Ever since Rockstar Games launched the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) trailer earlier this month, the community cannot get enough of the latest trailer. Among the several elements that caught the attention of fans was the infamous Florida Joker.
The community spotted a lot of content in the trailer including multiple easter eggs and elements relating to real-life scenarios. One of the most striking scenes from the trailer was that of the Florida Joker. After several users including the actual Florida Joker himself noticed the similarities in the trailer, Lawrence Sullivan aka the Florida Joker released a video addressing his resemblance in the video.
Earlier, he appealed to Rockstar Games that “they need to talk” and demanded $1 million from the devs for using his reference in the video that has broken several records.
Florida man paints his hair purple to match GTA 6 trailer
Although the mugshot of a man arrested by the Leonida Sheriff’s Office on TV in the GTA 6 trailer resembles the Florida Joker in multiple ways such as the orange suit, face tattoos and the same expression, one thing however, that differed was the color of the hair.
The GTA 6 trailer 1 includes a brief shot of news footage with the man with purple hair instead of green. The Florida Joker’s mugshots that went viral had his hair colored green. The design of some face tattoos was also different, however, they were easy to neglect.
But Sullivan didn’t choose to ignore it. After posting the video demanding $1 million in compensation a few weeks back, Sullivan has posted another video recently. However, in this one, he appears with purple-dyed hair to match the GTA 6 character more closely.
In the video, he says, “GTA, I’m giving you the biggest free marketing you got in the entire history of running this GTA game.” He added, “For that, I want an extra million dollars. Y’all taking forever to respond back to me. GTA we gotta talk.”
Sullivan has since upped the ante and is now threatening Rockstar Games with a lawsuit.
Lawrence Sullivan threatens Rockstar with a lawsuit
Lawrence Sullivan looks animated in the video as he further says, “You think I’m playin? You got three days… three days before my lawyers go crazy on this case. I got hard evidence.” “Florida Joker ain’t having that,” he added, “y’all took my likeness, y’all took my life.”
Sullivan’s claims in his videos seem to hold no water as it seems unlikely that he will manage to get much out of Rockstar Games. After his initial video, Roger Clark, the voice actor of Arthur Morgan, the protagonist of Red Dead Redemption 2 protagonist, Arthur Morgan had reacted to his video by giving him some valuable pieces of advice.
“They’re not going to talk to you. They’ve had people like you trying to sue them for decades. They 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 your advantage. Capitalize on it somehow. You ain’t getting a job at Home Depot with that face,” he had said.
And history has it that Rockstar is known to not entertain such claims. In 2013, actress Lindsay Lohan filed a lawsuit against Take-Two, the parent of Rockstar Games claiming that her reference was used without permission for a minor character and poster in GTA 5. Eventually, the suit was dismissed. It seems like Sullivan is likely to face the same fate.