRacing competitions and Mario Tennis tournaments.

At the very least, Grand Theft Hamlet could be a fun distraction for GTA fans hungry for new content related to the franchise. 2025 is supposed to be the year that Grand Theft Auto 6 is released on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, though there has been speculation about whether the game will actually release during this calendar year. We’ve still got a long way to go to find out, so Grand Theft Hamlet could help to fill the void a little bit.

Are you planning to check out Grand Theft Hamlet? What do you think of the movie’s concept? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!