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."

proved himself

[StrawberryFrog (67065)]

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 (602326)]

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

Re:

[mrbluze (1034940)]

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

[efence (927813)]

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

Re:proved himself

[by Anonymous Coward]

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

Would it make any difference?

More boobs?

Re:

[jps25 (1286898)]

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

Re:

[Das Modell (969371)]

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:

[Vozmozno (985521)]

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

Re:

[Ihmhi (1206036)]

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

[Khaed (544779)]

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:

[dreamchaser (49529)]

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:

[owlnation (858981)]

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 dire

Re:

[OzRoy (602691)]

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:

[Shelled (81123)]

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:

[Luscious868 (679143)]

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 (1080535)]

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:

[ravenshrike (808508)]

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

Re:

[TheRecklessWanderer (929556)]

Did they learn nothing from the movie "Doom"?

Re:proved himself

[Das Modell (969371)]

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

[StrawberryFrog (67065)]

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

Re:

[Das Modell (969371)]

IMDB lists him as the director for all three.

Don't do the in game story!

[ttlgDaveh (798546)]

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:

[aurispector (530273)]

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:

[broeman (638571)]

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

The "Writer" of Star Trek: Nemesis

[kalidasa (577403)]

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

Re:

[BarneyRabble (866644)]

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....

Film requirements....

[Cheesey (70139)]

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:

[rpillala (583965)]

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

Re:Film requirements....

[Hojima (1228978)]

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:

[@madeus (24818)]

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 (whic

ummm

[gEvil (beta) (945888)]

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 (114278)]

...in the role of a Little Sister.

He pulls off effeminate pretty well.

Re:

[jav1231 (539129)]

If you saw Sweeny Todd, hand over your testicles.

Re:ummm

[by Anonymous Coward]

If you saw Sweeny Todd, hand over your testicles.

You forgot to say "Would you kindly..."

translation please

[1u3hr (530656)]

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

Re:translation please

[BaronHethorSamedi (970820)]

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:

[88NoSoup4U88 (721233)]

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:

[ravenshrike (808508)]

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 t

Re:

[fbjon (692006)]

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

World changing?

[bradbury (33372)]

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

niversal

[blind biker (1066130)]

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.

Objectivist film

[Dr. Cody (554864)]

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 (1048476)]

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

Universal? Again?

[pooberry (1278210)]

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 (25149)]

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

You have a choice to make

[Knave75 (894961)]

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.

To Quote Ask A Ninja

[AnotherAnonymousUser (972204)]

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

I can haz a Portal movie?

[Bushido Hacks (788211)]

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:

[ravenshrike (808508)]

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

[westlake (615356)]

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.