Concept Art For Cancelled Bioshock Film Resurfaces

Some concept art for Gore Verbinski’s cancelled film adaptation of Bioshock has resurfaced online.

The art was uploaded by the original artist, Kasra Farahani. Kasra is a conceptual artist and set designer for films. His resume includes such films as Thor, Avatar, and Men In Black 3.

The film was originally planned in 2008, a year after the game’s release,  but did not make it past the the production process.  Universal picked up Verbinski as director, and Penny Dreadful/Skyfall scribe John Logan wrote a screenplay.

In 2011, Gore Verbinski spoke out regarding the film, explaining that he had difficulty finding a studio willing to greenlight the game with sufficient budget to do justice to the horrifying underwater world, and keep the original content for an R 18 rating. Gore was also planning to release the game in 3D, and a budget of $ 200 million.

Universal slashed the budget down to $ 80 million, prompting Gore to drop off as director, but he stayed on as producer. 28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo would have taken over directing credits, but Ken Levine himself pulled the plug on the project in 2010.

As you can see in this conceptual art, Gore was hoping to retain as much of the Rapture’s look and feel as possible. Beyond that, however, we would have seen a bigger, more grandiose Rapture, which would not have shirked at showing its ugly side. It would have also been interesting to see Irrational Games’ take on postmodern architecture, popularized by films like Blade Runner, adapted back into film.

You can check out more art in the gallery below.