Whether you’re a gamer or not, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of the game Bioshock. And if you’ve heard of it, then you probably heard it in the context of someone praising it’s gripping story or, even more likely, drooling over just how cinematic it is. Oh by the way, it’s also very freakin scary. But then I’m kind of a wimp.
So it’s no surprise to hear that Hollywood might be going after the top selling video game to turn it into a movie. A site called Joystiq has popped on the scene with a vague rumor claiming that a “major film production company” that a movie adaptation of Bioshock is being discussed.
Unfortunately, they don’t have any new ideas on how to do it. Like everyone else these days, their plan is to take a page from 300 and do everything in front of green screen. Which, let’s face it, is lame. It worked for 300, it was a wonderfully artistic movie, but in the case of that film it was an artistic choice, not something they did because someone else did it or because, as is most often the case with Hollywood these days, they were too lazy or cheap to build actual sets. Green screen is nice in small doses, but real locations is actually better. You’d think someone would have figured this out by now, especially after Lord of the Rings did a rather spectacular job of proving it. But for some reason the only thing Hollywood remembers about LOTR is Gollum.
Anyway, green screen or not, Bioshock is pretty story-rich for a videogame, and could conceivably be turned into a pretty spectacular film, if anyone in Hollywood has the vision to do it. Playable exclusively on the XBOX 360, Bioshock is a first person shooter set in an alternative version of the year 1960, the game follows a plane crash survivor named Jack who explores a spectacular, crumbling, underwater, dystopian city called Rapture. The city is infested with mutant beings and mechanical drones which, as you’d expect with fleshy headed killers, attack.
Unfortunately, video game adaptations seem to always end up being turned over to people like Uwe Boll, and when a game company demands better (as Bungie did with Halo), the project always seems to wind up dead in the water. Like Halo, Bioshock is one of those rare video game franchises with the kind of story necessary to potentially break through the crap barrier and turn into something good, if someone is willing to spend the money on it. Let’s hope whoever this secret “major” production company is, that they’ve taken their heads out of their asses.
