There are three universal laws: Death, Taxes, and Video Game movies suck. Still, with that being said one of the few video game properties that I’ve thought had enough narrative story telling possibilities to make a decent movie was Bioshock (the other would be a film based on Warcraft). Bioshock is a rich story. I’ve never even played the game. I just watched my buddy SouldVideo play one night and I was blown away by the story arc in it.
It was announced some time ago that Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski was taking on the Bioshock project. But alas good friends… it appears the film has been put on hold… maybe permanently… although they are saying they’re committed to finding a way to do it. They even went so far as to say: All parties vow that “Bioshock” will not become another “Halo,” That line made me giggle
The brakes got put on the project when production costs rose to over $160 million, which was more than Universal wanted to put into the project. The folks over at Variety say give us this:
“We were asked by Universal to move the film outside the U.S. to take advantage of a tax credit,” Verbinski said. “We are evaluating whether this is something we want to do. In the meantime, the film is in a holding pattern.” Verbinski and sources at the studio say they are determined to make the pic. Indeed, Verbinski (who has also been directing the Paramount animated film “Rango” with Johnny Depp) bowed out of directing a fourth installment of “Pirates of the Caribbean” so that he could direct “Bioshock” and produce under his Blind Wink banner.
So yet another highly anticipated, high profile video game adaptation movie is on the shelf for the foreseeable future. I’ll go on record and say it’s a shame… I was actually starting to look forward to seeing how this one turned out.
What do you think… will this movie ever get made? Can they even make a movie like this one properly for under $120 million?
