Gore Verbinski on What Happened to the BioShock Movie

Gore Verbinski on what happened to the BioShock movie

When it was announced that a film based on the video game BioShock would be directed by Gore Verbinski (A Cure for Wellness) in 2008, the reaction was largely positive online. A year later, Universal took the film off its slate. Fans were left wondering what happened, and during an AMA on the Reddit movies thread, Verbinski had an explanation for us.

He said, “Well it’s no short answer to that question but we were eight weeks prior shooting when the plug was pulled. 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. ‘A Cure For Wellness,’ we were able to really utilize a variety of location to create the world. ‘BioShock’ it wouldn’t work like that, we’d be building an entire underworld universe. 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. So I think things have changed and maybe there will be another chance, but it’s very difficult when you’re eight weeks away from shooting a movie you really can see in your head and you’ve almost filmed the entire thing, so emotionally you’re right at that transition from architect to becoming a contractor and that will be a difficult place to get back to.”

ComingSoon.net spoke to Verbinski about the defunct project back in 2011 while he was promoting the film Rango.

Verbinski told us, “I couldn’t really get past anybody that would spend the money that it would take to do it and keep an R-rating. Alternately, I wasn’t really interested in pursuing a PG-13 version. Because the R rating is inherent. Little Sisters and injections and the whole thing. I just wanted to really, really make it a movie where, four days later, you’re still shivering and going, ‘Jesus Christ!’… It’s a movie that has to be really, really scary, but you also have to create a whole underwater world, so the price tag is high. We just didn’t have any takers on an R-rated movie with that price tag.”

If, as Verbinski says, things have changed and that there might be another chance, would you be interested in seeing a BioShock film after all this time? Who would you want to direct it? Tweet us @ComingSoonnet and let us know your thoughts.