I had a feeling this game was going to become a movie. And with the director of "Pirates" at the helm, I personally think it's a good combo. :)

Someone
Gore Verbinski to Direct "BioShock"
Universal and Gore Verbinski will be bringing BioShock to the big screen.
By GameSpy Staff | May 9, 2008

Variety is reporting that Universal and Gore Verbinski have worked out a deal with 2K to bring the company's smash-hit BioShock to the big screen.

Verbinski is best known as the director of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, and was behind the famous commercial featuring a trio of frogs croaking the Budweiser brand name. He is set to direct and produce, while "Aviator" writer John Logan is reportedly in talks to pen the screenplay.

BioShock publisher Take-Two Interactive is reportedly receiving a multimillion-dollar advance against gross points on the film.

Take-Two Executive Chairman Strauss Zelnick said the "state of the art" deal is structured so that "BioShock" won't end up in turnaround like the cancelled "Halo" film, which is back with Microsoft.

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

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

Ken Levine has been consulted on the project, but it's not yet clear if the game's designer will have a formal role in the film.

I don't expect any better than your usual videogame movie (awful, or at best almost good). But this one's a little different... Most videogame movies take advantage of the games characters and stories to try to make the project work. Bioshock's flagship feature is its environment and atmosphere. While I don't hardly care how well they cast characters like Ryan and Tannenbaum, it'll be fascinating to see how they replicate that underwater dystopia in a movie.

The Doom movie was kind of in a similar situation where they needed to take better advantage of the atmosphere rather than the characters. They didn't do a very good job of it, so I'd like to see this Bioshock movie be handled better.

Why don't they just do an Sealab 2021 flick?

Hawk
I don't expect any better than your usual videogame movie (awful, or at best almost good). But this one's a little different... Most videogame movies take advantage of the games characters and stories to try to make the project work. Bioshock's flagship feature is its environment and atmosphere. While I don't hardly care how well they cast characters like Ryan and Tannenbaum, it'll be fascinating to see how they replicate that underwater dystopia in a movie.

The Doom movie was kind of in a similar situation where they needed to take better advantage of the atmosphere rather than the characters. They didn't do a very good job of it, so I'd like to see this Bioshock movie be handled better.

Let's hope some outside group doesn't do with this film as was done with Doom (Doom was supposed to be a fight against the forces of... that huge burning dimension where souls are tortured for eternity... instead the move was turned sci fi with mutants)

I forced my friend to go to Doom to punish him for making me go see Underworld 2. Everyone kind of expected that to be bad. I'm not sure how well a Bioshock movie would work. Some elements, maybe, but the most recognizable elements would just seem stupid in the theater.

The only way they could make this a bit appealing is by exploring the main character otherwise it's just the game minus the fun.

Atom Apple
The only way they could make this a bit appealing is by exploring the main character otherwise it's just the game minus the fun.

You just nailed the biggest downfall of videogame movies right there.

Video game movies so far have been uniformly bad and Bioshock seems like an especially difficult game to make a movie out of because there's the problem of how to incorporate all that backstory from the diary entries. Verbinski is a competent director, but kind of bland. TBH, the only thing that made Pirates worth watching was Depp.

Hawk

Atom Apple
The only way they could make this a bit appealing is by exploring the main character otherwise it's just the game minus the fun.

You just nailed the biggest downfall of videogame movies right there.

What else do you do, re-make the already established plot? Because I'm pretty sure seeing the plot in game form is much better. Maybe it could be a form of prequel?

Atom Apple
Maybe it could be a form of prequel?

I can actually see that. ...The world of Rapture before it became what we see in the game. I always wanted them to show us a glimpse of the beautiful, shining underwater city that it once was, but they never gave us that. (Which I guess made it all the more eerie, because instead they gave us those occasional ghosts flitting around)

I... I thought Silent Hill was a good video game movie... :(