Look Look! A BioShock Movi- Oh.. It's Cancelled

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"Would you kindly. Powerful phrase. Familiar phrase? Sit, would you kindly? Stand, would you kindly? Run. Stop! Turn. A man chooses. A slave obeys."

-Andrew Ryan (BioShock)

In my previous post you could see a couple of great fan made video game movie posters and how I talk about how much I want and don't want BioShock movie at the same time, which you could ignore (and please do). Apparently, there was supposed to be a BioShock movie. No no, there is supposed to be a BioShock movie by now. Not a fan made, with Ken Levine himself involved in the project. 

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In case you don't know... Ken Levine, the Founder of Irrational Games (Now called Ghost Story Games) and the creator of BioShock, the one behind that masterpiece, the man, the maestro. You could have Einstein's brain if you want but I, for one, want Ken Levine's instead. 

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So the director of the cancelled BioShock movie was going to be Gore Verbinski, the director of Rango, The Ring, The Lone Ranger, and Pirates of the Caribbean. If we are to talk about "my favourite of all time", the video game would be BioShock and the movie would be Pirates of the Caribbean. To think that my favourite game (was) going to be made into a movie by the same person who created my favourite movie is... ugh I don't know how to put it in words help me, would you kindly?

It was confirmed to be released in 2011, now is 2017 already so where is it? Gore Verbinski answered that telling whatever happened to the project back in February 2017 on Reddit AMA that was meant to promote one of his film A Cure for Wellness. 

Pirates of the Caribbean were based on a theme park but it wasn't failed and is now one of the best movie series. When someone asked Verbinski if there was anxiety when directing the first Pirates of the Caribbean film, Verbinski's answer sounded quite confident. But unfortunately confidence alone won't lead to succeed to make a BioShock movie, a big budget R-rated BioShock movie.

"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."

Budget issues is one of the reasons and seems to be the biggest one to stop the movie production. What's with Verbinski and this R-rated BioShock movie? Verbinski aimed to create the movie where four days later still giving you the creeps. He wanted to bring the whole underwater dystopia horror into it. The Little Sisters, the blood, the injections, the entire thing.

Creating a massive world, based on a game full of violent, R-rated horror which means it will likely won't get audience as broad as PG-13 rated movie. That's something studios didn't want to take the risk on, and in this case Universal Studios. Verbinski was offered that it would be approved if it was rated PG-13, but that is something unnacceptable for him. 

The production was stopped when he and his team were so close to filming the entire thing. But unlike back then when there was some other expensive R-rated movies that were not working, Verbinski stated that there could be another chance now because things have changed but it's not likely to be him who is going to make that happen, as he said it would be emotionally difficult for him to go back to it;

"...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."

So are we never going to see a decent BioShock movie by Pirates of the Caribbean director? Or someday we will but is made by another director? Or perhaps Gore Verbinski will be emotionally ready to work on it again? That's a question only time could tell, and coffee. A lot of coffee.

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Fun Fact:
The Circus of Values, the vending machines in Rapture where you could buy food and ammunition will play a goofy music with the voice of a laughing clown "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaa! Fill your cravings at the Circus of Values!" when you use it. Do you know whose voice that is? Ken Levine.

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Images credit: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5