MOVIE NEWS – A controversial box office disappointment ultimately prevented a BioShock film that was supposedly set to leave audiences stunned. Although a video game adaptation is still in development, Gore Verbinski believes nothing like his version will ever be made. The root of the issue lies in the lukewarm reception of another big-budget comic book film.
When a movie becomes a massive hit, as Guardians of the Galaxy did, Hollywood is suddenly swept up in the urge to produce action-comedies and sci-fi films about groups of misfits. Even Star Trek attempted to follow that trend, with far less glorious results. The logic is simple: “If it worked for Disney and Marvel, why wouldn’t it work for us?” However, the opposite can also happen: a failure can drag down other projects with it. That is exactly what happened fifteen years ago with BioShock and Watchmen.
The film that later convinced Christopher Nolan that Zack Snyder was the right choice to direct Man of Steel has steadily gained more supporters over time. Despite taking certain creative liberties with Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ graphic novel, it holds a 7.6/10 rating on platforms like IMDb—a score that continues to rise—firmly establishing it as one of the best superhero films for many viewers. At the time of its release, however, like most of the American director’s work, it faced rather unfavorable reviews and underwhelming box office results.
Watchmen reportedly cost between $130 and $150 million and grossed just over $185 million worldwide. Although it performed more respectably on Blu-ray, the industry still labeled the Warner Bros. and Paramount production a failure. That perception extended to rival studios such as Universal, which suddenly became far more cautious with the ambitious BioShock adaptation it had been developing for months with Gore Verbinski attached. Ken Levine, creator of the video game set in Rapture, recalled the situation in earlier comments collected by Eurogamer:
“There was a deal in place, and it was in production at Universal, with Gore Verbinski directing. I have a theory that he wanted to make an R-rated movie where you could show blood and naked women. Well, maybe not exactly that, but he definitely wanted a lot of blood. Then Watchmen came out, and for whatever reason, it didn’t do well. The studio got scared of making a $200 million R-rated movie, and they proposed cutting the budget to $80 million. Gore didn’t want to make an $80 million movie. Another director came on board, and I didn’t see that as a good fit. 2K is one of those companies that gives a lot of creative trust, so they told me, ‘If you want to cancel it, cancel it.’ And I canceled it.”
A film that would have featured two endings
That marked the end of the first—and most ambitious—attempt to adapt BioShock for the big screen. Other efforts followed; in fact, a promising live-action version is currently in development at Netflix with Francis Lawrence (The Long Walk), which is expected to begin filming soon and aims to stay faithful to the shooter. But what exactly was the film the Pirates of the Caribbean director wanted to make? Gore Verbinski spoke about his abandoned project just days ago on Reddit during a fan discussion, making it clear that his vision would have been anything but ordinary.
“I was going to go deep into the Oedipal aspect and definitely keep a strict R rating with the Little Sisters and the protagonist’s ‘choices’… and their consequences. Screenwriter John Logan and I figured out a way to include both endings; I really wanted to bring that to the big screen and blow people’s minds. We had fantastic designs for the Big Daddies and that crazy art-deco underwater aesthetic. I hear something about the project every year, but I’m not sure any studio is willing to go where I imagined.”
It’s a real shame. Adult-oriented science fiction stories—aside from a few exceptions—are still largely confined to projects with somewhat smaller budgets, even though technological advances now make it easier than ever to explore strange worlds on screen. As for Gore Verbinski, he has also ruled out returning to Pirates of the Caribbean and is set to release Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, a comedy about the end of the world that, to be fair, looks quite promising.
Source: 3DJuegos
