A decade after Ken Levine personally pulled the plug on Gore Verbinski’s grand ambitions, the wheels are as soon as once more turning on a BioShock film. Netflix introduced at present that it is signed a cope with Take-Two Interactive “to supply a movie adaptation of the famend online game franchise.”
“Netflix is among the many finest and most forward-thinking storytellers in all of leisure at present,” Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick mentioned. “We’re thrilled that they share our imaginative and prescient and dedication to the BioShock franchise, which is beloved by hundreds of thousands of followers world wide. 2K’s Cloud Chamber studio is deep in lively improvement on the following iteration of the sequence, and matched with our partnership with Netflix, we stay extremely assured that BioShock will proceed to captivate and have interaction audiences like by no means earlier than.”
Would you kindly…get excited as a result of Netflix is partnering with 2K and Take-Two Interactive to supply a movie adaptation of the famend online game franchise BIOSHOCK! pic.twitter.com/lUqfaNlbc4February 15, 2022
The deal between Netflix and Take-Two has been within the works for nearly a yr, in accordance with The Hollywood Reporter, though at this level there’s nonetheless no author or director signed to take the venture. There’s additionally no indication as as to whether Levine, the inventive director on BioShock and BioShock Infinite, might be concerned within the venture in any capability.
As to what a part of the franchise is being tailored, that wasn’t revealed both. It might be a retelling of the unique recreation, a prequel or sequel, a tie-in to BioShock Infinite or the brand new recreation (BioShock 4 is within the works at 2K, in case you hadn’t heard), or one thing totally new—bear in mind, in spite of everything, that the probabilities are nearly infinite. There’s all the time a lighthouse.
“There’s all the time a lighthouse. There’s all the time a person. There’s all the time a metropolis.” Here is to certainly one of many this #NationalLighthouseDay. pic.twitter.com/PkrraFHaSJAugust 7, 2018
There’s lots for filmmakers to work with within the established canon—the massive New 12 months’s Eve social gathering of 1958 that precipitated the downfall of Rapture is one apparent choice—however no matter course it in the end takes, I believe it is unlikely that Netflix would signal as much as make a BioShock movie that is not recognizably BioShock in all the plain methods: Massive Daddies, Little Sisters, Artwork Deco opulence, corruption, and a few light-weight philosophizing concerning the nature of life and liberty and stuff. The current fan-made brief “The Interrogation of Timmy H” illustrates the perils of omitting these trappings: It is effectively made, however if you happen to did not know up entrance that it is a BioShock movie, there is not any approach you’d be capable of inform—it comes off extra like a slice of an excessively damp Raymond Chandler knockoff.
The excellent news for BioShock followers is that we will fairly anticipate Netflix to go all-in on making it work. As we famous on the finish of 2021, the curse of crappy Hollywood videogame diversifications has lastly been damaged, and we mostly have Netflix to thank.
