Ken Levine Says He Killed the BioShock Film

[Username Redacted]

My first thought on this was good for standing up for your intellectual property. Second thought was along the lines of trying to come up with a movie or movies that are somewhat similar to Bioshock. The only thing I got out of that exercise was 'Dark City' a very difficult to classify movie that came out a year before 'The Matrix' and gets compared readily to that but aside from a few themes isn't as similar as people make out. It's also a movie that I feel excelled despite IMO a very weak cast. Honestly the visuals from 'Dark City' are probably what most reminded me of Rapture.

Also as an addendum the best video game based movie to date is IMO 'Ace Attorney' an adaptation of the first Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney game.

 

[rbstewart7263]

ken levine is a rare kind of species of developer that didnt evolve without a spinal cord.

 

[Innegativeion]

You know what? This is great news. Excellent, even.

I'm all for exploring old stories in new ways via a variety of media, but Bioshock worked in a such a unique way to interaction as to make its story more powerful for me personally than pretty much any film I've seen. Of course I'd be ecstatic to see a Bioshock film (done right, of course), but I'm not itching for it.

More importantly though, is that we have game developers with the creative sense to stick to their vision. Design is about better communicating your vision, adapting it when needed, but NOT compromising it. Bioshock's is a very mature story, with frankly expensive visuals playing a huge part in building its atmosphere. He's totally in the right to not want to see the story told without these key components.

As all the failed video game movies have clearly shown us, compromising the core of what makes a game's story great is not the ideal way to adapt for film.

Also as an addendum the best video game based movie to date is IMO 'Ace Attorney' an adaptation of the first Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney game.

I've heard this got dubbed for English, but I haven't bothered to go and look around for it. I've also heard it's quite enjoyable for Ace Attorney fans. I want to see it.

 

[duchaked]

hey I liked the Prince of Persia film, tho it wasn't GREAT
however, I do have to agree with Levine that sometimes it's best to avoid having a crappy film stain a good series' name (unless Bioshock 2 has already done that for some folk lol)

 

[Bat Vader]

If a Bioshock movie is ever going to be made I think the people who developed the game should do the film. They are the ones who know the characters, universe, and setting inside and out. In fact every developer should be in charge if their game is going to become a movie.

 

[gorfias]

The fuck you need $200 million for?

I hereby, with written notice and in good faith, do declare that for the fee of $6 million, I would be willing to write, direct and star in an $80 million adaptation of Bioshock (minus my $6 mil, of course).

I personally get offended when they spend too much. I know it limits the amount of product studios can provide us. When you read they spent $200 million on Amazing Spiderman, you know way too much of it did not end up on screen. It is a sort of rip off.

On the other hand, the new Judge Dredd Film was very good and created a whole new interesting world. It cost $50 million. Didn't make it back as it didn't find it's audience. That is a very different problem than needing $200 million to make an OK movie.

 

[Saxnot]

Good decision. I'd rather have no movie at all but potential for one in the future than a terrible movie which kills any future possibilities of making bioshock into movies.
Time and time again it's been shown that taking the cheap deal will lead to bad movies (D & D movie, Eragon), but waiting can lead to very good movies (Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones)

 

[Sansha]

I'm glad to hear this. I think a BioShock movie should be made with the utmost quality, like its namesake franchise. Holding out for a better deal is an excellent idea.

The fuck you need $200 million for?

I work on various production sets, just as an extra, and you won't BELIEVE the amount of effort that goes into making films. On average it takes us a full day to film ten usable minutes.

There are so many people involved in making a production, it's just bananas. Besides the actors, you have the director, three to six assistant directors working on the details, costumers, make-up people, prop people, set builders... then you have the caterers, equipment purchase/hire, getting all those people, equipment and costumes to the set, THEN you have post-production - special effects, editing, advertising, licensing... and the more money you can throw at a production, the more you can spend on more and higher quality equipment and people, and the more time you can afford to get everything right.

 

[EHKOS]

The fuck you need $200 million for?

Building Rapture.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Good on him. Saw a compromise coming and saved the integrity of the series. What a hero.

 

[PunkRex]

The fuck you need $200 million for?

Seems a tad excessive... how much does an old school divers suit cost?

OT: Im not gonna lie, its a little disappointing, but proberly for the best.

 

[EHKOS]

I'm glad to hear this. I think a BioShock movie should be made with the utmost quality, like its namesake franchise. Holding out for a better deal is an excellent idea.

The fuck you need $200 million for?

Building Rapture.

AT the bottom of the ocean?

It would be impossible to build it anywhere else.

 

[Sansha]

Thank you but I'm not really naive enough to believe that it's a film's budget that dictates quality. Than would mean this film is automatically TWICE as good as The Fellowship of the Ring. And that is more laughable than all the puns I've so far this year put together.

I imagine they'd need a fuuuuckton more set work, special effects, crew and time etc to build an underwater city, then flooding that ***** than Lord of the Rings necessitated. Then again, dragons, hordes of orcs, fucking Gondor, so you may be right.
And a big bulge in LotR's budget is that shooting in New Zealand is ridiculously cheap.

I'm all for them holding out for more money, but honestly I don't have a lot of confidence in its quality due to the rancid history of video game adaptions.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

I'd love to see it come out just as a nice slap in the face to Atlas Shrugged. But really, Bioshock was expertly built to be explored and experienced as a videogame specifically, and I respect Ken for maintaining the integrity of the brand here (as long as we forget Bioshock 2).

 

[Fursnake]

Am I alone in thinking a Bioshock movie would work best as a prequel of sorts that tells the story of the rise and fall of Rapture?

Also, in related news Ken Levine was just arrested on one count of murder in the first degree. Also arrested were several high ranking employees of Take Two for conspiracy to commit murder and being accomplices to murder. Questioned in the crime, but not convicted or arrested was Gore Verbinski, who had the good sense to get out before the killing occurred.

 

[Treaos Serrare]

Didn't DelToro get asked to do this movie? or was he supposed to do that dumbass HALO movie?

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Didn't DelToro get asked to do this movie? or was he supposed to do that dumbass HALO movie?

Del Toro's actually working on "Pacific Rim", a weird little movie about quasi-Lovecraftian Kaiju monsters and big-ass robots. I like to think that based on the title, it'll be a sort of unofficial reboot of "Battleship", just without the suckiness.

Halo was supposed to be put out by Neil Blomkamp with production assistance from Del Toro - but the project was canned when Fox refocused on District 9, instead.

It fell on Verbinski's shoulders because he'd just come out of the whole Pirates thing, and Hollywood loves typecasting its directors. Who better to direct a movie about sunken cities in the middle of the Atlantic than the guy who brought the Kraken and LeChuck- I mean, Davy Jones, to life?

I would've tapped Cameron, personally, but that's one of the few "auteur" filmmakers in the upper budgetary streaks of the industry.

 

[Scorpid]

I'm surprised to hear that Watchmen was a dud, me and my friends loved the hell out of it and I thought I heard alot of good buzz about it afterwards.