Over two years ago, Netflix revealed its plans to adapt the BioShock franchise into film. The original 2007 title from Irrational Games had a movie that was floating in development hell for… a while, but the success of Arcane and Castlevania spurred the streamer into action. We haven’t heard anything about it since then, but it’s apparently still on Netflix’s docket, albeit with some caveats.
During a panel at San Diego Comic-Con (via Variety), producer Roy Lee opened up on the film’s progress. Netflix’s recent regime change—Dan Lin replaced Scott Stuber as its film chief—has resulted in lowered film budgets. As a result, the BioShock movie will be a “much smaller” affair. While Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence is still attached to the project, Lee said the movie would be “be a more personal point of view, as opposed to a grander, big project.”
On one hand, this is a reasonable move on Netflix’s end. Several of its movies don’t feel as expensive as they apparently are. (Go look at The Grey Man or any of their genre fare as an example.) Like Apple or Warner Bros., Netflix is realizing it needs to work smarter, not harder, and if that means scaling back on their cinematic ambitions, then go ahead and cut some budgets. That said, the BioShock franchise is in some ways defined by grandiosity and excess; the cities of Rapture and Colombia were filled with elites and eventually went to hell when they (or outside forces) got superpowers and turned on each other.
If Lawrence can realize his vision for BioShock with less money than planned, more power to him. But it’s also worth asking if this is all worth it if it’s apparently as difficult as making a new game.
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