The BioShock film adaptation was originally intended for release as an R-Rated movie, with Pirates of the Caribbean's Gore Verbinski on directing duties. Universal provided it with an initial budget of $200 million, and it was all set to go when Universal it decided to scale back the budget to $80m after the box office failure of Watchmen.
That left Ken Levine, creator of BioShock and head of Irrational Games, with a difficult choice.
"The studio then got cold feet about making an R-rated $200 million film, and they said what if it was a $80 million film – and Gore didn’t want to make a $80 million film," Levine said at a BAFTA talk (via Eurogamer).
"They brought another director in, and I didn’t really see the match there – and 2K’s one of these companies that puts a lot of creative trust in people. So they said if you want to kill it, kill it. And I killed it."
It would appear that based on his decision, no BioShock film will ever get made unless Universal decides to take the risk with $200 million and get a high caliber director to fill the seat. Perhaps Duncan Jones will be available.