Is The Bioshock Movie Part of Sony's Games-To-Films Slate?

[MovieBob]

Is The Bioshock Movie Part of Sony's Games-To-Films Slate?

The studio, with multiple game-based films already in development, quietly registers several Bioshock-themed web domains

It's been a rough few years [http://variety.com/2014/biz/news/sony-chief-kazuo-hirai-im-not-entertaining-even-the-notion-of-selling-our-entertainment-assets-1201118888/] for Sony Pictures, with many industry observers noting that the studio's bottom line has become increasingly overdependent on the continued viability of the Spider-Man franchise. But behind the scenes, the motion picture arm of the Sony Corporation has been developing what looks to be an ambitious new blockbuster strategy: Feature adaptations of popular video games.

That Sony is betting big on games-to-film being the next big thing is no secret, but things got a bit more interesting on Friday when Kotaku reported [http://kotaku.com/ubisoft-has-over-9-000-employees-1563003254] that the studio has registered the domain names bioshock-movie.com, bioshock-movie.net and bio-shock.net. Such registrations are frequently made by studios who are planning to aquire or begin development of a property; and while Sony has never been connected to to a Bioshock feature before now, a previous version was in pre-production at Universal Pictures (with either Gore Verbinski or Juan Carlos Fresnadillo directing) before being shut down for budgetary reasons several years ago.

If Bioshock was to become part of Sony's development slate, it would join a diverse stable of games-to-film adaptations already announced including The Last of Us, Gran Turismo, Raving Rabbids, Uncharted, Watch Dogs, Rollercoaster Tycoon and Console Wars, a Seth Rogen-scripted corporate drama about the 1990s business rivalry between Sega and Nintendo. Sony also owns domains relating to a hypothetical Sonic The Hedgehog feature, possibly the "dark, edgy version skewed towards older audiences" supposedly planned [http://www.tracking-board.com/tb-exclusive-sonic-the-hedgehog-gets-the-dark-knight-treatment-and-a-writer-shortlist/] by Sony subsidiary Columbia Pictures.


Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/ubisoft-has-over-9-000-employees-1563003254]

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[JoJo]

Cool, one of the few video game movies I'd actually be interested in, Big Daddies on the big screen? Finger-crossed this turns into an actual thing.

 

[JustCallMeJonny]

Awesome. I hope they take the story from the Rapture book. Getting to see Andrew Ryan put the pieces in place and start building Rapture would be great. I just hope this one actually happens.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

Wait...Rollercoaster Tycoon? Gran Turismo? Those games dont even have a story(line).
Thats like saying: We make a movie out of Battleship.....
...oh, wait.

Also, I hope they come up with a new story(twist)...otherwise , as much as I love the game, its gonna be pretty boring.

It'll be a movie about a rollercoaster park, and a Fast and Furious knockoff respectively.

 

[rofltehcat]

Wouldn't Bioware 1/2 be better suited for a series? I mean there is so much space for showing how Rapture developed...

So for example the things happening in 1958 and 1959 of the Rapture timeline [http://bioshock.wikia.com/wiki/Rapture_Timeline].
On the other hand they probably won't stay that close to the source material anyways.

 

[TristanBelmont]

Well everything is going to hell now. IF I recall correctly, didn't Del Toro or someone like him want to make a Bioshock movie not too long ago, they just couldn't get it greenlit because they wanted an R-rating?

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Bioshock Infinite would be a lot easier to transfer to the big screen than the first Bioshock. But they'd have to start from the beginning. I'm interested in seeing if they can pull it off.

 

[Tactical Pause]

Normally, I'd just be pessimistic about this sort of thing, but there are circumstances involved here that make me... more pessimistic, I guess.

I may be wrong, but didn't Ken Levine give total control of the Bioshock franchise to 2K when he cut Irrational Games down to ~15 people? If so, that means they've just recently become able to make a Bioshock movie without his go-ahead. The movie that Ken Levine (while he still had control of the franchise) killed because even though the studio was prepared to go ahead with it, he didn't see it working out.

In other words, Levine would not allow a sub-par Bioshock movie. Now that he can no longer shut it down, it appears that one is being made. I don't like the looks of that.

 

[BrotherRool]

Games to films just isn't going to work. It's like the reverse superhero situation, instead of taking 70 year old characters they're taking stories from the youngest medium still finding it's feet with films.

It's so much to gamble when we don't even know what a good game-to-film adaptation even looks like yet. At least Bioshock would be the easiest one to get right because it's the setting and not the combat or the characters which is most important.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

I read Gran Turismo as Gran Torino. That almost made me do a spit take.

The Bioshocks would work as movies. Infinite, from what I've heard and seen, was a pretty good movie with an FPS mixed in it.

Though, about half the games just listed have a premised meant only for interactivity. The movie execs are just gonna hire a writer to rehash old ideas with the IPs name and extremely simplified scope tacked on. Raving Rabbids would become a stupid cartoon/fantasy characters is the real world story, like Smurfs(curse the mothersmurfer that green lit that), the Old Masters of the Universe movie, or Beastmaster 2. Roller Coaster Tycoon would be about some random guy trying to keep his tiny amusement park from going bankrupt and saves it by somehow getting new roller coasters. A new conflict(false? lawsuits from people getting sick from concessions or being injured) appears about 45 minutes into the movie and drags the already simple plot along for about another hour. PrinceOfShapeir already said Gran Turismo would be a Fast and Furious knockoff. This time it would just be with all legal races except for maybe one chase scene. I'd bet they dusted off an old script to jam one these IPs into every time they signed a contract.

 

[gamegod25]

Hate to be a downer but...WHY? What is the point of making a Bioshock movie? The story of Rapture has been told completely and thoroughly. There is no point to just remaking the story since the majority of people who give a shit already know the big twist and it won't have the same impact because a movie is not interactive like a game. No matter what they do it would be either re-treading the same ground or forced prequel/sequel premise's shoving their way into a complete story. Add to that the more than likely event that they will to cowardly to let it have an "R" rating and want to get as many kids to the theater (because videogames are just for kids) so any violence or language is going to be watered down to meet those standards.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Bioshock series. But there is just NOTHING to be gained from adapting the game to film.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

There is no way that can squeeze 12+ hours of immersive, interactive game-play and story telling into a 2 hour none-immersive, none interactive medium. Part of writing a video game story is knowing you have hours and hours of visual cues and little details that a movie can't have. What, is the camera going to hold on a little girl's doll for 10secs to let you know this is a sad, rundown place where kids used to be?

 

[shiajun]

Hate to be a downer but...WHY? What is the point of making a Bioshock movie? The story of Rapture has been told completely and thoroughly. There is no point to just remaking the story since the majority of people who give a shit already know the big twist and it won't have the same impact because a movie is not interactive like a game. No matter what they do it would be either re-treading the same ground or forced prequel/sequel premise's shoving their way into a complete story. Add to that the more than likely event that they will to cowardly to let it have an "R" rating and want to get as many kids to the theater (because videogames are just for kids) so any violence or language is going to be watered down to meet those standards.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Bioshock series. But there is just NOTHING to be gained from adapting the game to film.

Quote for truth. The gotcha moment in Bioshock makes absolutely no sense and has no impact in a non-interactive medium. The setting lends itself well for movies but this being Sony Pictures they'll abuse CGI to cover up the fact that their sripts are kind of mediocre and any semblance of sofistication that was in the original game will be scraped aside.

Also, what's this about a dark and edgy Sonic the Hedgehog? Why, seriously, why????? The character has already been dne, he's called Shadow. How did turn out for Sega and older audiences, huh?

 

[CriticalMiss]

Hate to be a downer but...WHY? What is the point of making a Bioshock movie?

Why? Cold hard cash. Sony want to make money from a popular franchise that is currently riding high rather than risk needing creativity by making something new.

The only way I see a Bioshock movie working is if it was actually a series of short stories set in Rapture or the Bioshock universe like the Animatrix movies. If they are just rehashing the story of the first game it's going to be shit. There would be no reason for gamers to go and watch it so they will have to water it down (no pun intended) for broader audiences.

Also how come Sony have the rights to a Watch Dogs movie? Didn't Poo-bisoft set up their own film studio to make films from their games?

 

[Joey Bolzenius]

I want to see it, hope it gets made

 

[Ldude893]

If Bioshock was to become part of Sony's development slate, it would join a diverse stable of games-to-film adaptations already announced including The Last of Us, Gran Turismo, Raving Rabbids, Uncharted, Watch Dogs, Rollercoaster Tycoon and Console Wars, a Seth Rogen-scripted corporate drama about the 1990s business rivalry between Sega and Nintendo. Sony also owns domains relating to a hypothetical Sonic The Hedgehog feature, possibly the "dark, edgy version skewed towards older audiences" supposedly planned [http://www.tracking-board.com/tb-exclusive-sonic-the-hedgehog-gets-the-dark-knight-treatment-and-a-writer-shortlist/] by Sony subsidiary Columbia Pictures.

I propose that we just assume every single of these projects will be dead-on-arrival, and then be pleasantly surprised when they turn out to be even beyond decent. For that to ever happen, there must be major input from the developers of these games, and the people behind these adaptations have to actually play the damn games before making them.

My best bet is that we won't see a single good video game movie until J.J. Abrams gets time to collaborate with Valve.

 

[gamegod25]

Hate to be a downer but...WHY? What is the point of making a Bioshock movie?

Why? Cold hard cash. Sony want to make money from a popular franchise that is currently riding high rather than risk needing creativity by making something new.

The only way I see a Bioshock movie working is if it was actually a series of short stories set in Rapture or the Bioshock universe like the Animatrix movies. If they are just rehashing the story of the first game it's going to be shit. There would be no reason for gamers to go and watch it so they will have to water it down (no pun intended) for broader audiences.

Also how come Sony have the rights to a Watch Dogs movie? Didn't Poo-bisoft set up their own film studio to make films from their games?

Oh it obviously is motivated purely by the desire to exploit a popular name rather than any legit artistic reason. It just makes me want to bang my head against a wall at the blind greed and needless sullying of something good. Even if they do as you suggested I still think the setting has been explored as much as it can already.

 

[Fusioncode9]

Sony PIctures is doing fine Bob, they just posted a large profit last quarter thanks to hits like Captain Phillips and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. They're not just relying on Spider-man, did you forget about James Bond? Their movie studio is one of Sony's healthier branches.

 

[zumbledum]

In other words, Levine would not allow a sub-par Bioshock movie. Now that he can no longer shut it down, it appears that one is being made. I don't like the looks of that.

thats a leap. it could simply be they wouldnt pay him enough or give him a star trailer on set. this is the guy that let infintie loose on the world so story cohesion and quality are clearly below the bottom line for this guy.


as for the film, well id like to see the fall of rapture but i guess that would need way too much exposition to jump into