In an interview with New York Magazine, Rockstar’s Dan Houser stated that he and some members of the team were working some very, very long weeks in order to finish Red Dead Redemption 2.

“We were working 100-hour weeks,” says Houser. Going on to elaborate on the incredible amount of work that goes into making a game like this by stating that they even made “70 versions” the game’s trailers and television commercials with the team’s editors probably working on “several hundred” versions of those spots. 

These comments caused some people to become quite concerned about what Rockstar expects of their employees. After all, we’ve heard quite a few stories in recent years about studios (and other businesses) that will force their employees to endure hundreds of extra hours of crunch time in order to complete a project. More often than not, these hours are either mandatory or at least strongly encouraged. There are even times when this extra work is not rewarded with additional pay, time off, or any other benefits. 

In response to those concerns, Houser issued a separate statement that clarifies that the hours of work he was talking about were limited to a small number of senior staff and were not demanded of from any other member of the team. 

“After working on the game for seven years, the senior writing team, which consists of four people, Mike Unsworth, Rupert Humphries, Lazlow [Jones] and myself, had, as we always do, three weeks of intense work when we wrapped everything up,” said Houser. “More importantly, we obviously don’t expect anyone else to work this way. Across the whole company, we have some senior people who work very hard purely because they’re passionate about a project, or their particular work, and we believe that passion shows in the games we release. But that additional effort is a choice, and we don’t ask or expect anyone to work anything like this.”

However, it should be noted that this is not the first time that Rockstar has been called over how many hours they require their employees to work. In 2010, spouses of members of the Rockstar San Diego team published an open letter in which they claimed that studio employees were being overworked at the same time that the studio was removing some of their benefits. They questioned how games like Grand Theft Auto could generate a billion dollars in revenue while the people who made the game were forced to endure such conditions. 

Have you ever wondered why modern Rockstar games feature significantly fewer big name celebrity voice actors? Well, it turns out that Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser and others within the company simply got tired of dealing with their egos.

In an interview with Vulture, Houser recalled a time that he and Burt Reynolds argued about the direction of a Grand Theft Auto: Vice City scene. The argument apparently became quite heated and resulted in Reynolds yelling “Get the limey out of here.”

“I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, poor bugger,” says Houser, “but we don’t bring in name actors anymore because of their egos and, most important of all, because we believe we get a better sense of immersion using talented actors whose voices you don’t recognise.”

Houser also referenced the trouble he had working with Public Enemy’s Chuck D during the development of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Houser says that he thinks “rappers really want to do the work right” which may have resulted in he and Chuck D having some creative disputes during the voice acting sessions. In any case, Houser says that such incidents led to Rockstar moving away from focusing on casting celebrity voice actors. Of course, they’ll still bring in outside talent (such as veteran actor Graham Greene who appears in RDR 2) if they think they’re right for the part.

“He [Greene] did such a brilliant job of bringing this chief character to life,” says Houser. “The government is coming down on him hard. He’s losing his rights as an independent king, and he’s a gentle soul in that violent world.”

We’d be lying if we told you that there isn’t something appealing about playing a star-studded Rockstar game like GTA: Vice City (which featured performers like Ray Liotta, Burt Reynolds, Dennis Hopper, and Gary Busey), but we certainly understand how that process can impact Rockstar’s ability to tell the kind of stories they want to tell in an effective and timely manner.

For decades submarine movies have always proved to be a steady source of big screen entertainment, from well-known classics such as Run Silent, Run Deep and Das Boot, to David Twohy’s underappreciated horror gem, Below. The nineties though was an especially strong time for action thrillers, it saw the launch of Michael Bay’s career and arguably the best of his work with The Rock and Armageddon, Michael Keaton terrified audiences with Pacific Heights and Desperate Measures, Tom Cruise set out on his first Mission: Impossible and there was plenty of classic Harrison Ford in The Fugitive, Air Force One and two Jack Ryan movies – the list goes on.

It was two of the nineties submarine flicks though, that really moulded the genre into the slick and exciting vehicle we associate with it today – The Hunt For Red October and Crimson Tide. Both of those films centred on moral conflicts taking place beneath the surface (in both a literal and figurative sense), with high stakes de rigueur and while Hunter Killer sets a course through the same waters, it never quite manages to hit the same depths.

That said, it’s a pretension free throwback that delivers exactly what you’d expect from the trailer: undemanding fun, intermittent action and a whole lot of shouting. Chief culprit in charge of voice raising (and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) is Gary Oldman, who’s clearly decided to channel his nineties oeuvres at random intervals, suffering outbursts when the scene doesn’t seem to warrant it, like a man possessed. The assumption is that the relatively inexperienced director (Donovan Marsh) didn’t have a chance in hell of restraining him, but it does provide a lot of entertainment – intentional or not – as Sir Gary barks at people to “stop pussying around!” Don’t be misled by his top poster billing though, as his appearance is more of an extended cameo.

As a leading man, Gerard Butler’s loyalty to making solid b-grade blockbusters is commendable. Cinema would be considerably less colourful without the likes of Olympus Has Fallen and Geostorm, with Hunter Killer adding yet another rogue hero to his roster – the beautifully named Joe Glass, a man who won’t shoot a deer when he sees its family in tow, who’s worked his way up through every job on a submarine but never made commander, is firm but fair and has a moral code that demands he does what he thinks is right, no matter the cost. Sound familiar?

Well, Joe Glass might be standard amalgamation of action movie character clichés, but Butler is great when it comes to delivering material like this, he can earnestly spout rallying speeches and do or die updates to his crew with such belief that you can’t help but be swept along on the ride with him and it’s just as well, in a role that requires zero punching – that’s right, he doesn’t punch a single living thing. It’s actually noticeable by its absence, especially when Glass’ XO (played by Carter MacIntyre) continues to challenge his increasingly questionable orders and seems destined to be on the receiving end of at least one knuckle sandwich.

Thankfully on the fighting front, Hunter Killer is covered by a black ops mission to rescue the Russian President on dry land, a scenario that affords the film many of its best scenes, while adding some much needed thrills and a quickening of pace while the sub based drama is unfolding below. The Special Forces team are led by Toby Stephens, having a ball playing a super macho southerner from Birmingham (the one in Alabama sadly, so no Brummie accent here), chewing scenery and spitting out bullets like a pro. His ragtag team are comprised of the young rookie (played with such wide eyes by Zane Holtz, that he seems certain to be the first to die), alongside the gruff and barely recognisable Michael Trucco and Ryan McPartlin (from the superb Chuck) who lends some warmth and much needed sympathy to the machismo – in fact, based on their collective work in Hunter Killer, I’d happily sign up to watch up spin-off with them all in, especially given the amount of cool ‘toys’ they have at their disposal.

As with so many films now, Killer does feel a little overlong, with a middle section that could have done with some trimming, but the pay-off comes from a finale which proves wholly satisfying as the tension gives way to torpedoes and gunfire, that result in fatalities and some quality submarine shaking. I’m fairly certain though that as explosions rock the heroic crew, Butler never falls down, which works as a nice parallel with how easily he keeps films like this upright, even when people doubt his ability.
Sadly it was one of the last films for actor Michael Nyqvist (star of the Millennium trilogy, John Wick and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol to name a few), as well as legendary action producer John Thompson (The Expendables trilogy and Butler’s own Has Fallen franchise) whose legacy is so expansive it deserves looking up to really appreciate how much he’s worked on.

Hunter Killer might be an over earnest and predictable action thriller, but sometimes that exactly what you want from a night out and it makes for a refreshing sight to see a film like this shot in full colour, rather than the usual washed out hues that disguise a lack of budget. For every clichéd line of dialogue there’s a snappy one to counter it, helped by the great cast delivering them and there’s a sense of investment and enthusiasm, especially from the director, that keep the film firmly on track as entertaining fun.

Hunter Killer is in UK cinemas from Friday.

For decades submarine movies have always proved to be a steady source of big screen entertainment, from well-known classics such as Run Silent, Run Deep and Das Boot, to David Twohy’s underappreciated horror gem, Below. The nineties though was an especially strong time for action thrillers, it saw the launch of Michael Bay’s career and arguably the best of his work with The Rock and Armageddon, Michael Keaton terrified audiences with Pacific Heights and Desperate Measures, Tom Cruise set out on his first Mission: Impossible and there was plenty of classic Harrison Ford in The Fugitive, Air Force One and two Jack Ryan movies – the list goes on.

It was two of the nineties submarine flicks though, that really moulded the genre into the slick and exciting vehicle we associate with it today – The Hunt For Red October and Crimson Tide. Both of those films centred on moral conflicts taking place beneath the surface (in both a literal and figurative sense), with high stakes de rigueur and while Hunter Killer sets a course through the same waters, it never quite manages to hit the same depths.

That said, it’s a pretension free throwback that delivers exactly what you’d expect from the trailer: undemanding fun, intermittent action and a whole lot of shouting. Chief culprit in charge of voice raising (and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) is Gary Oldman, who’s clearly decided to channel his nineties oeuvres at random intervals, suffering outbursts when the scene doesn’t seem to warrant it, like a man possessed. The assumption is that the relatively inexperienced director (Donovan Marsh) didn’t have a chance in hell of restraining him, but it does provide a lot of entertainment – intentional or not – as Sir Gary barks at people to “stop pussying around!” Don’t be misled by his top poster billing though, as his appearance is more of an extended cameo.

As a leading man, Gerard Butler’s loyalty to making solid b-grade blockbusters is commendable. Cinema would be considerably less colourful without the likes of Olympus Has Fallen and Geostorm, with Hunter Killer adding yet another rogue hero to his roster – the beautifully named Joe Glass, a man who won’t shoot a deer when he sees its family in tow, who’s worked his way up through every job on a submarine but never made commander, is firm but fair and has a moral code that demands he does what he thinks is right, no matter the cost. Sound familiar?

Well, Joe Glass might be standard amalgamation of action movie character clichés, but Butler is great when it comes to delivering material like this, he can earnestly spout rallying speeches and do or die updates to his crew with such belief that you can’t help but be swept along on the ride with him and it’s just as well, in a role that requires zero punching – that’s right, he doesn’t punch a single living thing. It’s actually noticeable by its absence, especially when Glass’ XO (played by Carter MacIntyre) continues to challenge his increasingly questionable orders and seems destined to be on the receiving end of at least one knuckle sandwich.

Thankfully on the fighting front, Hunter Killer is covered by a black ops mission to rescue the Russian President on dry land, a scenario that affords the film many of its best scenes, while adding some much needed thrills and a quickening of pace while the sub based drama is unfolding below. The Special Forces team are led by Toby Stephens, having a ball playing a super macho southerner from Birmingham (the one in Alabama sadly, so no Brummie accent here), chewing scenery and spitting out bullets like a pro. His ragtag team are comprised of the young rookie (played with such wide eyes by Zane Holtz, that he seems certain to be the first to die), alongside the gruff and barely recognisable Michael Trucco and Ryan McPartlin (from the superb Chuck) who lends some warmth and much needed sympathy to the machismo – in fact, based on their collective work in Hunter Killer, I’d happily sign up to watch up spin-off with them all in, especially given the amount of cool ‘toys’ they have at their disposal.

As with so many films now, Killer does feel a little overlong, with a middle section that could have done with some trimming, but the pay-off comes from a finale which proves wholly satisfying as the tension gives way to torpedoes and gunfire, that result in fatalities and some quality submarine shaking. I’m fairly certain though that as explosions rock the heroic crew, Butler never falls down, which works as a nice parallel with how easily he keeps films like this upright, even when people doubt his ability.
Sadly it was one of the last films for actor Michael Nyqvist (star of the Millennium trilogy, John Wick and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol to name a few), as well as legendary action producer John Thompson (The Expendables trilogy and Butler’s own Has Fallen franchise) whose legacy is so expansive it deserves looking up to really appreciate how much he’s worked on.

Hunter Killer might be an over earnest and predictable action thriller, but sometimes that exactly what you want from a night out and it makes for a refreshing sight to see a film like this shot in full colour, rather than the usual washed out hues that disguise a lack of budget. For every clichéd line of dialogue there’s a snappy one to counter it, helped by the great cast delivering them and there’s a sense of investment and enthusiasm, especially from the director, that keep the film firmly on track as entertaining fun.

Hunter Killer is in UK cinemas from Friday.