The GTA 6 trailer dropped and featured someone who looks almost identical to Florida Joker, who went viral for resembling Joker, the DC Comics Supervillain, in 2017. The individual now demands a payout of 2 Million US Dollars from Rockstar Games for using his likeness in the trailer.
The trailer for Rockstar’s upcoming open-world video game took the entire Internet by storm. The trailer has broken several records and gathered more views in less than a week than GTA 5‘s trailer ever did in a decade. The trailer revealed that the game will take place in Vice City, which is modeled after the city of Miami.
A press release by Rockstar Games’ Parent Company, Take-Two Interactive, revealed that the game will be set in the state of Leonida. Leonida is a fictional version of the State of Florida in the United States.
The trailer did a fantastic job ensuring that Florida and Miami are replicated to their finest details. Various real-life events previously captured by individuals in Florida made their way into the trailer. A man modeled upon Florida’s infamous Joker also appeared with face tattoos. The man also had dyed hair and was being tried in a court of law, similar to what happened with Florida Joker. This led to the individual reacting to the trailer and asking Rockstar for royalty payment for using his likeness.
The GTA 6 And Florida Joker Story
Lawrence Patrick Sullivan, aka Florida Joker, is a former tattoo model based in South Florida. Sullivan’s mugshot went viral on the Internet for resembling Jared Leto’s role as Joker in the DC Comics Movie Suicide Squad. All of this went down six years ago when Sullivan was arrested because of carrying a weapon and threatening vehicles using it.
When the trailer for GTA 6 was released and subsequently went viral, Sullivan posted several TikToks and posts on his Instagram account alleging that Rockstar stole his likeness and face tattoos. He said that:
You might have seen that character on GTA 6, just dropped the trailer today,You know, they got that character with the face tattoos, you know who they got that inspired by. By me! Just look me up…
In another Tiktok, Sullivan said, “We gotta talk, GTA.” In his latest video, Sullivan is visibly seen asking Rockstar Games for “a million or two.” Footage of Sullivan trying to get compensation for the alleged usage of his tattoos and likeness also received attention on social media. The iconic game studio has yet to answer the public calls to it.
While there is a provision in the law for people to gain monetary compensation for using their likeness, it is worth mentioning that Rockstar did not mirror Sullivan. While it is true that the resemblance is evident, it is more a parody than an unauthorized usage of likeness. This makes the possibility of Sullivan ever receiving any compensation, big or small, from the game studio highly unlikely.
As mentioned, Rockstar is yet to react and probably never will unless Florida Joker files an official complaint. However, the voice actor who played Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2 has expressed his views on the Sullivant, saying that Rockstar needs to talk to the latter.
Taking to his TikTok account, Roger Clark, known for his work as Arthur Morgan in RDR2, posted a video that has vanished due to probably deletion. The actor said:
No you don’t. You [Sullivan] don’t need to talk to them. They are not going to talk to you. They have had people like you trying to sue them for decades.
Speaking of Rockstar’s legal team, he said that:
They [Rockstar Games] are lawyered up, man. They know exactly what they can and cannot get away with. If I were you I would use the notoriety they just threw your way to my advantage!
The actor then switched his Arthur Morgan voice and snarked at Sullivan’s face tattoos. It is possible that Clark deleted the video not to start a spat with Sullivan. In its previous GTA title, Rockstar referenced urban legends like Bigfoot and the Illuminati. Not just Sullivan, Rockstar Games has previously used Mark Zuckerberg’s likeness as an in-game social media platform LifeInvader’s owner. There were no legal repercussions for the same and there won’t be any this time around too.
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