The silver screen adaptation of BioShock, one of the most popular video game titles these days, is not dead yet. Set to be produced by Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) and directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later), the film still has life. At least that’s what we can gather from Verbinski, as he recently sat down to discuss it with IGN. Here’s what he said:
"We're working trying to make it. The problem with BioShock was: R-rated movie, underwater, horror. It's a really expensive R-rated movie. So we're trying to figure out a way working with [director] Juan Carlos [Fresnadillo] to get the budget down and still keep so it's true to the core audience, you know? The thing is it has to be R, a hard R."
Sounds like it might take awhile for this film to make it, but the intention to do so is still here. However, when Verbinski was asked about Prince of Persia’s lackluster box office affecting this film, here’s what he had to say:
"No, I think BioShock's a rare one because it's actually a great story. Me? I don't want to make movies based on video games, but BioShock's the one Oedipal, crazy kind of -- it's just got really good bones, and we're really trying to figure out a way to make it work. We don't want to dumb it down, we don't want to make it PG-13. We want to keep it really edgy, and it's a huge bill.”
"We're really down the road with Juan Carlos and right now it's really a budget thing and how to keep the integrity and keep it a Hollywood movie because it could balloon. It's a lot. Our first budget was extraordinarily high and we're working on it.”
With Fresnadillo working on another project at the moment, we might be a long way from seeing the underwater world of Rapture come to life. Chin up, because the project isn't totally out of oxygen.
