Netflix is turning BioShock into a live-action film

eurogamer.net:

Netflix, hardly a stranger to the world of video game adaptations, has chucked another beloved property onto its increasingly teetering list, this time setting its sights on turning Irrational Games' acclaimed underwater FPS BioShock into a live-action film.

The newly announced project is a collaboration between Netflix and Take-Two Interactive (the latter is listed as producer alongside Vertigo Entertainment), and still appears to be early in development, with the Hollywood Reporter claiming that no writer or film maker is currently attached.

About the only additional bit of intriguing news right now is that the deal was signed with an eye to developing a potential cinematic universe around the BioShock games — which makes some sense, given BioShock Infinite's premise of multiple lighthouses in multiple worlds leading to their own dystopian cities in space and time, be that Andrew Ryan's underwater dystopia of Rapture or the floating city of Columbia.

This isn't Hollywood's first attempt at adapting BioShock into a movie, of course; Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski was originally set to make a go of it back in 2008, then 28 Weeks Later helmer Juan Carlos Fresnadillo was reportedly attached. However, in 2014, BioShock creator Ken Levine revealed he had personally canned the film project following several failed attempts — relating to both budgetary and content concerns — to get the movie made.

There's no indication of when Netflix's attempt might reach fruition, but with a new BioShock game rumoured to be announced later this year, it seems like the streaming service might be wanting to get the project off the ground sooner rather than later.

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