It is a project that has seemingly been talked about for eons, with whispers beginning all the way back in 2008. However, back in February, there was some good news as the film was officially announced and that Netflix would also be distributing it as well. Now, we have some even more promising news, as the director and screenwriter of the BioShock Netflix film have been revealed.
The news was announced today on the official Netflix Twitter account, with the company revealing that the project will be directed by the man behind The Hunger Games films. Francis Lawrence has directed all but one film in the series (the original Hunger Games), but he is also a man behind several other exciting films like 2005’s Constantine and then I Am Legend two years later. That’s not where the news ends though –in the same tweet, it was revealed that this BioShock Netflix film will be written by Michael Green, who is known for writing scripts for Logan and Blade Runner 2049. If you had reservations about this adaptation then hopefully this will eradicate them–for now at least.
As you would expect from Netflix, this is the only information we have so far about the film; we don’t have any confirmed actors or when the release date will be. However, one thing we can work out is when the game might be set. Netflix has been using several images of a Big Daddy and a Little Sister in the underwater city of Rapture to promote the adaptation, so we can safely assume this film won’t be tying in with BioShock Infinite.
What else do we know about this BioShock Netflix film then? Well, the company will be teaming up with both 2K and Take-Two Interactive who have worked on the video game series, so you could say that Netflix is making some positive decisions that will help benefit the film. We still don’t know whether this will be a straight-up video game adaptation though, or whether it will just take part in the world that the games made famous, so we’ll have to keep our ears to the wall for that information.
If we had to hazard a guess, it would make sense if it was just a standalone story that uses Rapture as its environment due to one simple fact. The original game features one of the most well-known twists in gaming history, it’s what makes BioShock so memorable, and with most people knowing about it (the millions of people who have played it that is) it would seem pointless to do the same thing in the film. It just wouldn’t have the same impact as the game did, so surely Netflix won’t go down that route, right? We have a film coming out anyway, and whatever story it turns out to be, the decision to hire the two men above is a great one.