Take-Two Officially Confirms BioShock Movie
BioShock, which was coincidentally our favorite game of 2007, will be making its way from your HDTV screen to the silver screen, publisher Take-Two officially confirmed today. The film rights have been secured by Universal Pictures, which has named Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) as the movie’s director and producer. John Logan (Gladiator, The Aviator) is currently in talks to do the screenplay.
“We are excited that 2K Games’ vision for BioShock will be carried forward in a new medium,” said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two. “BioShock has been hailed as one of the most highly cinematic and richly plotted titles in interactive entertainment, making it extremely well-suited to film. In partnering with Universal and Gore Verbinski, we have assembled a team that respects the uniqueness of BioShock and will translate it into a powerful movie experience.”
The expected release date and terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Christoph Hartmann, President of 2K Games, added, “BioShock fans appreciate the depth and complexity of the game, and our partnership with Gore Verbinski will introduce the world of Rapture to an even wider audience. In addition to his impressive body of work, Gore is an avid video gamer and true fan of BioShock. That was extremely important to us in deciding to move forward with this project.”
The sequel to the game, only known so far as BioShock 2, is set to be released in 2009. It is possible that the game will be released alongside the film.
Variety’s videogame reporter Ben Fritz had the chance to chat with Verbsinski about the film. Significantly early details were revealed; Verbsinski himself is fascinated by gaming as a storytelling medium, has been in talks with 2K Boston’s Ken Levine about the project for sometime, and assures fans he won’t do “anything destructive to the IP.”
Variety: It’s pretty obvious that the game has some amazing visuals that might look great in a movie. What about the story? Do you want to carry that over as well?
Verbsinski: Fans of the game will not be disappointed. Of course, it’s just like anything else that you adapt. If you create a film from a game you have to break some of the game’s rules and do the best job you can, because they’re completely different. We can’t possibly put 30 hours of gameplay into a two hour movie. So we have to make some tough choices.
We want to take all the strengths from the property. Of all the games I’ve played, this is the one that I felt has a really strong narrative.
Spoken like a true Rapturian.