Grand Theft Hamlet's directors tell us what they learned from GTA players

Grand Theft Hamlet, after winning multiple awards and impressing both the gaming and Shakespearean communities, has landed on streamer MUBI. Ahead of its release, Gamereactor took part in a Discord press junket with co-directors Sam Crane and Pinny Grylls, where we got to ask what they were able to learn from other players.

"We learned so much from the other players," Grylls began. "In fact, that was the most amazing thing about entering, like we were, as you say, amateur game players, and we learned so much from [them]."

Grylls went on to speak about Nora, a player who was already a seasoned pro in Grand Theft Auto Online. "She taught us loads about role-playing, about how to play the game, little tricks," Grylls said. "But actually also her and others' fresh perspective on Hamlet and Shakespeare was just really interesting and educational for us."

Crane jumped in to point out that among the filmmakers there were seasoned gamers that helped them figure out what they could and couldn't do in GTA. "Mark [Oosterveen] himself had been like a long, he was someone who'd been playing games for years. And so was Jerry [O'Connor], he played the ghost. They both played GTA since day one. Because we needed to have lots of money, and they had accumulated money to buy all these vehicles so that we could stage Hamlet in on blimps and flying cars and yachts and things."

Grylls, who was primarily filming the project, explained she relied on everyone else's in-game funds for the majority of it, but Crane did manage to make some cash, even being able to afford some supercars and a yacht by the end of the filmmaking process.

Grand Theft Hamlet is available to stream on MUBI. Check out the trailer below: