The interview below is from a recent article on Aintitcoolnews.com regarding the Bioshock movie that's been put on hold for some obvious reasons mentioned between a staffer for the site and the new director Jan Carlos Fresnadillo. The article goes on to discuss a reboot or sequel to Highlander, for those who would be interested.
Long story, short: Status isn't really new, but some of the movie's details are. The film is on hold due to the makers wanting it to be given a R rating to portray the events within Rapture, but the budget is too high for that risk. The article also discusses how they want to build Rapture for the film as one giant set and talks about the challenge of incorporating the "Would you kindly?" aspect of the game. Interesting stuff.
Personally, I feel that the idea of a Bioshock movie is neat, but unnecessary. I've experienced Rapture in the best possible way already: three times in Bioshock 1, twice in Bioshock 2, and all without Hollywood's influence.
Here is the interview:
Quint: I would be remiss in not bringing up Bioshock, because I’m kind of obsessed with that game.
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo: Yeah, me too. You know, there’s a problem with the video game… well, it’s not a problem. The thing is, Bioshock is super complicated, it is a very high budget movie. Obviously, the studio doesn’t want to make a big budget movie with an R (rating). And it has to be an R.
Quint: Yeah, if you’re going to do the game justice you need to keep that rating.
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo: So, that’s the problem, I think, that the video game and the studio are trying to make an agreement about.
Quint: Would you still be involved if they do come to an agreement?
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo: I don’t know, to be honest. It was a very interesting experience to work with Gore Verbinski developing the story a bit and to pitch with the video game. I learned a lot about Hollywood and this kind of project, but I don’t know.
Quint: I did a Rango office visit and I was talking to Gore’s producer…
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo: Jonathan.
Quint: Right. He was telling me what Gore’s vision was for the movie, that he wanted to build Rapture from the ground up as a set. I was drooling as he was talking to me about it, I was drooling. To see Rapture realized as a giant set would be incredible. You’d need something real for the actors to walk around in to ground the reality. It just wouldn’t work if it was people walking around in a green room. Were you leaning more towards the real set builds as well?
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo: Yeah, me too, but I would say… keeping in mind that the cost was one of the problems I would recommend to combine realism with good and special CGI. The most important thing is to make it feel like a real thing and I think you could do that with a good DP and a very real concept of the camera.
That was something I proposed from the beginning, (for it) to work as an experience, you know? From the very beginning to the very end tracking the point of view of the hero of the story, going with him.
Quint: Which in and of itself provides a challenge because you’re adapting a video game. You’re translating from a medium where each and every audience member is the main character in the story. The story in Bioshock is actually pretty good, I love the twists “would you kindly,” etc. But there’s not really an identifiable lead because it’s you!
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo: Right. You have to create a personality and the proper character to track that. But, you know, it’s a project that is on hold right now, so I’m not paying too much attention to that. Right now I’m so keen (for) another project, which could be my next movie, which is Highlander.
Log in to comment