Bringing Rapture to the live-action stage continues to be an uphill task, but fans shouldn’t give up on their hopes just yet. Amid radio silence and scarce details on Netflix’s live-action movie adaptation of BioShock, director Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, The Hunger Games series) has confirmed that things are plodding along nicely.
“I am still attached. Yes, we’re still working on that one, that’s one also that I’m very excited about,” the filmmaker told Collider, which backs up his previous statement on feeling “super, super excited” about a draft of the script.
No plot details were shared, but the project is expected to follow the story beats of the original first-person shooter game by 2K. It centres on Jack, who discovers the underwater city of Rapture, built by business magnate Andrew Ryan to be an isolated utopia, now overrun by Splicers, Big Daddies, and the horrifying consequences of unchecked ambition.
“I like stories about very solitary figures,” said writer Michael Green to IGN last November. “That doesn’t mean that they’re always by themselves, but they’re on these solitary journeys. And if you know anything about BioShock, the first game, the lead character, who is the video game player, is a very solitary figure going on a very solitary journey, which I love.”
“The other thing that I really look for is the world-building possibilities, because I like the visual side of filmmaking,” he continued. “I like the world-building side of filmmaking and all the layers. And the idea of helping bring a Rapture to life in a feature film is super, super exciting. And all the detail and going back into ‘what was it like when it was thriving and alive, and what’s left over?’ And there’s elements of I Am Legend in that, which I’m really excited to bring to life.”
The first game was released in 2007 and received a sequel in 2010. The third entry, BioShock Infinite, featured an entirely different setting (minus the DLC) and introduced players to the floating city of Columbia in 1912. A new instalment is currently in development at Cloud Chamber Studios of 2K Games.
No release date has been attached to the BioShock movie.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
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