How the New 'Grand Theft Auto' Goes Hollywood
Rockstar Games' eagerly anticipated new entry into the series racked up $800 million in first-day sales. Here's a look at familiar landmarks through the game's parallel-universe lens.
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Los Santos in Translation
"Grand Theft Auto V: Los Santos," released Sept. 17, is the latest in Rockstar Games' hugely popular franchise, which has previously sold more than 125 million units. Set in a parallel-world Los Angeles called Los Santos, the open-world narrative allows players to explore the city's sights as a contorted fun-house mirror. For a mix of satirical and copyright-related reasons, many names have been changed.
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Beachy Keen
Franklin, one of the primary player-controlled characters, lives in Vespucci Beach, based on Venice Beach.
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Sign Language
The Hollywood Sign becomes Vinewood. Below it, locals will spot the peak-towered, 13-story First National Bank building, built in 1928 by the same architecture firm that designed Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
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Bowl Model
The Hollywood Bowl is geographically transported much closer to downtown in the geography of Los Santos.
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Beverly Thrills
The famously pink-and-green Beverly Hills Hotel retains its iconic Mediterranean Revival architecture but not its name along the facade.
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Design for Living
This ornate apartment building is a close riff on L.A.'s venerable El Royale in Hancock Park -- right down to the shared oversized, illuminated rooftop signs. Its architect, William Douglas Lee, also designed the Chateau Marmont hotel.
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City To The Sea
Grand Theft Auto's noirish rendition of the Santa Monica Pier, in real-life at least a half-hour drive from downtown L.A., is practically a stroll away on the Los Santos map.
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Go East, Young Man
Grauman's Chinese Theatre along Hollywood Blvd. (recently under new management and officially known as the TCL Chinese Theatre) has been re-imagined with the decidedly less-than-sensitive stand-in moniker The Oriental.
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City of Dreams
In an interview on Sept. 17 with the U.K. Guardian, the game's co-designer Dan Houser mused about L.A.: "It's a fascinating city -- it's kind of obsessed with itself."
