'Bioshock' Adaptation Up Again

By Chase Kahn

With today's announcement regarding Universal's Bioshock adaptation (based on the hit videogame from 2007) that Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) will helm the picture, apparently the project is off and running again -- stagnant ever since the announcement that Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) would direct over a year ago.

I firmly believe that if any videogame adaptation will stick on the screen, it's "Bioshock". The game's story revolves around a plane crash survivor over the sea who finds solace in an underwater dystopian metropolis (called Rapture) built by business magnate Andrew Ryan in 1946 to escape persecution and political authority. The game takes place in 1960, in which Rapture has now become an extremely volatile and hostile society in which powerful men have turned it into an even stricter and more oppressive landscape than that of which Ryan originally escaped.

I have hopes for a good adaptation because "Bioshock", unlike most failed videogame-to-film projects of the past, isn't an action game. It's reliance on atmosphere, mood, story and role-playing mechanics should lend well to a director willing to see this opportunity as more than a money-grab.

The film, being produced and distributed by Universal Studios, is being slated as a 2010 release, but surely we're talking more 2011 as the high-profile pic hasn't even begun principle production and now sees a completely new director (and subsequent crew) take over the reigns. A videogame sequel, Bioshock 2, is due out in the first quarter of 2010 -- I'm sure Universal will be following sales closely.