Dog the Bounty Hunter Just Made a Huge Business Move

01/12/2022 12:13 am EST

Duane "Dog" Chapman is hoping to break into the video game sphere. The reality television star's team signed a production deal with Virtual Interactive Technologies Corp. to develop video games featuring Chapman. The Dog the Bounty Hunter star was last in the news when he joined the search for Brian Laundrie last fall.

Virtual Interactive Technologies announced a deal with a production company representing Chapman on Tuesday. The company will be allowed to use Chapman's name and likeness in new video games and the promotion of them. "Virtual Interactive Technologies will team with Mr. Chapman to bring exciting and engaging titles to the video gaming market in the coming months and years and will leverage his social media and other public relations resources to bring awareness to the games," the company's statement read. The company did not announce any specific titles to launch the partnership.

"After years of sharing my life on television, I'm thrilled to bring my many stories and experiences to the video gaming environment," Chapman said in a statement. "I'm delighted to be working with Virtual Interactive Technologies and their experienced team."

Chapman last made national headlines in October when he decided to get involved in the search for Brian Laundrie, who was a person of interest in the death of his fiancee, Gabby Petito. Laundrie's remains were discovered near Carlton Reserve in Florida, where officials spent weeks searching, on Oct. 20. Chapman and his team centered their search on a different park, leading to Chapman's daughter Lyssa Chapman to issue a series of tweets defending their operation. In his own statement, Chapman said he thought Laundrie would still be "alive" if his parents cooperated with police earlier. He hoped the discovery of the remains would give "some measure of closure to this case, if not to Gabby's family, who will likely now never know what truly happened." In late November, authorities said autopsy results showed Laundrie died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Chapman's other big project in 2021 didn't go so well. He filmed the new show Dog Unleashed, which was supposed to debut on a new streaming platform until it was canceled due to an alleged breach of contract, according to Unleashed Entertainment. Unleashed later accused him of using racist and homophobic slurs to refer to children who starred in another series with Chapman's daughter Bonnie Chapman. In a bizarre September interview with Entertainment Tonight, Chapman claimed got had a "pass" to use the N-word slur when he was in prison in the late 1970s. He also accused Bonnie of being "brainwashed" by a third party.

"As far as the idea that I'm being brainwashed, this is the dumbest thing my father has ever said," Bonnie said in response to her father's claims. "I didn't believe he would go this far to discredit me so much as to say I was brainwashed. I am concerned about him. He has begun to believe crazy conspiracy theories. The only credibility my dad has to speak about brainwashing is perhaps as a victim."

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