According to a new Deadline report, Francis Lawrence, director of Hunger Games, has been hired to direct BioShock’s upcoming film. Michael Green will adapt the script. Green’s previous credits include Logan and Alien: Covenant.
It has not been easy to get BioShock on the big screen. The series’ first game was released 15 years ago in 2007. A film project directed by Gore Verbinski was announced in the next year. However, the project stalled and eventually fell apart. BioShock’s creative director Ken Levine attributed the failure to Watchmen in 2013, an R-rated superhero movie that did not do well at the box offices. Universal wanted to reduce BioShock’s budget, but Verbinski refused. So he split. Levine stated that he didn’t see the match with Universal’s director, so he canned the entire thing.
This was it until February when Netflix announced a partnership with Take-Two Interactive in order “to produce a movie adaptation of the renowned gaming franchise.” It was unclear what Levine’s role would be in the new project. He also didn’t seem to have made any public comments about it. BioShock Infinite was the most recent BioShock game. Levine is currently working on something completely new at Ghost Story.
Netflix’s BioShock movie seems to be moving forward with the same urgency and purpose as the original project. It’s not easy to sign a director and screenwriter. But Netflix has a solid track record of getting things done. The network has also released new series or films based on The Witcher and Resident Evil.
