Karl Urban Reveals Who He Wants to Play in a Red Dead Redemption Movie, if Rockstar Were to Make It
Hollywood actors maintain mentioning a potential Red Dead Redemption film and saying they’d love to be in it. After Jack Black revealed he’d love to star in a Red Dead Redemption movie, despite the fact he doesn’t think Rockstar would ever greenlight itKarl Urban has thrown his hat into the ring.
Urban, star of The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, The Boys, Dredd and a lot extra, even recommended the character he’d love to play: John Marston.
In an interview with Square MileUrban was requested if there have been some other online game diversifications he’d love to star in, having performed Johnny Cage in the upcoming Mortal Kombat 2.
“Red Dead Redemption is one of my favorites,” he replied. “Red Dead is a fantastic game. It’s interesting because I didn’t really have too much of an opportunity to get that heavily invested in the gaming culture. Although I absolutely enjoy the opportunity to indulge in that kind of escapism, when gaming consoles came out in 1994, I was an unemployed actor living in Sydney. I couldn’t afford those consoles.
“By the time I might, I used to be so busy engaged on numerous tasks world wide that I used to be by no means ready to get into it. From time to time, once I did get the uncommon alternative, Red Dead was definitely one of many video games that spoke to me.”
Then, Urban delivered the kicker: “I imply, come on, John Marston! I’d love to play that character.”
John Marston, for the uninitiated, is the protagonist of 2010’s Red Dead Redemption, and a secondary protagonist of its sequel, 2018’s Red Dead Redemption 2. He’s a former outlaw trying to escape his violent past and protect his family while being forced by federal agents to hunt down his former Van der Linde gang members.
While Urban does seem perfect for the role, it seems unlikely he’ll ever get the chance to realize this particular dream. Rockstar and parent company Take-Two have shown no indication of allowing Hollywood anywhere near their prized properties, and that includes Grand Theft Auto. In 2024, Rockstar Games co-founder and former head writer Dan Houser said a Grand Theft Auto film “by no means made sense,” insisting it would have been a “large threat” considering the reputation of the GTA brand.
“Why would we do that?,” Houser and the other Rockstar leads asked the film executives. “What you’ve got described is you making a film and us having no management and taking a large threat, that we’re going to find yourself paying for with one thing that belongs to us.”
“They thought we would be blinded by the lights and that simply wasn’t the case. We had what we thought of to be multi billion greenback IP, and the economics by no means made sense. The threat by no means made sense. In these days, the notion was that video games made poor-quality films.”
Photo by Elisabetta A. Villa/Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
