BioShock movie on the way

By Ellie Gibson Published 9 May, 2008

Pirates OTC director taking charge.

Universal Studios has announced plans to bring hit Xbox 360 shooter BioShock to the big screen.

The film will be directed by Gore Verbinski, whose previous credits include the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy and The Ring. John Logan, who wrote Gladiator, The Aviator and Sweeney Todd, is in talks to produce the screenplay.

As reported by Variety, Verbinski is jolly excited about BioShock's unique setting and storyline. Apparently he's particularly inspired by the Big Daddies and the Little Sisters, plus the art deco stylings of Rapture.

"I think the whole utopia-gone-wrong story that's cleverly unveiled to players is just brimming with cinematic potential," he stated. "Of all the games I've played, this is one that I felt has a really strong narrative."

Verbinski has already been consulting with Ken Levine, the game's creative director, but it's not clear if he'll have an official role in the film's production.

Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick was responsible for negotiating the deal with Universal. "One of the things we decided early on is that we didn't want to go through a producer. It's terribly important to us to have a meaningful influence on how this project is produced. We didn't want any insulation between us," he commented.

According to Variety this is the biggest videogame-movie deal since 2005, when Universal and Fox signed up to produce a Halo movie. That project has since fallen in the toilet, but Zelnick is promising that won't happen with BioShock.

"The reason I structured it the way I did is to make sure it gets made," he said.

A release date for the film has yet to be set, but Verbinski said he wants to begin pre-production as soon as the script is ready. Meanwhile a sequel to the original videogame is also in development, and due to arrive late next year.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (44) Latest comment 4 years ago

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  • christourlord #1 4 years ago

    This could be awesome if done right!

  • gmmonkey #2 4 years ago

    awesome. Decent writer and director on it. I think this will be a good game -> movie.

  • bad09 #3 4 years ago

    Yeah not doubt the first pirates was incredible but he just bogged the other two down too much. This could be really good (or course as usual it will be OKish or poor)
    Edited by 1 at 09/05/08 @ 09:41

  • skillian #4 4 years ago

    I scoff every single time a movie->game adaptation is announced, and I didn't even really like the game, but I must admit a Bioshock movie could actually be good!

    The best thing is, I didn't even finish the game, so I don't know the story yet!

  • gmmonkey #5 4 years ago

    If they manage to get the atmosphere of the game then it will have win written all over it.

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #6 4 years ago

    This is probably the first game adap that could genuinely be very good - not just okay, but actually a very, very good film. It's five-star material, and arguably the twisty stuff and moral ambiguity could work better in a film (I'm assuming they won't recreate the boss fight at the end...).

    Verbinski is good, the fucking awful Pirates sequels notwithstanding (the first Pirates was amazing!) so I have very very high hopes for this...!

  • pauleyc #7 4 years ago

    That is actually a pretty good idea. The setting and linearity of Bioshock might transfer rather well. I wonder how they'll handle the general horror/blood-on-walls/hooks-in-corpses atmosphere (and *that* scene with Ryan) of the game.

  • jlaakso #8 4 years ago

    I allow myself to be mildly enthusiastic about this.

  • systems #9 4 years ago

    It's being directed by Gore. It'll be absolutely shite like the Pirates films and they will probably change the script during filming like they did last time. I can't believe any of you think Gore is a good director.

    I also can't believe some of you are excited about a film based on a game. Historically they have all been average at best unless your standards are naturally low (take a look at them and weep):
    http://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fil...

  • thedaveeyres #10 4 years ago

    I am unreasonable excited by this. This is a 33 year old man going, "Squeeee"....

    SQUEEEEEEE

  • Quint2020 #11 4 years ago

    Well lets hope he doesn't fuck it up like he did the Pirates sequels.

  • asphaltcowboy #12 4 years ago

    previous credits include the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy

    Problem right there!

    EDIT: For the record, I loved the first film!
    Edited by 1 at 09/05/08 @ 10:20

  • DanWhitehead #13 4 years ago

    Verbinski had very little control over the scripts for any of the POTC movies. Take away the bloated, meandering stories and they're all extremely well made. He's certainly not a mindless blockbuster hack.

  • space_ace #14 4 years ago

    really? then what's the point of his movies?

  • bad09 #15 4 years ago

    @ wired_protocol

    I'll take your Double Dragon and raise you a Super Mario Bros :)

  • japstersam #16 4 years ago

    even if the pirates sequels were crap, at least they had high production values and looked spectacular, even if they were rubbish. so i cant help but get pretty excited about this, imagine rapture on the big screen :D:D

  • spekkeh #17 4 years ago

    Could be interesting, seeing as how Atlas Shrugged will be released shortly before this movie.

  • DanWhitehead #18 4 years ago

    really? then what's the point of his movies?

    Verbinski's other movies have all been extremely well-crafted, from a directorial point of view. I actually consider Mousehunt to be an unsung modern comedy classic. Judge him on those, and Pirates visual style, but don't hold him responsible for things - like the awful Pirates sequel "scripts" - that were dumped on him by Jerry Bruckheimer.

  • zuljin #19 4 years ago

    @systems
    In all fairness though, most of the films on that list have pretty poor/non existent storylines to begin with. Personally I think this really is the first game to movie adaptation which starts from an interesting story.

    Tomb raider and Resident Evil films were not too bad though.

    Also found a mistake in that list - somehow I don't think Ironman the film was based on the video game. If it was then that is the first sub average game transformed into a blockbuster.

  • The-Bodybuilder #20 4 years ago

    TakeTwo are definately findinf thier feet now.

  • schachmatt #21 4 years ago

    Bioshock's story about dictatorship gone wrong and genetic manipulation as an excuse for the magical abilities was generic dross already spit out by many other games.
    The was no story evolution in the whole game; already in the beginning you knew everything there was to it and then you're sent on fetch-quests for the rest of the time.

    Even if there wouldn't have been such a fuss (often from game "critics" themselves) about how super the story is I would have been disappointed.

    Try to tell the game's story to someone, who doesn't play videogames without being mocked. If that is the pinnacle of storytelling in games ... it just makes me sad.

  • alimokrane #22 4 years ago

    Given who the director is ... I have HOPE ... HOPE!!!!!

  • jaywalker3010 Verified Mastering Manager, Square Enix #23 4 years ago

    23 comments and no mention of mr Boll.. am impressed..

  • mikeck #24 4 years ago

    I don't rate Verbinski, so I'm now more hesitant about this film...a director like Fincher or Del Toro would have been much, much better I think - but that's not to say I've given up hope, Verbinski can direct, he's just not my cup of tea 'tis all.

  • schachmatt #25 4 years ago

    Considering how many of those videogame projects break down along the way (and are often just announced as pr) I'm still hopeful that Hollywood has better stories to tell.

  • Tuffty #26 4 years ago

    I think if a story as strong as it is in Bioshock get's lost in translation to the silver screen, then I've lost all faith in good game-to-movie adaptations.

  • Weezer #27 4 years ago

    The biggest issue here is that - to get bums on seats - the most it will be is a 12 rating. ie, not scary, no blood, no nuthin'. It will look fantastic but be an empty huske. Like Captain Tomorrow And His Sky-Plane of Yesterday or whatever the fuck it was called...

    But.

    I would still like to see it. Especially the back-story and how Rapture was built. And that.

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #28 4 years ago

    Try to tell the game's story to someone, who doesn't play videogames without being mocked. If that is the pinnacle of storytelling in games ... it just makes me sad.

    I too will take you up on this today, and see if I'm mocked... on a sorta related note, I made a reference to Grim Fandango at work yesterday and as a consequence had to explain the plot of the game. By the time I'd finished everyone in the room thought it sounded incredibly cool.

  • schachmatt #29 4 years ago

    DiamondIce and Britesparc, if you manage to tell it in a way that doesn't make the whole room either go real quiet or laughing you out, then I'm commending you to write the screenplay (or work at the pr-department of 2k).

  • Muddtallica #30 4 years ago

    Britesparc: That's because the plot of Grim Fandango is genuinely brilliant, and yes, incredibly cool. I would say I'd love to see a film made of that, but when the game itself was already so flawless as a storytelling experience, what would be the point?

    Anyway, this actually sounds fairly promising; perhaps the first time a game with a respectable, well-regarded story has been taken on by a similarly professional film-making team. Between this and Mike Newell's Prince of Persia film, maybe that decent game-to-film adaptation might finally be upon us...

  • mikeck #31 4 years ago

    "Between this and Mike Newell's Prince of Persia film, maybe that decent game-to-film adaptation might finally be upon us... "

    I still maintain that the Silent Hill film wasn't too shabby at all...but then again I am a Silent Hill fanboy and I loved the director's previous film Brotherhood of the Wolf. I have never experienced a louder film at the cinema...especially the part when the baby-like things start wailing and screaming, that was really intense in the cinema. Yeah the story wasn't great (but that's not the main draw of the game series for me anyway), but the effects were pretty damn good. A more coherent story would have been prefered but I still liked it damn it! :)

  • vegard #32 4 years ago

    NO UWE? NO BUY!

  • Vin #33 4 years ago

    What the shit? This was Guillermo's project.

    Bah.

  • pauleyc #34 4 years ago

    @schachmatt

    Bioshock's story about dictatorship gone wrong and genetic manipulation as an excuse for the magical abilities was generic dross already spit out by many other games. The was no story evolution in the whole game; already in the beginning you knew everything there was to it and then you're sent on fetch-quests for the rest of the time.

    While I agree with you regarding the fetch quests, your other points are hardly valid. Rapture wasn't a dictatorship, rather an attempt at building an utopian/objectivist society. The story evolution was present - at the beginning the player only knew that something was very wrong with this experiment. As to the "what and how" - that was the whole point of the journey, the discovery.

    That's actually the difficult part where the film might fail, it's not that easy to include all the information and backstory from the audio recordings without referring to other characters. And the interaction with others is definitely a limiting factor, considering you met other friendly people only a few times in the game. The plasmids and genetic manipulation was a slight cop-out (too much of the magic) yet it did fit in with the whole climate of abusing creative freedom.

    As for the twist - while perhaps not the greatest revealing moment in history, it was not expected, at least not by me. In fact, it did cleverly explain the very linearity of the game. Now, I don't think that Bioshock was a masterpiece, especially when gameplay was concerned but it did stand out from the generic dross of other games. On a side note, I did tell the story to somebody who doesn't play games and it wasn't mocked in any way.

  • GordonCaladan #35 4 years ago

    Gore Verbinski vs. Uwe Boll

    FIGHT!

    Winner directs BioShock.

  • mikeck #36 4 years ago

    "What the shit? This was Guillermo's project.

    Bah."

    Now that would have been a damn interesting film if he got his paws on it...and pretty damn good as well I'd imagine.

  • YourMessageHere #37 4 years ago

    Oh no, another one broken before it's made. Bioshock is not the same sort of thing as Pirates of the cocking Caribbean or that supposedly laughable Ring remake; based on track record the choice of director is not suitable at all. Never seen Sweeney Todd or The Aviator but Gladiator was fucking awful, so a no vote there too.

    And for the millionth time, the special thing about Bioshock was not the story itself, but the way it was told.

    Remember those good old days when Hollywood had its own ideas and was the envy of the world? Me neither...

  • Razorus #38 4 years ago

    This could be very good. Story-wise, I'm not sure how they could make it work. I recommend against a straight adaption of the game. Maybe a prequel that details the fall of Rapture and the battle between Fontaine and Ryan. And end it with a sneaky hint of the coming of Jack, like showing a plane falling from the sky or something.

    Gore is a good director and the art style lends itself very well to cinematic interpretation. (Am I just repeating what was said?) But yeah. Cool.

  • Scimarad #39 4 years ago

    I definitely think it would be fun to see the fall of Rapture rather than one guy wandering around shooting things and listening to tapes.

  • Grayvern #40 4 years ago

    Wait Guilliarmo del Toro was in the offing,

    -I feel cheated

    Also even if they managed to get a script that did it justice it would be nowhere near as good as the game, only hours of uncovering the hidden history of the fallen can leave the impression that Bioshock does.

    But games have never reminded me of the short hoary flash of films theve reminded of the continuing draw of a book in the case of games like Bioshock.

    Additionally Bioshocks story was immense not because of what went on in it but because of the rich philosophical texture that it evoked coupled with confusion over aspects of this created by the voices of those that had gone before.

    I still hope theyll get it right allthough I dont think I could stand it if someone like Ebert waded in and said that bioshock was better as a film than a game.


  • sirtacos #41 4 years ago

    BioShock has the most mature and cinematic narrative of any game I've ever played. I don't have enough superlatives in my vocabulary to praise it.
    That said, I'm not sure how well it would translate on the silver screen.

    In my opinion, a film centering on the construction of Rapture, and particularly on Ryan's character - his ambition, his philosophy before the utopia was built, and his slow descent into madness - would be awesome.

    BioShock has more than enough elements to make a dozen movies or even a TV series à la Band of Brothers. This is why the element the movie focuses on has to be judiciously picked. If they try to do too much or follow the video game too closely, it'll flop.
    Having a guy rummage through art-deco underwater rubble listening to tapes and seeing ghosts for 2 hours certainly wouldn't work. Telling the story of Rapture before the fall, or that of it's creator, or both - is a better idea.

    This has a lot of potential for greatness. It also has a good chance of being shit.
    Edited by 3 at 10/05/08 @ 16:16

  • Daymare #42 4 years ago

    As far as gaming goes, Bioshock's story is up there with the best. End of. Period. I hope Verbinski & Co. will be able to harness its potential..

  • Daikon #43 4 years ago

    In my opinion, a film centering on the construction of Rapture, and particularly on Ryan's character - his ambition, his philosophy before the utopia was built, and his slow descent into madness - would be awesome.

    Totally agree. BioShock is a great game but there's not so much of a story in there (just some neat plot twists).
    It would be great to see the city in its Metropolis-style days of glory.

  • Meho #44 4 years ago

    Considering that the best part of BioShock's storytelling was the interactivity (especially that scene with Ryan), I somehow don't see it working as a film...