*sigh* Gore Verbinski jumps ship on "Bioshock"

Source: Slashfilm.com

Things aren’t sounding good for the big screen adaptation of the popular video gameBioshock. Universal greenlit the movie, and director Gore Verbinski stepped down from directing a possible fourth film in the Pirates of the Carribbean series. But in late April, Universal shut down the production, due to the film’s ballooning budget. The plan was to rework the script and explore possible locations outside the country which would offer financial incentives. When asked by the Los Angeles Times for an update on the project, Verbinski sounded less than hopeful.

“The bottom line is it has to shoot out of the States for budget reasons and myschedule may be prohibitive. There’s a great script and a really interesting cast. It really comes down to the financial model now. Big movies are just not being shot in the States. I’m weighing whether I can physically go the U.K. or Australia or one of those other places with a tax rebate for a year-and-a-half.”

I hate to put words into Verbinski’s mouth, but it sounds like the director is contemplating leaving the project if he get stuck with another multi-year international on location shoot. I hope Universal comes to their senses and finds a way to make this work. Shy of Guillermo del Toro committing to the film after The Hobbit movies, I’m sure any other choice would be a few steps down in comparison.  And we all know that video game adaptations usually attract some really shitty filmmakers, so it may be more than a few steps down. It could be 50 floors down.

Since its release, Hollywood has eyeing a big screen adaptation of this popular first-person shooter. Praised for its morality-based storyline, immersive environment and Ayn Rand-inspired dystopian setting, the game has received overwhelmingly positive reviews, and ranks as the thirteenth best video game on Game Rankings. Set in an alternative history 1960, BioShock follows the story of a plane crash survivor named Jack, who must explore the underwater Objectivist-dystopian city of Rapture, and survive attacks by the mutated beings and mechanical drones that populate it. Jack is drawn into a power struggle during which he discovers that his will is not as free as he’d thought. Aviator screenwriter John Logan penned the script.