Netflix has optioned Bioshock and GRIS, could we finally get a Bioshock movie?
Is a Netflix Bioshock movie on the way? The excellent Supererogatory on Twitter has been wandering through the records at the United States Copyright Office and has spotted some new information.
It appears that sometime in the past Netflix has taken an option out with Take-Two Interactive to produce media based on the Bioshock franchise, with Bioshock, Bioshock 2, and Bioshock Infinite listed, along with Bioshock Rapture, a book based on the series.
The dates look a bit funny on the record, it seems the Date of Execution was 17th December 2020, but the Date of Recordation, which is the date when the Copyright Office receives the written document in proper form and the proper fee, is the 6th January 2022.
A movie based on Bioshock was well in to pre-production back in 2009 with Gore Verbinski directing and Universal as the studio. However, Universal pulled the plug as they wanted the budget slashed and the movie to be a more family friendly rating, whereas Verbinski wanted an R rated movie.
“We were eight weeks prior shooting when the plug was pulled,” recalled Verbinski back in 2017. “It’s an R rated movie. I wanted to keep it R rated, I felt like that would be appropriate, and it’s an expensive movie. It’s a massive world we’re creating and it’s not a world we can simply go to locations to shoot.”
“So I think the combination of the price tag and the rating, universal just didn’t feel comfortable ultimately. At that time also there were some R rated, expensive R rated movies that were not working.”
At the time Verbinski noted that “things have changed and maybe there will be another chance”, and in the same year we found out Take-Two had optioned out some properties to be turned in to movies. We now know what one of those properties is.
Netflix are quite happy with horrific content, All of Us Are Dead, a Korean zombie series is currently riding the top ten in the UK, and they’re also quite happy to throw vast sums of money at projects, Red Notice had a budget of $200 million. Bioshock seems very much at home on the streaming giant.
And second listing shows that Netflix has also optioned GRIS, the platform-adventure game by Spanish developer Nomada Studio and published by Devolver Digital.
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