The last few years have seen a slew of video game adaptations hit both the big and small screens. From Fallout and The Witcher on streaming to Minecraft and Super Mario Bros in theatres, the video game curse has finally been broken. However, for every successful story, there are at least a couple of failures, and amongst the plethora of video game properties that still remain in development hell in their pursuit of a big screen adaptation, BioShock is at the very top of that list. So let's break down everything we know about Netflix’s BioShock Movie.
There have been a total of three Bioshock games, of which the first two take place in the 1960s in the fictional underwater city of Rapture, where the players find themselves battling underwater creatures in pursuit of freedom. The third game takes the action to the floating city of Columbia in 1912, where a woman with special powers holds the key to resolving the city’s dark past. With themes as varied as utilitarianism to multiple realities, the Bioshock games are considered some of the best, and each installment has been received with acclaim by both fans and critics alike.
The first game’s stratospheric success in 2007 saw its maker, Irrational Games, announce a deal with Universal Studios to produce a Bioshock movie a year later. Gore Verbinski, hot off the success of Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, was brought on as director and famed screenwriter John Logan was to write the screenplay.
A tentative release date of 2010 was given for the project, but the expansive action in the underwater city meant that both time and budget needed for the film would have to be increased. Thus, the first cracks began to show, and Verbinski swiftly left directing duties in 2009 due to the studio's decision that filmmaking be shifted overseas to cut costs. Verbinski was developing the Johnny Depp animated feature Rango at the time, and going outside the US to shoot Bioshock would have forced him to abandon the extensive post-production work on Rango.
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28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo took over Verbinski’s job, with Verbinski remaining as producer. By 2010, things took a turn for the worse when Universal asked Verbinski to reduce the budget, considering the fact that Verbinski had been pushing for an R rating. R-rated projects cannot be shown to teens under 18, and thus, ticket sales for such projects are almost always less than those with more accessible ratings. Verbinski refused to budge, and these creative disagreements finally led to him being removed from the project entirely.
A new creative team was appointed, but game creator Ken Levine felt he did not connect with this new team the way he did with Verbinski. The project was then abandoned completely by 2013. It would later emerge that Universal was spooked by the financial failure of the R-rated Watchmen adaptation in 2009 and was thus less willing to finance R-rated projects anymore.
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After Universal failed to get the film off the ground, Netflix stepped in to take over, with the burgeoning streaming giant seeking the next big franchise for its sprawling content library. A new Bioshock film was promptly announced by Netflix in 2022, and the search for a new creative team for the project was on after a brisk but expansive hunt. Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence was finally brought on board as director, and Logan writer Michael Green was tapped as the screenwriter in August. Having just finished Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Lawrence wanted Bioshock to be his next film, but fate, it seemed, had other plans.
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While Netflix and Lawrence tried to flesh out the project more, Michael Green was hard at work on the screenplay, submitting a couple of drafts by 2024. The film would then receive a slightly disappointing update that Netflix has decided to reduce the budget for the film, swapping the grand scale underwater action with that of a personal point-of-view-driven film. This is the exact point of contention that saw the project blow up at Universal. However, no such thing happened here with Lawrence accepting the studio mandate wholeheartedly.
Fans had always wondered which game the film would adapt, and this was finally answered by producer Roy Lee recently; he confirmed in a recent interview that they are only adapting the first game, with the next games left for further installments if the film is successful. As development on the film slowed, Lawrence moved on to direct the Stephen King adaptation ‘The Long Walk’, and his prior commitments to Lionsgate meant that he would have to direct the Hunger Games sequel, Sunrise on the Reaping, next.
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Sunrise on the Reaping comes out next year, so if Lawrence immediately moves on to Bioshock, the film cannot be released before 2028 at the earliest. Considering the expansive underwater special effects that make up the story, the extensive CGI work is sure to add another year or so to the project. Nevertheless, the team remains hard at work and a new draft was recently submitted by Justin Rhodes. With Lawrence finishing up Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping in a few months, it seems that Bioshock will be the next project he directs.
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With almost two decades now spent on getting the Bioshock movie on track, it appears Francis Lawrence and Netflix have finally got the details right, and barring any new curveball, the Bioshock film will indeed film in 2026 with a release date probably set for next year. With no new BioShock game installment since 2016, fans are eagerly awaiting this adaptation. Chances are high that veteran director Francis Lawrence will do a fantastic job, and we will all have the Bioshock film that we have always wanted.
