Jack Black has given up on Rockstar making a Red Dead Redemption film. His backup plan: land a starring role in the next game.
The actor told Polygon he'd jump at the chance to play a historical figure in Red Dead Redemption 3, should the studio greenlight it. His target: a real-life early 20th-century criminal also named Jack Black, whose 1926 memoir "You Can't Win" chronicles his career as a professional burglar, safe-cracker, and hobo across the American West and Canada.
"Red Dead Redemption 2 takes place around the turn of the century, right?" Black said while promoting The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. "There was a character around that time named Jack Black, who wrote an autobiography called You Can't Win. I would kinda like to play Jack Black in Red Dead Redemption 3."
The memoir's tales of crime, addiction, and imprisonment would slot naturally into Rockstar's West-set universe, where such gritty stories form the backbone of its storytelling.
A Third Game Feels Inevitable
Black is banking on the sequel becoming reality. Multiple people tied to the franchise seem confident it will happen. In late 2023, Roger Clark, who played Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2, said fans would "certainly" see another installment "one day," though he couldn't predict when.
Clark doubled down on that conviction in a follow-up interview with IGN, noting the obvious math: Red Dead Redemption 2 has sold over 60 million copies. "It's not like I have any insider information whatsoever, but of course there's going to be another Red Dead," he said.
Rockstar Games co-founder and former lead writer Dan Houser had already signaled as much, stating the sequel "will probably happen." Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has called both Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead "prominent franchises" that the studio will continue to develop.
Clark did hedge one prediction: don't expect Arthur Morgan to return. "I highly doubt it," he said, adding that another Red Dead project might take "quite some time" to materialize.
As for Black's movie ambitions, he voiced frustration that Hollywood hasn't snapped up Rockstar's properties on screen. "It's a shame, because of all the video games out there, theirs are the most cinematic," he said.
That creative dead end left him pivoting toward the gaming realm instead, where at least the path to another adventure seems paved.
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