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

[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]

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

[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

[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.

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.

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....

[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:ummm

[Nimey]

...in the role of a Little Sister.

He pulls off effeminate pretty well.

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.

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.

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:ummm

[Anonymous Coward]

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

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?