Exclusive interviews: Duncan Jones (Director of Moon) - Andrew Barker (Director of Straw Man) - Tony Grisoni (Screen Writer of Red Riding Trilogy, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) - Michael Marshall Smith (author of Spares, Only Forward, The Straw Men etc) - Alejandro Adams (Director of Canary) - Ryan Denmark (Director of Romeo & Juliet vs The Living Dead) - Neal Asher (author of the Cormac series, The Skinner etc) - Marc Robert & Will Stotler (Able) - Kenny Carpenter (Director of Salvaging Outer Space)

Press Conference - Public Enemies - Johnny Depp, Michael Mann, Marion Cotillard

NEWS - REVIEWS - TRAILERS - POSTERS - INTERVIEWS - FORUM - CONTACT


FEATURED REVIEWS - Public Enemies - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Moon - The Hurt Locker

LFF is on Facebook - Twitter - Friend Feed

Monday 27 April 2009

Bioshock has run out of Adam for now

Universal Pictures has put the brakes on Bioshock, the Gore Verbinski-directed live-action adaptation of the bestselling Take-Two Interactive vidgame according to Variety.

The picture was in pre-production, but the studio has halted that effort -- and let some production staff go -- as Universal and Verbinski figure out a way to make the film on a less costly budget.

The John Logan-scripted picture was gearing up to shoot in Los Angeles, but that changed when the budget rose to about $160 million. Universal and Verbinski are looking at alternatives, such as shooting in London, as a way to pare costs.

The story takes place in the underwater city Rapture, where a pilot crash-lands near a secret entrance and becomes involved in a power struggle.

“We were asked by Universal to move the film outside the U.S. to take advantage of a tax credit,” Verbinski said. “We are evaluating whether this is something we want to do. In the meantime, the film is in a holding pattern.”

Verbinski and sources at the studio say they are determined to make the pic. Indeed, Verbinski (who has also been directing the Paramount animated film “Rango”) bowed out of directing a fourth installment of “Pirates of the Caribbean” so he could direct “Bioshock” and produce under his Blind Wink banner.

Studio sources said that the budget simply became untenable, but Universal sources said the situation is no different than when the studio delayed the start of the untitled Robin Hood pic that Ridley Scott is now directing with Russell Crowe starring. Universal is making that picture for $130 million, a much smaller budget than in its first incarnation. For a number of reasons that included the need for extra script work, that picture temporarily halted, which enabled Crowe to star in “State of Play” when Brad Pitt fell out.

All parties vow that “Bioshock” will not become another “Halo,” the would-be live-action adaptation of the Microsoft game that was cancelled when U and Fox got cold feet over budget fears.

Cheers to Pam for sending me the news. I personally hope the film does get made as it is a brilliant game with a cracking story. Do you want to see a Bioshock film? Would you want Verbinski to carry on directing it if it does start up again?

Leave a comment on this post below.

HOME

1 comments:

pamela fruendt said...

love verbinski's work, but want to see him direct potc4 & bioshock and i don't think it's going to happen.