The Lord of the Rings and The Boys Star Karl Urban Throws His Hat in the Ring for Potential Red Dead Redemption Movie — and He Knows Exactly Who He Wants to Play

Hollywood actors support bringing up a imaginable Red Dead Redemption movie and saying they would emotion to beryllium successful it. After Jack Black revealed he’d emotion to prima successful a Red Dead Redemption movie, contempt the information helium doesn’t deliberation Rockstar would ever greenlight it, Karl Urban has thrown his chapeau into the ring.

Urban, prima of The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, The Boys, Dredd and truthful overmuch more, adjacent suggested the quality he’d emotion to play: John Marston.

In an interrogation with Square Mile, Urban was asked if determination were immoderate different video crippled adaptations he’d emotion to prima in, having played Johnny Cage successful the upcoming Mortal Kombat 2.

“Red Dead Redemption is 1 of my favourites,” helium replied. “Red Dead is simply a fantastic game. It’s absorbing due to the fact that I didn’t truly person excessively overmuch of an accidental to get that heavy invested successful the gaming culture. Although I perfectly bask the accidental to indulge successful that benignant of escapism, erstwhile gaming consoles came retired successful 1994, I was an unemployed histrion surviving successful Sydney. I couldn’t spend those consoles.

“By the clip I could, I was truthful engaged moving connected assorted projects astir the satellite that I was ne'er capable to get into it. From clip to time, erstwhile I did get the uncommon opportunity, Red Dead was surely 1 of the games that spoke to me.”

Then, Urban delivered the kicker: “I mean, travel on, John Marston! I’d emotion 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 erstwhile outlaw trying to flight his convulsive past and support his household portion being forced by national agents to hunt down his erstwhile Van der Linde pack members.

While Urban does look cleanable for the role, it seems improbable he’ll ever get the accidental to recognize this peculiar dream. Rockstar and genitor institution Take-Two person shown nary denotation of allowing Hollywood anyplace adjacent their prized properties, and that includes Grand Theft Auto. In 2024, Rockstar Games co-founder and erstwhile caput writer Dan Houser said a Grand Theft Auto movie "never made sense,” insisting it would person been a "huge risk" considering the estimation of the GTA brand.

"Why would we bash this?," Houser and the different Rockstar leads asked the movie executives. "What you've described is you making a movie and america having nary power and taking a immense risk, that we’re going to extremity up paying for with thing that belongs to us."

"They thought we’d beryllium blinded by the lights and that conscionable wasn't the case. We had what we considered to beryllium multi cardinal dollar IP, and the economics ne'er made sense. The hazard ne'er made sense. In those days, the cognition was that games made poor-quality movies."

Photo by Elisabetta A. Villa/Getty Images.

Wesley is Director, News astatine IGN. Find him connected Twitter astatine @wyp100. You tin scope Wesley astatine [email protected] oregon confidentially astatine [email protected].