BioShock Movie To Be Made By Universal

azuredrake writes "Gamasutra reports that Universal Pictures has just announced a completion of licensing negotiations to bring the game BioShock to the silver screen. For those unfamiliar with the property, it was the much-lauded Game of the Year contender, praised for its storyline which emerged through gameplay, not just cutscenes. The director for the project is to be Gore Verbinski, who proved himself on the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, and the current writer for the screenplay is John Logan, who is recently known for the also-creepy Sweeny Todd."

Comments

proved himself

[StrawberryFrog]

The director for the project is to be Gore Verbinski, who proved himself on the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy

Proved himself what?

I mean, did you sit through the last one?

Re:proved himself

[Negatyfus]

Yes, I did, and I loved it. What's your point?

Re:proved himself

[efence]

So, you are saying you'd rather have Uwe Boll as a director? ;)

Re:proved himself

[jps25]

So, you are saying you'd rather have Uwe Boll as a director? ;) Would it make any difference?

Re:proved himself

[Hojima]

I just hope this movie isn't as cheesy as that crap trilogy. I swear to god if they make cheesy lines in the middle of an intense battle, I'm walking out on the movie. That game was awesome and has so much potential to take the stigma out of games-into-movies being crap. Silent hill almost did the trick, so I'm hoping there will be some progress from that level. The game had a lot of creepiness, so it would be great as a horror/action. I doubt they'll stick to the story line, so I hope they have a large battle with many people on both sides. Maybe it can be a "Black Hawk Down" meets "Cloverfield" to give it a tremendous amount of realism.

Re:proved himself

[mrbluze]

Yes, I did, and I loved it. What's your point? Someone was bound to make a comment like that to a comment like that.

Re:proved himself

[dreamchaser]

I couldn't make it through any of them. To me they were pretty much crap, but then again I've never cared for Depp.

Just my opinion of course. Obviously a lot of people enjoyed them.

Re:proved himself

[Anonymous Coward]

It gets even worse. He directed that last movie, but not the first two.

Re:proved himself

[Anonymous Coward]

Instead of contracting overpayed Hollywood actors, he would sign up WHORES!

Re:proved himself

[Anonymous Coward]

So, you are saying you'd rather have Uwe Boll as a director? ;) Would it make any difference? More boobs?

Re:proved himself

[Das Modell]

You're saying there's no difference whatsoever between PotC and Uwe Boll's work in terms of direction and overral quality?

Re:proved himself

[Das Modell]

PotC is the kind of movie where funny one-liners are appropriate. What makes you think they would be included in BioShock? By the same logic you should have been worried about seeing zombies in LotR because Peter Jackson made Bad Taste and Braindead.

Re:proved himself

[Das Modell]

IMDB lists him as the director for all three.

Re:proved himself

[Anonymous Coward]

You really shouldn't put that much weight on IMDB

Re:proved himself

[owlnation]

The director for the project is to be Gore Verbinski, who proved himself on the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy

I made it through 1 and a half of the Pirates trilogy movies. Without Johnny Depp I'd never have made it through the first. Verbinski took some very talented actors (and some truly awful ones (Bloom and Ikea Knightley, for example)) and proved that he barely has the ability to direct traffic. The second movie was a long rambling mess that I walked out of halfway through -- that was 100% the director's fault. I decided not to even waste a cent on the 3rd, since the 2nd was so bad.

So yeah... good luck with this movie...

Re:proved himself

[Das Modell]

Wikipedia also lists Gore Verbinski as the director for all three. Please, inform IMDB and edit Wikipedia to correct these errors. While you're at it, contact Disney to tell them that Verbinski didn't direct the first two movies. Only you know the truth.

Re:proved himself

[rubberchickenboy]

He absolutely directed all three. Several of my friends who worked with him on all three (2 and 3 were shot at the same time, and they couldn't have had different directors).

Re:proved himself

[rubberchickenboy]

Production assistants and credits like that are sometimes wrong on IMDB (or extras are self-added, who are not "actors" in the official credits). But, if the director is listed incorrectly, the studio's lawyers or the director's lawyers would have it changed.

Re:proved himself

[pieszynski]

C'mon man . . . you remember ikea knightly, but you forget orlando bland?? For a thoroughly impartial (if kermodian) review of verbinski's back catalogue with no anger or vitriol or anything have a look at the bbc's radio five website film reviews. The very best in wittertainment. http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/entertainment/kermode.shtml

Re:proved himself

[jps25]

No, though I think that PotC1-3 are overrated, and PotC2 and PotC3 are utter crap.

What I meant was, that I haven't seen any decent movie which was based on a game, no matter who directed it.
May I remind you of:
* Tomb Raider, directed by Simon West,
* Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, directed by Jan De Bont,
* Mario Bros, directed by Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel
* Street Fighter, directed by Steven E. de Souza,
* Wing Commander, directed by Chris Roberts,
* Final Fantasy, directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi
* Double Dragon, directed by James Yukich,
* Resident Evil, directed by Paul Anderson
* Resident Evil: Apocalypse, directed by Alexander Witt
* Resident Evil: Extinction, directed by Russell Mulcahy
* ...

No Uwe Boll involved in any of them, still all of them beyond shitty.

Re:proved himself

[OzRoy]

I think The Ring would be a better example showing that he can make a good movie out of Bioshock.

Yes yes I know a lot of people will say the Japanese version was better, but the American one was still a good movie.

Re:proved himself

[Anonymous Coward]

Luckily, the German word "Depp" means "idiot" in English.

Re:proved himself

[Luscious868]

I have to agree with you there. I loved the first one and thought the second and third were shit. Much like the Matrix "trilogy". I have no desire to ever re-watch the second or third films in either of them.

Re:proved himself

[morari]

A better question is, did they sit through any of them?

Bioshock, as a film, would benefit from being CGI free. It has a nice steampunk quality to it, and thus should done to feel appropriately so.

Re:proved himself

[Anonymous Coward]

at least then we'd be guaranteed some T&A.

Re:proved himself

[TheRecklessWanderer]

Did they learn nothing from the movie "Doom"?

Re:proved himself

[Das Modell]

On the other hand, what do you expect with most of the source material that's been used so far? The Resident Evil movies are about as silly as the games, and Doom was a fairly faithful adaptation. BioShock has potential.

Re:proved himself

[Vozmozno]

Doom... a... faithful adaptation? huh? Thou be smokin' something wilst seeing this movie, and I want some.

Re:proved himself

[Das Modell]

I said a fairly faithful adaptation. Try reading the entire post next time.

Re:proved himself

[ravenshrike]

You're gonna need CGI for the plasmids though. Unless you're planning on taking them out entirely.

Re:proved himself

[Anonymous Coward]

At least he didn't say house of the dead was a faithful adaptation

Re:proved himself

[Shelled]

If Verbinski's treatment of the quiet, dark story of a mother's dread that was the original is any indication, BioShock will be perfect summer fare for those who like their movies loud, obvious and 'packed with stuff'.

Re:proved himself

[Ihmhi]

Chrissakes, the BFG was fucking blue and when it was fired everyone in the room didn't die. That's about as faithful as an Atheist in a strip club.

Re:proved himself

[Anonymous Coward]

Mortal Kombat was good, as was PotC.

Re:proved himself

[Haeleth]

I said a fairly faithful adaptation.

Yes; "fairly" there implies that you consider it fundamentally faithful and only differing in relatively unimportant ways.

Is that an accurate characterisation? You may think so; many of us disagree. The game is about teleportation research that opens portals to a literal Hell populated by supernatural demons and the tormented souls of the damned. The movie, meanwhile, is about genetic research involving a chromosome that mutates humans into monsters. There really isn't that much similarity there...

Re:proved himself

[bigstrat2003]

Yeah, and it was the best damn one of the trilogy. Your point?

Re:proved himself

[hairyfeet]

Yeah,puff puff give,greedy! Seriously, what Doom SHOULD have been was an excellent mashup of Event Horizon and Aliens. You got a doorway to Hell, A bunch of marines who think their baddass weapons and training will rule the day,only to find themselves hopelessly outmatched, and they're on a planet far enough out that help can't reach them immediately. More than likely Bioshock will just end up a passable movie if you have never played the game,but at least it won't be House of the Dead or Bloodrayne bad. But that is my 02c,YMMV.

Re:proved himself

[Das Modell]

I never said it was a carbon copy of the game, now did I?

Re:proved himself

[JohnBailey]

You forgot Blood Rayne. Video game move, directed by Uwe Boll, still beyond shitty.

Re:proved himself

[Anonymous Coward]

His point was, it sucked dick.

Re:proved himself

[tylernt]

I respectfully disagree on one of those. All of those films sucked except for the first Resident Evil movie. I haven't played the game, so maybe the movie wasn't faithful, but it was still awesome.

Re:proved himself

[Anonymous Coward]

Gore also directed The Ring. I don't remember any cheesy one-liners in that one.

I'm more worried about the writers than I am about Verbinski. I loved the first two PotC movies and hated the third, and I put the blame squarely on the shoulders of writers who tried to force continuity onto something that was perfect as a solo outing (see also: The Matrix). I also have to wonder how much of the problem was from the studio.

Assuming they get him a good script to work with, I have no doubt about his ability to direct Bioshock.

Re:proved himself

[Theoboley]

Lmao, i'm surprised that Uwe Boll didn't get this one too... Totally trashed the Bloodrayne series... along with Alone in the Dark among others... House of the dead...

Re:proved himself

[Anonymous Coward]

BioShock will be perfect summer fare for those who like their movies loud, obvious and 'packed with stuff'. Funny, that's how I like my women.

Re:proved himself

[Khaed]

and Doom was a fairly faithful adaptation

Um. They made a movie about a game about demons and hell without the demons or the hell.

It was some ancient civilization and some sort of "rage virus." Which exists nowhere in any Doom I've played.

How exactly is "throwing out the entire fucking premise" faithful?

Re:proved himself

[StrawberryFrog]

One-liners? I'm talking about the fact that the last movie was a turgid, overblown, special-effects-extravaganza shark-jumping mess.

Re:proved himself

[Dripdry]

Without CGI, I'll wager there'll be very little steam and not so much punk.

Re:proved himself

[Das Modell]

You're not the parent. He was specifically referring to "cheesy lines in the middle of an intense battle." What was your point again?

Re:proved himself

[Das Modell]

Here we fucking go again. Because they changed some details, it must automatically mean that the movie bears no possible resemblance whatsoever to the game? Give me a fucking break.

Re:proved himself

[TheSambassador]

CGI Free? Plasmids, large underwater city, and... I don't know, the BIG DADDIES? Though I'll agree, they'll probably overdo it.

Re:proved himself

[morari]

Plasmids could be done through a variety of different visual techniques. I do think that they would be a prime candidate for the more typical CGI application. So long as CGI is kept to more subtler effects, or enhancements, it's not a big deal.

The city in general would just have to rely on more realistic looking, and time-tested cinematic techniques. You would need proper sets, matte backdrops, and probably some scale models for the all-encompassing shots. If done properly, this would come together far more brilliantly and realistically than any CGI could ever hope.

Now, as for the Big Daddies. They would have to be done primarily as large scale animatronics. Like any other giant creature from films past, you would need to have several different models made up. Each would look the same but specialize in different functions; one would walk, one would have hand dexterity (this one might even be nothing more than a hand for close ups), etc. For full-body shots however, it's likely that some CGI would be used to augment the actual models in terms of movement and such.

It's hardly impossible. Filmmakers had used these techniques for decades before the rise of computer generated imagery. These older effects stand the test of time much better, as they are truly, physically present within the shot. You don't have to worry about the lighting or texturing looking fake. You don't have to worry about the low polygon count seeming archaic a mere few years later. CGI has its place to be sure, but it should be playing backup to make the more traditional effects seem even realer. It shouldn't be the star of the show itself. That is where filmmakers seem to fail time and time again nowadays, and it's only getting worse.

Re:proved himself

[sabre3999]

I actually quite liked the FF movie... the cinematics were beautiful, and the story was to my liking. The first RE was fairly good as well. The second wasn't horrible, yet at the same time wasn't spectacular... though truthfully the third movie never should have been made.

Re:proved himself

[philspear]

Well, most of doom was "shoot the monsters." And they shot monsters. The only real differences between the movie and the game were

-The movie had a plot
-Most of the movie was not first person perspective (although the best part was)
-The monsters were aliens, not demons
-The Rock was not in the game

Most of those were kind of inevitable in the transition, a movie that was just killing demons would be kind of like girls gone wild: extremely boring after 5 minutes.

The demons to aliens thing was a significant change, I'll give you that, but the premise of finding demons on mars would have probably seemed all the more ridiculous in a 2 hour movie.

Re:proved himself

[enderjsv]

I don't know that "these older effects stand the test of time much better." While I do agree there are a lot of movies today where the use of cgi is overused, I also feel that CGI in general has gotten a lot better and has, for the most part, improved the quality of the cinematic experience.

Sure, the alien from Aliens was damn near perfect without any need for CGI, but that's because the film makers could leave plenty to the imagination when the alien was onscreen. It wasn't ever really necessary to see the alien move too much because the mystery surrounding the alien was its appeal. Watching the movie, I was more scared by what I didn't see than what I did.

For a counter example, compare that to the first and second terminator movies. Full body capture of the terminator was done with "claymation" techniques, and to someone watching it today, it definitely stands out as unnatural. Other times, they used other methods like robotics, but in those scenes the movement of the terminator seems unnaturally slow or rigid, or only a portion of the terminator appears in frame. Compare that to the CGI version of the terminator in T2. It wasn't perfect, of course, but his movements seemed far more fluid, and cgi allowed the terminator to appear in a wide range of scenes, even "morphing" through the window of a helicoptor.

I'm not really disagreeing with you, as there are times when it seems a filmmaker just gets lazy and relies too much on CGI, but I wanted to give my two cents because it seems like there are a lot of pseudo-film-purists around these days who seem to think ANY CGI is bad and that classical techniques are always inherently better. This is something I really disagree with.

Re:proved himself

[Khaed]

They didn't change "some details."

They changed the entire premise. It would be like a Tomb Raider movie without Lara Croft or tombs.

"The Rock is an asshole on Mars for 90 minutes" has no possible resemblance whatsoever to Doom, no.

Re:proved himself

[Das Modell]

They did not change the entire premise. How about you actually play the game before making comparisons?

Re:proved himself

[Khaed]

...That's why I'm making comparisons. I played a lot of Doom I and II. I could probably still find my way around the first three episodes of Doom I and the first half or so of Doom II. Do you remember any of the enemies other than the Imp and Zombie Marines? Like, say, the ones with horns?

I don't remember anything about the Doom movie that was really specific to Doom, other than the first-person scene, and the Imp-like alien.

Re:proved himself

[Das Modell]

/facepalm

The movie is based on Doom 3.

Like, say, the ones with horns?

The demon from Doom 3 is in the movie.

I don't remember anything about the Doom movie that was really specific to Doom, other than the first-person scene, and the Imp-like alien.

I think an UAC research facility on Mars containing a BFG 9000 and a chainsaw is kind of specific to Doom.

Re:proved himself

[Khaed]

Oh, okay. It was based on the one game I didn't play (hell I even have the N64 version).

Then the Doom movie has my permission to suck. As you were.

Don't do the in game story!

[ttlgDaveh]

The story needs to be about the fall of Rapture, not what occurs in game, because that will turn out to be shit. Also it shouldn't be called BioShock. Something like 'Rapture' springs to mind.

Re:Don't do the in game story!

[aurispector]

The game kind of sucked, but the setup and back story (and artwork) were among the best ever. The story itself is really about the failure of a philosophy or ideology.

I don't think this director is the one to pull that off. He might make a fun movie but then again a movie about philosophy would be kind of boring.

Re:Don't do the in game story!

[Anonymous Coward]

The story needs to be about the fall of Rapture, not what occurs in game, because that will turn out to be shit. Also it shouldn't be called BioShock. Maybe they could call it 'Atlas Shrugged'?

Re:Don't do the in game story!

[broeman]

Already in production: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480239/ ... hopefully it will be done, since it seems a little shaky on that site.

Re:Don't do the in game story!

[uberjoe]

Thats what Bioshock 2 is going to be. A prequel chronicling the fall of Rapture. I doubt they will let the movie give that away before the sequel comes out.

Re:Don't do the in game story!

[Anonymous Coward]

You're mixing you Objectivist philosophy again. Objectivism =/= Dystopian Objectivism. And unless there are a bunch of railroads in Rapture, that wouldn't really make sense.... I do hope they make the Atlas Shrugged movie, and I hope that the do Bioshock well.

Re:Don't do the in game story!

[Anonymous Coward]

How about 'Atlas Shrugged'? Has a nice ring to it.

Re:Don't do the in game story!

[Anonymous Coward]

"Dystopian Objectivism" is a philosophy? Where people _want_ everything to be really shitty but at least they won't have to pay taxes?

If you don't think BioShock is like Atlas Shrugged, you need to either play BioShock or read Atlas Shrugged (preferably both). It's very obvious that the game was inspired by the novel.

Re:Don't do the in game story!

[lilfields]

They are making an Atlas Shrugged film, supposedly Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are going to be in it. 2009 is the supposed release year...I honestly can't wait, I hope it doesn't suck. As for Bioshock, every game to movie production has sucked and visa versa.

Re:Don't do the in game story!

[ozbird]

... because that will turn out to be shit.

At least they'll be consistent.

Re:Don't do the in game story!

[Anonymous Coward]

NOT TRUE! Golden Eye 007. Great game.

The "Writer" of Star Trek: Nemesis

[kalidasa]

So if you like "motion picture by pastiche," this will be your movie.

Re:The "Writer" of Star Trek: Nemesis

[BarneyRabble]

Logan was the writer for "Gladiator", which won an Oscar. "ST: Nemesis" faltered from the bad direction of Stuart Baird, a film EDITOR who had no business directing in the first place... I'll wait for the home video release of Bioshock. Seeing Iron Man last weekend was a bio-shock to my wallet....

Re:The "Writer" of Star Trek: Nemesis

[tcolberg]

I've heard that many Logan scripts require ghost rewrites to prevent them from becoming train wrecks. Gladiator, The Aviator, and The Last Samurai had the benefit of large studio backings combined with reputable directors and strong casts. Frankly, while waiting for Nemesis, I recall people warning of the impending doom of the script with anecdotes about Ridley Scott having found it necessary to get a ghost writer to make sense of the Gladiator script. Though Logan seems to be a popular writer, remember that he's credited for penning dreck like Nemesis, The Time Machine, and Sinbad.

In all seriousness, have any of the movies that he's been involved with had strong scripts? Have we been awed by his dialog? We remember those good movies because of the setpieces and the acting, not because of the contrivances or awkward lines.

Whenever people mention John Logan, I'm extremely wary of the product. One must look to other factors in the production to see if it might have the support to get that necessary rewrite.

Film requirements....

[Cheesey]

You'll need a top of the range HDTV and Bluray player to watch this movie, which will not work on 10% of the world's Bluray players because it includes a poorly-designed additional copy protection scheme on top of the usual Bluray DRM. The disc requires online activation before it will play, and you'll be limited to five activations, so you can use each disc in no more than five Bluray players. The good news is that the trailer will also be protected by the same scheme, so you will be able to check your equipment for compatibility before you buy.

Re:Film requirements....

[Anonymous Coward]

BioShock runs on any average computer. Only exception is people having an ATI X800 (blame ATI) or a very old video card (blame yourself). As for the copy protection, I never had a problem with it (I'm not a pirate).

Re:Film requirements....

[Anonymous Coward]

As for the copy protection, I never had a problem with it (I'm not a pirate). Plenty of others who aren't pirates did have a problem with it, but thanks for being an asshole.

Re:Film requirements....

[Hojima]

It wasn't just pirates that had a pain in the ass with the copy protection. Anyone who had to reformat their drive more than three times couldn't use what they paid for. I couldn't even borrow it from my friend to try it out. That's why I pirated it.

Re:Film requirements....

[Das Modell]

Why was this modded flamebait? AC is absolutely right. Legitimate customers did have problems with the copy protection.

Re:Film requirements....

[WDot]

It wasn't just people who formatted their hard drive that had a pain in the ass with Bioshock. I tried the demo and it kept BSODing on me. I couldn't even get past the elevator with the "Sweat of his brow" speech like, 5 minutes in. That's why I didn't bother with it altogether.

Re:Film requirements....

[rpillala]

This will all be true even if you go to see it in a theater.

Re:Film requirements....

[@madeus]

I just refused to buy it (and Mass Effect and Trackmania).

I would really have liked to play Mass Effect on the PC, the 360 version has too many loading issues due to constantly streaming of the DVD (it was clearly not really a finished game, even though the content is all there and very high quality) I assume that presumably wouldn't be a problem on a powerful desktop PC so I was looking forward to it until I heard it had the crappy copy protection scheme.

A representative of the guys behind Trackmania (which I would really like to play...) has been really cocky about it too, he thinks its not impacting sales and only pirates. Of course he's wrong, and of course I'm sure you can still get downloads of it anyway (as is always the case...). Nice work there, chump. It's on Steam now, but I'm still not buying it because he was such an asshole I don't want to give them any business.

It's not simply that I have a principled objection, I installed X3 and it's Starforce copy protection totally hosed my system. It was crash all over the place after installing, even when playing games other, and some times while just at the desktop. I had to look in the event logs, the device manager and search Google then put all that together to see why (from what I gathered, it installs a device driver / virtual disc controller to the OS, and one that's very poorly written at that, which not only slows down you system, but also causes it to crash, often frequently.)

After running the Starforce uninstaller (found online) my system was immediately fine again. Of course I had to do that as uninstalling X3 - which had installed it - didn't take off the crap it had put on. I never did play the game for more than a few minutes, I sure as hell wasn't about to install it again.

As a result of this sort of crap, I pretty much only buy PC games on Steam these days. I know it works, and when it comes to reinstall Windows know the games will just re-download fine.

I know I won't have to hunt around looking for a serial number, which is on the manual, when it says it should be on the box, or is on some inlay card or sticker that's got lost. and then I have to hunt around for a crack, but then the crack only works with an unpatched release of 1.0 of the software, which is no use because version 1.0 is a pile of crap and without patching to a new version it can't be completed because of some bug in the gameplay on level 4 (etc, etc).

Ironically, it's primarily the PUBLISHERS who have forced all this crap on to go games (not developers). I've even emailed a few developers (politely) to let them know what I think of their copy protection and a more than one has responded sympathetically saying it's a request of the publisher, or the original licenser (in the case of ports). I say ironically as it's the existing publishers who will lose out with (legal) online downloads, because they will get cut out all together.

(Sorry that this is off topic, but Bio Shock was so well know for it's POS copy protection, seems hard to discuss it without mentioning it).

Re:Film requirements....

[Leonard Fedorov]

Hold up there... pirates had trouble with copy protection? I must not have recieved the memo...

Re:Film requirements....

[Jurily]

Not the ones who pirated it before buying. That's what I do, works like a charm.

Re:Film requirements....

[denmarkw00t]

Umm...if you read /. at all, you would have seen the EA proposed DRM that would cause Mass Effect (PC) and Spore to phone home every ten days. This wouldn't hurt pirates, only consumers - pirates hack around these kinds of things.

Re:Film requirements....

[Anonymous Coward]

While in the grand scheme of things the original parent was pretty funny. The steam version of bioshock as well as trackmania have none of the above problems.

If you really like these games and want to purchase them, use steam. Yes you need to connect to the internet every once and a while to use it. But its not like crap my internet connection is down I can't play bioshock.

In general I don't like any form of copy protection either, because it never works to deter the pirates. However, at least steam doesn't penalize the customer.

Re:Film requirements....

[@madeus]

The steam version of bioshock as well as trackmania have none of the above problems. Thanks, I wasn't sure about that.

I purchased Unreal 3 over Steam, and it still had a serial number on it. I was surprised at this, but Steam played nice and shows you the number as a popup at just the right time when you are installing, so you can enter it into Unreal (a nice solution).

After seeing that in particular I wasn't sure how much other third party titles were integrated with Steam so have been quite wary (incase it was the same installer, just wrapped additionally in the Steam downloader).

Re:Film requirements....

[azuredrake]

They've since announced that neither Spore nor Mass Effect will require a SecuROM check any time after you install it, and that while you'll be limited to 3 simultaneous installs, they're nocd patch'ed by default.

Re:Film requirements....

[Ahnteis]

The only part of those restrictions that has changed from the original announcement is that key checks will now happen every time you update instead of every 10 days.

The 3 install limit and no cd-requirement were already present.

Re:Film requirements....

[ApostateApostle]

Or, you could just play it on the Xbox 360?

Re:Film requirements....

[steveo777]

You forgot about the widescreen issues. The theaters will show it in 4:3 stretched to 16:9 (or whatever they use) until lots of complaining and you'll be given a free ticket to watch it again. :)

Razzing Bioshock aside, I loved the game. Still haven't played it in 'true' widescreen yet, as my cousin has had my copy since last November and it hasn't been worth the drive to go get it.

ummm

[gEvil (beta)]

The director for the project is to be Gore Verbinski, who proved himself on the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, and the current writer for the screenplay is John Logan, who is recently known for the also-creepy Sweeny Todd.

So what you're telling us is that it's gonna star Johnny Depp?

Re:ummm

[Nimey]

...in the role of a Little Sister.

He pulls off effeminate pretty well.

Re:ummm

[jav1231]

If you saw Sweeny Todd, hand over your testicles.

Re:ummm

[Anonymous Coward]

If you saw Sweeny Todd, hand over your testicles. You forgot to say "Would you kindly..."

translation please

[1u3hr]

WTF does "its storyline which emerged through gameplay, not just cutscenes" mean in English?

Re:translation please

[Hellcom]

It means its not final fantasy. Think half life for something similar.

Re:translation please

[theaceoffire]

It means that during game play, you could do things like listen to recorders you found on dead bodies, and get creeped out by the surroundings, rather than have everything shown to you in non controllable video shots.

As for Hellcom's Final Fantasy comment, Final Fantasy used to use cut scenes that were pre rendered to make ps1 and ps2 games look as good as ps3 games. Now that the ps3 is out, they will likely not use them for size reasons.

Re:translation please

[Chutulu]

All your base are belong to us ??

Re:translation please

[fbjon]

I haven't played Bioshock (yet), but I'd say it sounds more like System Shock 1&2.

Re:translation please

[BaronHethorSamedi]

It means that the gameplay was the important story element in Bioshock.

Which is why the film will suck.

A key underlying theme in Bioshock is the illusion of choice--sort of a meta-commentary on gaming itself as a medium. (*Spoiler warning*) The player is placed in a broad, seemingly very open environment, invited to make choices as he participates in the story. The twist in the plot is where you find out you're really NOT a participant at all, but an automaton performing as you are expected to by outside actors. I really thought this was a rather clever response to Ebert's principal argument against "games as art"--that games as an interactive medium lack authorial control. The Bioshock authors used the interactivity to demonstrate why authorial control is paramount to the way games tell stories.

There's no way to convey this through a film. The passive viewer loses the sense of interactivity and participation that made the game philosophically compelling. I'm sure the movie will look pretty, and I'm sure they'll spend a lot of money on it. I'm also sure it won't be able to add anything to what the game already accomplished.

Re:translation please

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/1394-Zero-Punctuation-BioShock

Re:translation please

[Anonymous Coward]

I would much rather see a Half Life movie than bioshock. A movie about an ass-kicking scientist with lots of action and a little bit of campy-nes? I'd be in line for that.

Re:translation please

[Hellcom]

That might be because bioshock is a spiritual successor of system-shock and developed by the same creative head, Ken Levine. I said half life instead because I assumed that if you don't know about bioshock you likely don't know about system-shock.

Re:translation please

[88NoSoup4U88]

A key underlying theme in Bioshock is the illusion of choice Other than the choice to either harvest or save the Lil' Sisters, what moral dilemmas were in there?
Whereas I loved the game, I think the story is still very much overrated.

Re:translation please

[ravenshrike]

Considering that the only two choices I saw was, okay, who should I listen to that will get me out of this fucking hellhole the fastest, the sane sounding guy looking for his wife, or the ultra paranoiac who has already demonstrated a willingness to kill me; as well as the choice on whether to kill little sisters or not(not, because being nice to people is generally a good way to go unless they purposefully harm you first) I fail to see any supposed control. The whole bit about being an automaton was just the people at bioware wanking off, IMO. The character pretty much did(barring the whole photo taking bit) exactly what I would have done to get out of there.

Re:translation please

[Anonymous Coward]

If System Shock 2 were made today, it would be nearly identical to Bioshock.

Re:translation please

[Anonymous Coward]

it's like Half-life not Final fantasy.

Re:translation please

[spoco2]

Why should the film focus on the same thing that the game did? You've got a rich world to mine there... the building of Rapture, the fall of Rapture, the discovery of Rapture (the rapture of Rapture?).

Basically, the game succeeded on one front, who's to say the movie won't come at the material from another angle and succeed brilliantly also?

Stop thinking in the narrow 'the movie must just be the game all over again' mindset. The game introduced a world, how they use the world in a movie is open for vast interpretation.

Re:translation please

[enderjsv]

God no. There's no way a two hour movie could do Half-Life right. Be careful what you wish for.

Re:translation please

[DKGames]

I would have to agree, the fact that there was only two cut scenes in the entire game (not including the various flashes of the past) One at the beginning and one at the end (two actually if you count the different endings) really lent the game some credibility in the actual act of being able to tell a story without 100 million dollars in CG animation. I'm sure there was some expensive development cost, but it showed in gameplay, not in movies.

I do love Square-Enix but I must say that Bioshock was much more fun to play and much more engaging than any CG intensive game I have played in a while.

As for it being a film? Unless they cover the fall of rapture, it will suck - bottom line. Look at Doom, thats what happens when they make FPS game into Movies. It would be like making Half-Life a movie, isn't it already like an interactive movie?

World changing?

[bradbury]

And when will this actually contribute to making the world a better place?

Re:World changing?

[Anonymous Coward]

Who said "world changing"? I don't see that anywhere in the summary or the article.

In other news...

[Bright Apollo]

"Day of Defeat: Source" is being bundled with "Saving Private Ryan" and "Band of Brothers" in time for the Memorial Day weekend shopping season.

-BA

Correction

[Sobieski]

John Logan, who is recently known for the also-crappy Sweeny Todd. fixed

Re:Viral marketing, on my slashdot?

[Scruss]

The game sucked? What were you on while playing this? The games story and visuals were absolutely amazing. I do agree however that game to movie adaptations have been terrible.

niversal

[blind biker]

Some might want to know that Universal is probably THE greatest supporter of both MPAA and RIAA. Some of the members of the aforementioned cartels started to come to their senses, but Universal is adamant in their MAFIAA ways.

Re:PlanetShock real time will be made by creators

[indy_Muad'Dib]

this has got to be the most informative GNAA trolling ive ever seen, but it is more fitting for digg since its is barking moonbat anti bush drivel at best.

would fit right in over there.

Re:OK

[Anonymous Coward]

So long as they don't harp on the BS philosophy. I mean, objectivism is complete self-serving crap to begin with, designed to make selfishness and greed look like virtues, and the game even gets that wrong...

Greed and selfishness *are* virtues. You benefit from other people's greed every day. Do you think the people who made all your crap did it out of the goodness of their hearts? Like the factory workers building your computer were thinking "Wow, I'm so happy some guy is getting a new computer, I'm gonna work for free." Or the people who wait on you at the coffee shop do it because they love serving coffee? Not fucking likely. They were doing it for the paycheck. 99.99% of people only go to work because they're greedy and want a pay check.

Greed has done more for the world than any humanitarian bullshit, so shut the fuck up.

Objectivist film

[Dr. Cody]

Finally, Objectivists will have a film to their name!

Well, with the exception of The Fountainhead, which was accidentally filmed as a screwball comedy.

Thank fuck.

[apodyopsis]

Thank fuck. I thought for a moment Uwe Boll had found another notch for his bed post...!

Universal? Again?

[pooberry]

Universal already did this once with the rights to a Halo movie. Then they backed out of funding when the time came to cut a check for pre-production... and that was with a HUGE franchise that was a sure thing.

Perfect hollywood movie

[SuperKendall]

Great special effects, and the ending totally sucked story-wise. Perfect template for Hollywood.

Great

[NetRAVEN5000]

Great, another movie based on a video game - hopefully it won't suck this time.
I kinda hope they bring back System Shock - I'd like to see a new sequel in that series. Not as a movie though.

Re:Great

[Jesus_666]

Very true. A movie is the one thing where BioShock would be better than System Shock - Hollywood wouldn't be able to get SHODAN right; also, much of what draws you into SS comes from the fact that the whole mess is actually your fault. Someone once said that the relationship between the player and SHODAN is very personal. It's true. And that can't be captured on the silk screen.

You have a choice to make

[Knave75]

When you go to the theater, you will meet an obnoxious minimum wage drone who will charge you $15 for a movie and take 25 minutes to enter the transaction while you miss the opening scene.

You can...

(1) Harvest the clerk, and get into the movie for free along with unlimited popcorn.

or

(2) Save the clerk, teaching him how to operate a register. You'll still have to pay a bit to get in, but at least you helped the world a bit and the clerk might hook you up with some presents later.

Re:You have a choice to make

[Jesus_666]

Of course if you - at any point - pick (1), you will inevitably end up attacking the free world with nuclear weapons.

Re:You have a choice to make

[the brown guy]

Having worked at a large movie theater for 8 months last year, I can honestly say that us "clerks" have a reason to be incompetent and take unreasonably long time to serve you with food/tickets.
1. We make minimum wage
2. At least at my theater we got 1 free movie a week (with a guest) but only if the movie was not too busy, so I couldn't watch any popular movies on opening nights/weekends>br> 3. It smells like popcorn
4. We are forced to upsell, and if we don't suggest at least 2 items, we can get reprimanded and possibly fired, I've seen it happen.
5. The turnover is very high, so the chances of really getting to know people and make friends is very low, and they don't hire good friends of people who are already "cast members."
6. Because we are making minimum wage, coworkers are normally morons, who can only make minimum wage.
7. If somebody does complain to a manager or supervisor, they almost always get a free medium popcorn or a free pass to a future movie, the the employee gets taken to the back and yelled at.
Because there is a certain social stigma associated with working for minimum wage, I have decided to post as an AC.
The next time you miss the previews of the movie you're watching, don't get mad at the clerk for trying to upsell, that's his job, and he's getting a pittance for his hard work, and it's shitty work. Working till 2 am on (high) school nights, not a recipe for success. I just realised, that this is my longest post ever!

Re:OK

[Anonymous Coward]

Greed and selfishness *are not* virtues. I do not benefit from other people's greed. I am in competition with them. Their and mine own ability will determine who succeeds, but there is no virtue involved in the my desire to take everything and prevent you from having anything, jackass.

To Quote Ask A Ninja

[AnotherAnonymousUser]

It could have used a lot more gore, and a lot less Verbinski...

Re:To Quote Ask A Ninja

[Anonymous Coward]

I liked 'An Inconvenient Truth' as much as anyone, but I'm not sure he's the best director to go with for this kind of film. ;)

Re:OK

[ravenshrike]

Actually, in a lot of ways they got what would happened if you would attempt objectivism with normal people in a originally resource rich but ultimately low-quantity environment, with no ability to expand or improve on the way they use resources. If a philosophy like objectivism is to work, it requires that upwards of 75% of the population be willing to take responsibility for their own actions. Good luck getting anywhere near that percentage.

Re:OK

[Anonymous Coward]

Second-hander!

The stupidity of Objectivism!

[Anonymous Coward]

The greatest thing about Bioshock, to me, is how it exposes the completely foolish and self-serving ethos of Objectivism.

No matter how the sociopaths of this world try to rephrase it, selfishness is not a high ideal. It will be nice to see that message reach as large an audience as possible.

Re:The stupidity of Objectivism!

[zippthorne]

Yes, yes, we get it. You never understood Capitalism, OR Millsian ethics. OR even values-ethics. Therefore everyone who doesn't subscribe to your depressing view of an ideal world must be a sociopath. Congratulations, Mr. Marxannabe, on your ignorance, you've certainly taken it to an impressive level.

Forever...

[alexandreracine]

Actually, I can't wait the adaptation of Duke Nukem Forever!

Bruce Campbell

[Dillenger69]

If it's not about the back story (which it should be), they need to cast Bruce Campbell as the player and camp up the whole thing like the Evil Dead series.

Andrew Ryan FTW!

[Anonymous Coward]

Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his own brow?
No, says the man in Washington. It belongs to the poor.
No, says the man in the Vatican. It belongs to God.
No, says the man in Moscow. It belongs to everyone.

Re:OK

[Anonymous Coward]

You're thinking about it backwards. You benefit from their greed because if it weren't for their greed, they wouldn't be motivated to use their "ability" in the first place.

It's not "greed" as in psychotically wanting to take everything from everybody. It's "greed" as in a desire to be compensated for the work you do.

I'll be more interested in your "greed is bad" bullshit when you stop collecting a paycheck and start working for free.

Re:OK

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah more of the usual BS. 'It's "greed" as in a desire to be compensated for the work you do. ' Er no, no it isn't. It's more like "I'm ok so everyone else can go die in a fire". Coupled to the basic acceptance of wage slavery and oppression of working people (not to mention the complete disregard for the lives of those who fall sick, are injured or otherwise incapacitated) coupled to a lack of understanding of probability and the economics of scale.

But lets face it, it was never about being right. It was about coming up with a justification after the fact for what you want to do anyway. Keep kidding yourself all you like, but I'll keep thinking charity workers do more for us than investment bankers.

Re:OK

[westlake]

So long as they don't harp on the BS philosophy. I mean, objectivism is complete self-serving crap to begin with, designed to make selfishness and greed look like virtues, and the game even gets that wrong...

Well of course the game gets it "wrong." If this crackpot Utopia had actually worked there is no story.

I can haz a Portal movie?

[Bushido Hacks]

I know it is a bit earily, and that Portal has only been around for less than a year, but why not a Portal Movie or a Half-life movie?

If there is a Half-life/Portal movie, to which some people have speculated, why not have the following people play the possible role.

• Dr. Gordon Freeman: Edward Norton, Hugh Laurie, Simon Pegg, David Tennant, Cillian Murphy, Viggo Mortensen, Gary Oldman
• The G-man: Christopher Walken, Robert Patrick, Sean Bean
• Dr. Isaac Kleiner: Kurtwood Smith, Michael Gross
• Dr. Eli Vance: Danny Glover, Morgan Freeman
• Alyx Vance: Freema Agyeman
• Barney Calhoun: John Turturro
• Adrian Shephard: Topher Grace
• Dr. Gina Cross: undecided
• Dr. Colette Green: undecided
• Dr. Wallace Breen: Ian McKellen
• Dr. Arne Magnusson: undecided
• Father Grigori: undecided, maybe Peter Stormare
• Colonel Odessa Cubbage: undecided
• Dr. Richard Keller: Jeff Bridges, Nick Nolte
• Dr. Rosenberg: undecided
• Uriah: undecided
• Chell: Michelle Rodriguez
• GLaDOS: Ellen McLain

Another thing to consider is that Universal already owns the rights to Half-Life. So why not a Half-Life/Portal movie?

Re:I can haz a Portal movie?

[Anonymous Coward]

I know it is a bit earily, and that Portal has only been around for less than a year, but why not a Portal Movie or a Half-life movie?

I hope they don't make a Half-Life movie.

I'm not saying that because I do not believe they could find a good director, get a good budget, write a good script, or get people to watch it. I think they shouldn't make it because part of Half-Life is taking up the role of Gordon Freeman and experiencing everything in the game world firsthand. I love the idea of a Half-Life movie, but I don't think that the medium would be able to do the game justice.

If the game was played from a third-person perspective, it wouldn't have the same effect. The same goes for if it was a movie, making the viewer participate from an outside-looking-in view. Many of the concepts in Half-Life would seem cheap or B-movie-ish from an outside perspective, but being in first-person and facing those dangers constantly closing in--the alien taint slowly consuming a suffering world and its inhabitants--adds a feeling of surreal horror that would be incredibly difficult to pay respect in film.

Also, the plot is just too darn big to fit into a single movie without hacking it to pieces.

Re:OK

[Anonymous Coward]

And who donates money to those charity workers so they can keep doing charity? Hint: it ain't other charity workers...

Also, are you're 100% sure those charity workers aren't doing it because they feel good about it? They're not selfishly trying to make themselves feel good by being nice to other people? Are you sure they're not doing it because they're trying to get in good with their "god"?

At some level, everything you do is because *you* want to do it. You don't want to look like a scumbag, so you work two jobs to support your kids and family, instead of leave. You don't want to look like an asshole, so you donate to charity or do charity work. You don't want to mooch off people, so you go to work every day.

If you don't think people are inherently selfish and greedy, you're not paying attention.

same old

[cavebison]

Since Bioshock played a lot like Doom 3 (ie. I was bored after an hour), I image the movie will be a lot like it's counterpart as well. And they sincerely wring their hands about dropping attendance at theatres and pirated movies? They actually want us to pay for this rubbish?

Iron man is a case in point. Interesting for the first hour, then repetitive (in the sense of "I've seen this movie before") for the second hour.

I'd like to see people complain about movies and try to get their money back. That will perhaps encourage a little effort on the part of studios, who are getting very very, lazy these days.

Re:same old

[JimboFBX]

You mean like how in South Park, the boys complained to Mel Gibson about the Passion of the Christ? (and got their money back for BASEketball)

Remake?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ohh, are they doing a remake of the City of Lost Children?

Game Screenplays

[wait4dawn]

It's a shame that recent games get all the attention when it comes to crossing over to the big screen. There are many classic videogames that would make great movies: System Shock, Syndicate, UFO - Enemy Unknown, anyone? Hell, even Simon The Sorcerer would make a decent family movie (and a great Harry Potter parody) in the right hands. Let's hope there's no Uwe Boll syndrome in this Bioshock adaptation. Oh well, at least it can't suck as badly as Super Mario Brothers...

disgusting game

[Anonymous Coward]

didn't finish it.

by disgusting as in revulsion to the gore and shady Doom-like motion sickness inducing tunnels. not to mention the dumbass NPCs who had less AI than a NPC in a text game from 20 years ago.

Leave it alone

[ThadenMidnight]

I think BioShock is one of those games that speaks for itself, and shouldn't be translated to other mediums. Something will be lost in the process, that's for sure. And where is Ken Levine in all of this?

The Phantom Empire

[westlake]

they need to cast Bruce Campbell as the player and camp up the whole thing like the Evil Dead series.

There is a place for comic relief - but sci-fi, fantasy, and horror almost always works best when played straight:

Very likely the world's first singing-cowboy science-fiction adventure, this 12-episode chapterplay features Gene Autry in his first starring role -- as "Gene Autry," the proprietor of Radio Ranch.
It is said that Wallace MacDonald...came up with the concept while under the influence of nitrous oxide at his dentist's office. That seems quite possible, given the screenplay's furious imaginings, which include an interesting kind of television that requires no cameras (but has an inconvenient, floor-level circular screen) and and "radium bombs" posed to destroy the entire planet.
What gives "Phantom Empire" its enduring charm is the refusal of the filmmakers to play any of its outrageousness for laughs. As extravagant as the action becomes, the picture never loses its sense of complete conviction.
Long a victim of third-rate, public-domain releases on home video, "Phantom Empire" has been nicely restored by VCI Entertainment for a new two-disc edition. New DVDs: 'The Phantom Empire' [Mascot 1935]

Completely incorrect

[spoco2]

I enjoyed all three movies, and I've watched all the making of stuff on the discs. HE DEFINITELY DIRECTED ALL THREE MOVIES

Where do people get this shit that they spout as fact?

omg NO!

[Dart524]

sweeny todd and pirates of the carabien both had jhonny depp in it if they put him in this movie i will stab someone seriously mat damon would be better (but not by much) or bruce willus could play atlas or get adam sessler to play atlas would be hilarious

Re:OK

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah the pendantic and yet stupid "We all do what we want to". Yes, my ancestors were enslaved by the greedy for their own good. There's enough food for everyone yet people starve due to greed, that's good for us too right?

Quit using pseudo-philosophy to try and justify your immoral behavior and accept that you're a tool