Netflix Announces BioShock Film Adaptation

Netflix has announced that it is partnering with 2K and Take-Two Interactive to produce a film adaptation of the popular gaming franchise BioShock. Although no writer or filmmaker has been announced as attached to the project, The Hollywood Reporter is indicating this partnership has been in the works for almost a year.

Overall, details are still light on the movie. For example, it isn’t even known whether the project will be animated or live-action. Last year, Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski spoke about the cancelation of his BioShock movie that was in the works a long time ago–describing a project that was R-rated and necessitated a $200 million budget. That may or may not be a suggestion of the direction this upcoming project will avoid, but it’s hard to assume even that much since Verbinski’s version, written by John Logan (Skyfall), was first announced in 2008. Concept art for that version later surfaced in 2015.

A new BioShock game is currently in development at Cloud Chamber Studios, notably without the involvement of creator and writer Ken Levine. In an interview that was conducted in January, Levine said his hopes for a BioShock movie is it makes people who played the games “feel like the things they loved in it are intact.”