The Grand Theft Auto V rumor mill has a fresh batch of material to chew on. Casting calls for an unannounced project going by the name Rush have surfaced online, and the details point toward a modern crime game set in and around Los Angeles. Rockstar Games has not announced a new Grand Theft Auto, so treat all of this as rumor for now.
The trail started with a Twitter user who went digging over the weekend and turned up casting calls and actors discussing a mystery game called Rush. One actor reportedly identified it as a Rockstar project, and according to Kotaku’s look at the leaked casting the listings, posted through a talent agency network, are tied to Rockstar’s parent company and describe a game set in the Los Angeles area.
A Cast List That Reads Like Grand Theft Auto
The character list reads a lot like a Grand Theft Auto cast. There are two FBI agents, one a wisecracking veteran and the other a young Mexican American agent caught between mob bosses, plus a former FBI agent who now dispenses advice on television. Alongside them are a hillbilly named Clyde, a marijuana advocate, a Welsh monk who doubles as a cult leader and yoga teacher, a neurotic soccer mom on painkillers, a Hollywood publicist covering for an actress, an Armenian car dealer and moneylender, a Chinese mobster with a taste for raves, and a Beverly Hills party boy named Chad. Kotaku summed the lineup up as a mix of “miscreants, lowlifes and Hollywood stereotypes.”
That satirical spread of Southern California types is exactly what you would expect from a return to Los Santos, the series’ take on Los Angeles last seen in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. It also lines up with earlier rumors that the next game would head back to Los Santos and its Hollywood stand in, Vinewood. Game Informer also noted the California references scattered through the character descriptions.
Rockstar Has Other Projects That Could Fit
There are other possibilities, of course. Rockstar already has L.A. Noire, Team Bondi’s 1940s detective drama set in Los Angeles, on the way, and Rockstar North is working on Agent, a PS3 exclusive espionage game. Game Informer raised the question of whether the FBI characters could point to Agent instead, although the modern Los Angeles setting fits Grand Theft Auto far better than a Cold War spy story. Kotaku also pointed to a few unusual domain names recently credited to Rockstar, such as CashForDeadDreams.com and StopPayingYourMortgage.net, as further hints that something with a contemporary, satirical edge is in the works.
None of the casting material actually names Grand Theft Auto, and Rockstar has not commented. Game Informer said it had reached out to the publisher for a statement. Still, a big Los Angeles cast, a codename that keeps showing up, and a publisher whose biggest series has not had a new numbered entry since 2008 make for a pretty compelling case. We will keep an eye out for anything official.