Source: A US trademark filing reported on by SystemLink under the headline "Take-Two file 'Rockstar Films' trademark, might produce a GTA movie."
What we heard: SystemLink's report starts out by mentioning that Take-Two filed for the trademark on the phrase "Rockstar Films" for use in animated and live-action motion pictures and related media last December, which is true. What the report doesn't mention is that the publisher filed for a very similar Rockstar Films trademark in January of 2004. It also doesn't mention that both trademarks note they've already been used commercially. The two listings share October 19, 2010, as a first commercial use, and the earlier trademark also notes May 15, 2010, as a first commercial use of "Rockstar Films" in the area of "entertainment services in the nature of a live-action and/or animated television program series."
While the dates don't line up exactly, they do immediately precede major Rockstar releases. Last year, Red Dead Redemption launched in the US on May 18, while October 26 saw the launch of the Undead Nightmare add-on, as well as Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition.
Next, the SystemLink story brings up the existence of a New York-based Rockstar Films LLC, but quickly concedes it is apparently unrelated. Following that detour, the article points to a pair of Take-Two-owned URLs for RockstarFilms.com and RockstarFilms.net, but omits the fact that the sites were originally registered in March of 1999.
The final piece of evidence given in support of the speculative GTA movie comes from an April interview with Rockstar's Dan Houser about L.A. Noire, in which the studio's creative head said, "If we were to attempt to make a movie, we would like to make it ourselves, or at least work in collaboration with the best talent, so at least if it is bad, we can know we failed on our own terms." That could be seen as a tease of a Rockstar Films feature (though there's not even an implication of it being Grand Theft Auto), or it could be viewed as another phrasing of something Houser has been saying for years. As Houser told the Los Angeles Times in 2009, "If we ever decide to do a film, it will be because we have resolved our creative doubts, and while retaining enough control to ensure that if the movie is terrible, at least we will know we ruined the property ourselves."
The official word: Neither Rockstar nor the apparently unrelated Rockstar Films, LLC had returned GameSpot's request for comment as of press time.
Bogus or not bogus: Not bogus that Take-Two filed a trademark for "Rockstar Films." Bogus that this is some indication of an imminent jump into film for Rockstar and the Grand Theft Auto franchise.
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