ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Florida "Joker" is again making the rounds, but this time it's because he's accusing a video game franchise of using his likeness without his permission.
In a TikTok post, Lawrence Sullivan shared his reaction to the trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV saying that a character shown in the teaser is an exact resemblance of himself.
"That's me, [and] that's the person they got the inspiration from," Sullivan said as he was pointing to two pictures, one of himself and one of a character in the game. Sullivan also said in his TikTok post that people have been telling him that it is not him, but he disagrees.
"We got to talk GTA," he said. "Or [if] not, you got to give me like a mil or two."
The Florida "Joker" wasn't the only person who watched the trailer from the long-awaited and latest installment of the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise.
According to GameRant, the Grand Theft Auto IV trailer broke the record for the most-viewed video game reveal on YouTube within 24 hours, gaining more than 90 million views.
Those who watched the trailer and are from the Sunshine State may have noticed familiar areas in the game, which takes place in South Florida. For example, the Kaseya Center – which is where the Miami Heat play – can be seen in one of the shots in the trailer. Plus, plenty of buzz on social media noticed different references made to events that happened across Florida.
Rockstar Games, the company that created the GTA video game franchise, has not yet responded to the allegations made by Sullivan.
"Holler at me GTA," Sullivan said. "Florida Joker ain't having that. Y'all took my likeness. Y'all took my life"
Sullivan, who is from Gulfport, Florida, was arrested back in 2018 in Pinellas County on a warrant for carrying a concealed weapon out of Miami-Dade County, according to jail records.
Sullivan, as one look at his mugshot will explain, has been nicknamed the "Joker" because of his facial tattoos, resembling Batman's nemesis as seen in the movie "The Dark Knight."
Like his comic book counterpart, Sullivan has been arrested several times, according to jail records. He was arrested twice in 2017, once for marijuana possession and once for allegedly pointing a gun at passing cars.
Then, he told the Miami Herald he was treated like a celebrity behind bars.
“I was on the psych floor cause I take medications,” he said after bonding out.
Sullivan is not the first well-known person who is suing Rockstar Games for using their likeness.
According to Business Insider, actress Lindsay Lohan sued the gaming company in 2014, accusing them that the main character named Lacey Jones of Grand Theft Auto V sounded, looked and even dressed like her.
However, the New York Supreme Court reportedly dismissed her suit two years later, saying that Rockstar Games never referred to Lohan by her name or used it in the game and did not use Lohan as an actor or a photograph of her in the game.
"Further, Lohan's claim that her image was used in advertising materials for the video game should also be dismissed," the court said at the time, Business Insider reports. "The images are not of Lohan herself, but merely the avatar in the game that Lohan claims is a depiction of her."
Fans of the game were able to learn a few things from the Grand Theft Auto VI 90-second teaser — including that the next installment would be set in the Miami-inspired Vice City and star a female protagonist, a first for the franchise, named Lucia. The end of the video also confirmed that the game won't be released until 2025.
The first Grand Theft Auto hit store shelves back in 1997. Its soaring popularity led to multiple sequels over the years — with much anticipation (and sometimes long waits) between each installment. Grand Theft Auto VI will arrive more than a decade after Grand Theft Auto V's 2013 release.
The sixth installment will be available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S systems, Rockstar Games said.
The Associated Press and previous coverage from 10 Tampa Bay contributed to this report.
