Posted in: Horror, Movies, News | Tagged: bioshock, bioshock film, gore verbinski, ken levine, Universal Pictures

Gore Verbinski Talks Canceled Bioshock Film At Universal

Published Thu, 04 Mar 2021 16:15:10 -0600

Bioshock is one of those games that almost immediately when you put the disc on screamed: "I want a movie from this." That being said, I did not think it was ever going to happen. Gore Verbinski tried, though, and the project was set up at Universal years ago before falling apart. Nobody was shocked when it did, but, as detailed in a new interview over at Collider, the reason it DID fall apart was so basic and silly that it should make those of us who always wanted to see it pretty mad. Find out the stupid reason Bioshock never happened down below.

Bioshock Collection. Credit: Take-Two Interactive

What A Dumb Reason To Not Make Bioshock

"It was talked about as one movie. And it was strange; my first meeting at Universal on 'Bioshock' was sitting in a room and saying, 'Hey guys, this is a $200 million R rated movie.' And it was silent. I remember my agent going, 'Why did you say that?' I'm like because it is. Why just even trying to kill a movie you haven't even started? That's before getting a scripted before anything. I'm just I just want to be clear. And I think everybody at the studio was well, yeah, okay, maybe. Wow, no. It's big, we know."

Continuing, and man, I wish I had been in this room when this happened:"There are those people deal with data. So, it was like new data that said, don't make the movie. So, fair enough. But it was a glorious waste of time because I tried to be super clear, just absolutely honest, it's R-rated… That was even before; we're walking in with a, we've talked to the video game company. We've talked to [game director Ken] Levine; we're ready to go. Do you want to make it? I just said it; there was silence in the room full of 30 executives, marketing departments, everybody. Really tried to do this, so don't waste everybody's time if you're not going to make it."

So there you have it. Universal, for some reason, didn't want to bet on a high-budget, R-rated Bioshock film, even though it was as close to a sure thing as you can get. I just don't get Hollywood sometimes.

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