IN 'IBELIN' AND 'GRAND THEFT HAMLET,' VIDEO GAME REALMS DRAW FILMMAKERS WITH VIRTUAL CAMERAS

Film productions often wrestle with shifts in the weather, the threat of the crew going into overtime or the fading of a day’s light. Less common are concerns over the cast slipping off the top of a blimp.

But that was one of the quirks of making “Grand Theft Hamlet,” a documentary about a pair of British actors, Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen, who, while idled by the pandemic, decided to stage “Hamlet” within the violent virtual world of “Grand Theft Auto.” When Shakespeare wrote of the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” he may not have imagined the threat of a python loose in a bar or Hamlet wrestling with whether “to be” on a helipad. Yet “Grand Theft Auto” might be an oddly appropriate venue for a play where nearly everyone dies.

“The first time Sam did a bit of Shakespeare in that space, he said, ‘I imagine this is what it was like in Shakespeare’s time at the Globe when people would throw apples at you if you were rubbish,’” says Pinny Grylls, who wrote and directed the film with Crane, her husband. “No one’s really watching you but they’re occasionally looking around and listening to the poetry.”

“Grand Theft Hamlet,” which Mubi will release in theaters in January, opens with Crane and Oosterveen’s avatars, fleeing police and careening into an outdoor amphitheater. One says loud, “I wonder if you could stage something here?”

They aren’t the only ones who have drifted into virtual spaces and wondered if it might be a rich landscape for a movie. In the “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,” which debuted on Netflix, director Benjamin Ree plunges into “World of Warcraft” to tell both the life and virtual life story of Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer who died from Duchenne muscular dystrophy at age 25.

“Knit’s Island,” streaming on Metrograph at Home, takes place almost entirely within the survivalist role playing game DayZ. The filmmakers went in with “PRESS” badges across the chests of their avatars and seeking interviews with high-killcount players. “Don’t shoot!” one yells during one approach. “I’m a documentarist!”