Over the years, Bioshock still stands to be a pinnacle experience from what was the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 era of gaming. With three mainline installments that hit consoles at the time, the last – Bioshock Infinite – ended up being nominated for Game of the Year. Despite the critical success, developer Irrational Games closed its doors not too long after.
However, the same story was also spun for a motion picture based on the titular video game series. Director Gore Verbinski most notable for the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise was expected to create a film adaptation of Rapture and the inhabitants that went mad within. But, the project ultimately never seen the light of day as we know now.
Although much was not clarified on the rushed death of the potential Bioshock movie, Verbinski when speaking to Collider previously pressed on the matters which lead to the demise of a film project many fans await to see hit the silver screen.
It was talked about as one movie. And it was strange, my first meeting at Universal on “Bioshock” was sitting in a room and saying, “Hey guys, this is a $200 million R rated movie.” And it was silent. I remember my agent going, “Why did you say that?” I’m like, because it is. Why just even trying to kill a movie you haven’t even started? That’s before getting a scripted before anything. I’m just I just want to be clear. And I think everybody at the studio was well, yeah, okay, maybe. Wow, no. It’s big, we know.
You couldn’t bring that thing to a point. There was a lot of diffusion. So, when the movie was shut down, it was literally the conversation that I had. The brutally honest conversation I had saying, don’t buy the rights, I just want you to be clear. This is a 200-million, R-rated [movie]. We were now about to start shooting a $200 million R-rated movie and they chickened out. I think, “Watchmen” had just come out right before that or something. So, there was a little bit of, these movies need to be PG-13. If they cost that much, they need to be PG-13.
While negotiations for the production appeared to look rugged with how Verbinski planned to portray the film to the source material, he noted the ultimate decision was made based on a trend of box office releases at the time. “There are those people deal with data. So, it was like new data that said, don’t make the movie. So, fair enough. But it was glorious waste of time because I tried to be super clear, just absolutely honest, it’s R-rated…
“That was even before, we’re walking in with a, we’ve talked to the video game company. We’ve talked to [game director Ken] Levine, we’re ready to go. Do you want to make it? I just said it, there was silence in the room full of 30 executives, marketing departments, everybody. Really tried to do this, so don’t waste everybody’s time if you’re not going to make it.”
In the past, Metal Gear film director Jordan Vogt-Roberts expressed his interest in creating a Metroid film. And alike Verbinski’s vision to make a silent protagonist, Vogt-Roberts also sheds interest in the creative decision if he gets the opportunity to tackle the Nintendo IP behind the camera. You can read the full report by heading here.
Did Verbinski’s idea for the Bioshock movie pique your interest?
Source: Collider
