The upcoming Grand Theft Auto continues to parody American phenomena and personalities. As with the previous games, the celebrities are trying to get compensation from the game studio Rockstar for characters that look like them.
The inspiration for the character seen in the GTA 6 game trailer must have been the “Florida Joker”, i.e. Lawrence Sullivan from Miami. He hopes the game studio will pay to use his appearance in the game. Rockstar Games / All Over Press / Adobe Stock
Rarely has a one and a half minute video ever received as much publicity as the first trailer for the Grand Theft Auto 6 game released last week.
The trailer, which has been awaited for years, has already been prepared in less than a week from practically every possible angle, down to the smallest detail. The trailer has become one of the fastest-viewing videos ever on YouTube.
The original trailer received almost 100 million views on YouTube in the first 24 hours. As of this writing, it has 140 million views and over 10 million likes.
The total number of views of the trailer distributed in social media as well as the number of views of other YouTube videos that covered the contents of the trailer can only be guessed.
The future of the Rockstar game studio, which is already rolling in money, looks quite good. Grand Theft Auto 6 is estimated to have a budget of over $1 billion, which would be one of the biggest ever in the history of the entertainment industry.
The previous part of the game series, Grand Theft Auto 5, has turned out to be a mega moneymaker, as the game made with a budget of around 250 million dollars has generated almost eight billion dollars.
“We have to talk”
Dubbed “Florida Joker”. Lawrence Sullivan has seen his chance after spotting a character that resembles himself in the trailer.
The person seen in the trailer is probably based on Sullivan, who became public with his arrest photos in 2017.
Many other events in the trailer are also based on real-life events and viral videos filmed from them, as can be seen in the Perfect Score channel video below.
Some have joked that since real life is already a GTA-like parody in itself, Rockstar doesn’t have to do anything more than bring real events into the game.
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In his video, Sullivan, who has tattoos almost all over his face, demands “one or two million dollars” from Rockstar for using his appearance.
– We need to talk, GTA. You guys have to give me a million or two, says Sullivan.
An inappropriate comment from the voice actor
So far, Rockstar has not responded to Sullivan’s demands – at least not publicly.
Instead, the voice actor who voiced the main character Arthur Morgan in Rockstar’s previous hit game Red Dead Redemption 2 Roger Clark has taken a stand on the case on Tiktok.
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The video posted by Clark, but since removed from Tiktok, is addressed directly to Sullivan.
– No, you really don’t have to talk. They’re not going to tell you anything, Clark shakes.
– People like you have tried to challenge them [Rockstaria] to court for decades. Their legal team is fine, they know exactly what they can do, he continues.
The reason for the removal of the video is unknown, but Clark’s inappropriate throw at the end may play a role.
– If I were you, I would try to use this publicity to my own advantage. Make use of it somehow. You can’t even get a job at Home Depot with that face, Clark scolds Sullivan, referring to the American hardware store chain.
Clark’s original video is called No disrespect, but for real, which is translated into Finnish not bad, but now for real.
Not the first entrepreneur
However, Clark is right that over the years Rockstar has been sued by one party or another without results.
Among other things, an actor Lindsay Lohan tried in 2014 to get compensation from the game studio for “using his appearance” in Grand Theft Auto 5, but was left empty-handed.
In the same year, an American TV personality Karen Gravano demanded $40 million from Rockstar for a GTA 5 character that parodied him – with just as bad results.