Netflix’s adaptation of BioShock is still in development, but the film’s producer Roy Lee has revealed that the project’s scope has changed due to budget constraints.
During a panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Lee (known for The Lego Movie) explained that Netflix has reduced the budgets allocated to its movies. Consequently, the BioShock movie is shifting from a “grander, big project” to something “more personal,” as reported by Variety.
The BioShock live-action movie was first announced in February 2022 as a partnership between Netflix, 2K, and Take-Two Interactive. Since then, Dan Lin has replaced Scott Stuber as Netflix’s film chief, adopting a more conservative approach to the streaming service’s movie strategy.
“The new regime has lowered the budgets,” Lee explained. “So we’re doing a much smaller version. … It’s going to be a more personal point of view, as opposed to a grander, big project.”
While the BioShock games are known for their immersive, dystopian, and visionary landscapes, their stories lend themselves well to a more personal approach. In the original BioShock game, players control a character named Jack, who discovers the underwater city of Rapture. Built by business tycoon Andrew Ryan as an isolated utopia, Rapture has descended into chaos, with its inhabitants driven mad and some superpowered by a genetic material known as ADAM.
The 2010 sequel, BioShock 2, returns to Rapture eight years after the events of the first game. This time, players control Subject Delta, the first successful Big Daddy bonded to a Little Sister, adding another layer of personal narrative to the dystopian setting.
BioShock Infinite, the most recent game in the franchise, was released in 2013. In this game, players travel to the airborne city of Columbia as protagonist Booker DeWitt, who is sent to retrieve Elizabeth, a young woman held captive.
It’s unclear how closely Netflix’s adaptation will follow the stories of these games, if at all. The latest update came in November 2023, when former film chief Scott Stuber mentioned they were still waiting on a script.
Francis Lawrence is still directing the movie, presumably with a script from Michael Green, the screenwriter known for Logan and Blade Runner 2049, who was previously attached to the film.
“[I’ve] been meeting regularly with [director] Francis Lawrence and his team to refine a draft to go back in,” Green said in an update back in October 2023. “We’re all optimistic. We all love it. It’s a great big sprawling nightmare world we wanna see real. So, here’s hoping. I would love to have an update for you soon.”
It will be interesting to see how the budget changes impact the overall vision of a “great big sprawling nightmare world.”
Budget aside, as long as it has a solid story with a tone and feel similar to the games, the rest will fall into place.
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