Grand Theft Gets A New Voice

Gamers are stunned that actor Michael Hollick reportedly will not be returning to do the voice of Grand Theft Auto IV character Niko Bellic for the DLC expansion, The Lost and Damned.

Asked to confirm whether Hollick is onboard, an exec at gamemaker Rockstar stated unequivocally: "Hell no."

The root of the dismissal appears to be a New York Times article back in May in which he wanted more than the $100,000 he earned for voice and motion-control acting in the latest game. Seemed reasonable to him since the IV made over $600 million in two weeks.

"It's tough, when you see Grand Theft Auto IV out there as the biggest thing going right now, when they're making hundreds of millions of dollars, and we don't see any of it," he told the paper. "I don't blame Rockstar. I blame our union for not having the agreements in place to protect the creative people who drive the sales of these games."

The union in question is the Screen Actors Guild, which has been threatening to go on strike to help secure just such pay raises.

We do not yet know who has been cast Bellic. We just know that Hollick, who has also appeared on a number of Law & Order episodes, ain't it.