BioShock

[Madwelshboy]

Pirates helmer to pass on fourth movie in favor of BioShock

Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski will not helm a proposed fourth installment and will instead focus on BioShock, a Universal Pictures adaptation of the best-selling sci-fi video game, among other projects, Variety reported.

John Logan scripted BioShock, which is likely to be Verbinski's next film as a director.

Verbinski is still working with Pirates star Johnny Depp, though. He has been directing Rango, a computer-animated film for Paramount Pictures, with Depp voicing the title character. Logan wrote the script based on an idea by Verbinski. Paramount has set a March 2011 release.

Verbinski's Blind Wink Productions is developing several other potential directing vehicles, including Clue, a live-action murder mystery based on the Hasbro board game, and a drama based on a Wall Street Journal article about the online fantasy role-playing world and its debilitating effect on the real lives of players. Steven Knight is penning the latter.

http://scifiwire.com/2009/04/pirates...to-pass-on.php

[Madwelshboy]

'BioShock' movie put on hold by Universal

A feature-film version of the critically acclaimed 2007 videogame BioShock, to be helmed by Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski, has been put on hold by Universal, according to a story in Variety. With a budget reportedly at $160 million -- caused in part by the film's setting, a massive underwater city -- the studio chose to halt production and seek alternative ways of cutting costs, including possibly shooting in London to take advantage of tax credits. Verbinski and the studio tell Variety they are still committed to making the film.

http://news-briefs.ew.com/2009/04/bioshock-movie.html

[Madwelshboy]

Verbinski to leave 'BioShock' movie

Director Gore Verbinski has revealed that he may quit the proposed BioShock movie.

Universal halted production on the film in April when its production budget for a US shoot spiralled to $160 million (£108 million).

Pirates Of The Caribbean helmer Verbinski admitted that filming outside the US to bring costs down may not be an option for him.

"The bottom line is it has to shoot out of the States for budget reasons and my schedule may be prohibitive," he told the Los Angeles Times. "There's a great script and a really interesting cast. It really comes down to the financial model now.

"Big movies are just not being shot in the States. I'm weighing whether I can physically go to the UK or Australia or one of those other places with a tax rebate for a year-and-a-half."

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/a...ock-movie.html

[Madwelshboy]

Fresnadillo making 'BioShock' film

Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has emerged as the leading candidate to helm Universal's BioShock movie.

According to Variety, the 28 Weeks Later filmmaker is in talks to replace Gore Verbinski in the director's chair for the video game adaptation.

Verbinski, who dropped out of helming due to his commitment to animated movie Rango, remains on board as a producer.

John Logan (Gladiator) penned the script for BioShock, which involves a struggle for power in the underwater city of Rapture.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/a...hock-film.html

[magictrick]

Yet another adaption of a video game to the big screen. I don't know how I feel about games being turned into movies as the ones we've had so far have been far from good. All that aside, the game is still awesome.

[Descent]

The game and it's story are amazing. I see no reason to film that and put it on the big screen... just play the game!

[DigiFluid]

I think a Bioshock film would have one significant advantage over the videogame: that it wouldn't become massively repetitive through the middle.

Don't get me wrong, Bioshock was a great game, but its gameplay ended up leaving a bit to be desired through a good chunk of the game. Its story is really good and I hope it ends up translating well to the big screen. It also had a really fantastic visual style that I really hope isn't lost in translation.

[DigiFluid]

Verbinski talks end of Bioshock project

Disappointing News: Gore Verbinski's abandoned 'Bioshock' movie would have been 'hard-R' and 'epic'

"They were building sets when the plug was pulled, one month away from shooting...Gore was going to be shooting on real sets and doing as much in-camera as possible. I nodded in agreement. “If you’re going to use CG to create everything you might as well just play the video game,” I added.

He agreed and went on to say it was going to be epic and said there was a crazy amount of jaw-dropping art they accumulated during pre-production… that he didn’t show me. Grumble-grumble-grumble. Oh, and Gore wanted to make it R-rated. And a hard R at that."

So, a "hard-R" Bioshock movie, huh? If you've played the game, you'll agree that anyone making the film would have to make it a hard-R just to do it justice, and it's heartening to hear that Verbinski had that much of the project figured out. Sadly, this is very likely the reason that the studio behind the film got cold feet: over the past year or two, many high-profile genre projects with R-ratings have tanked (think Watchmen, or Kick-Ass), and studios aren't looking to throw any more money on that particular fire right now. The good news is, we may yet see an awesome, epic, hard-R Bioshock movie at some point in the future. Quint goes on to say:

"Gore still has the passion for it and sees enormous potential in the Bioshock world as a film franchise. We know that Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) is currently attached with Verbinski producing. I’m sure that’s what he was referring to, but something in the way he was talking about it made it sound like it was still possible Gore might direct should the right situation present itself ."

[Replicator Todd]

Verbinski talks end of Bioshock project

Noooooooooo!!!!

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

Noooooooooo!!!!

Not surprising though. Hard R projects don't do as well as watered down pg 13 crap at the box office. Also there's the majpor disconnect between how videogames and movies treat their audiences. Movies, at least from Hollywood with some exceptions, frequently treat the viewer as a moron. Games are increasingly treating the player like an intelligent human being and address complex topics. Look at how the various mediums have handled genres like fantasy. Books have been during out mature, intelligent and complex fantasy stories for year, stuff like A Song Of Fire and Ice, you have a tv adaption of that coming soon and there have been videogames like Dragon Age. Hollywood hasn't gotten further than Lord Of the Rings.

Bioshock requires the viewer to actually fully grasp the story then the viewer needs to be able to at least have an inkling about idea's like capitalism, Objectivism and Ayn Rand. I can't imagine that went over well with the Hollywood types.