Despite being in limbo for years, the BioShock movie director Francis Lawrence says they're "close" to a breakthrough amid a leadership shake-up at Netflix.
"I hope so. You know, it's tricky on a couple fronts," Lawrence admitted to The Direct. "I'm definitely active in it. We are still working on it. It is a tough nut to crack that world and that story, especially because you are the character when you play the game, and so creating that character from scratch into that world that quite honestly, is pretty batshit in a most amazing way. It's tricky. So we're getting there, and we're getting close, which is great."
An adaptation of BioShock, which revolved around an underwater art-deco utopian society gone very, very wrong, would surely be a surefire hit for fans who have been desperate to see Rapture brought to life. But Lawrence warns that Netflix's current situation – the streamer fired head of film Dan Lin and chief content officer Bela Bajaria – could prove a roadblock.
"I would love nothing more than to be able to make that movie. So still working on it," Lawrence said. "And then, you have also just the Netflix of it all because Netflix right now has had regime changes and just all of that kind of nonsense that I don't like to have to deal with or have to. So we'll see. Hopefully we'll figure it out."
A BioShock movie was announced at Netflix back in 2022. Since then, there have been small bursts of updates – including producer Roy Lee revealing last year that the feature film would be based on the 2007 game.
Lee was quoted as saying earlier this year that Netflix and publishers Take-Two were "very anxious" to release the movie in line with "potential new incarnations of the game."
Lawrence also told GamesRadar+ this month that he was "dying" to make the BioShock movie, which has since been retooled with a smaller budget.
For more, check out the upcoming video game movies in the works, plus all the latest new PS5 games heading your way.
