First Look at ‘Grand Theft Hamlet’ Shakespeare’s Classic Reimagined in GTA 5 That Managed to Score 94% on Rotten Tomatoes

“Grand Theft Hamlet” is a 2024 British documentary about making a live virtual version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the video game Grand Theft Auto Online during the UK’s COVID-19 lockdown in 2021.

The film follows Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen as they try to cast and produce the play while stuck at home. The entire documentary is filmed inside the video game, with the people appearing as their avatars.

The film premiered at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival, where it won the Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature. It was released in UK theaters on December 6, 2024, by Tull Stories, and currently has an incredible 94% approval rate on Rotten Tomatoes.

Now ahead of the movie’s release on MUBI, you can check out the first look below:

Crane described GTA Online as “very free and alive” during a screening of the film at the London Film Festival. Co-director Pinny Grylls, who is married to Crane, shared that it was this “liveliness” that drew them to the project. Grylls, who had never played video games before, was impressed by how cinematic GTA Online felt, which led her to join the production.

The documentary is filmed entirely within the game using footage Grylls recorded while producing the play, with even the talking heads shown as game avatars. “When we all felt locked in, being able to go into the landscape and explore was amazing,” Grylls said, noting how exploration was key to their success.

‘Grand Theft Hamlet’ streams exclusively and globally on MUBI on February 21, 2025.

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