Bioshock Film Greenlighted

[farmboy]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24544574/

Universal studios will be producing a movie version of Bioshock.  Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean films) will be directing, with John Logan ("Gladiator" and "Sweeney Todd") writing the screenplay.

[farmboy]

Alright, now for my thoughts:
In some ways I think this could be good.  Gladiator=freaking awesome and the Pirates films were well done.  Also, this gives me some added comfort: "Gore is an avid video gamer and true fan of 'BioShock.' That was extremely important to us in deciding to move forward with this project" - Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K.  So, I hope anyway, that this is about as good a combo as one could get.
However, I still think the whole idea of a bioshock (or any well-developed game) film is somewhat unworkable.  Games are, by nature, longer lasting.  There's a lot more depth and information in a game; there has to be or it would be 10 hours of extreme boredom (and who wants a 2 hour video game for $50+?)  In this way, games are much more like books than movies - much of the entertainment (when it comes to lore, anyways) is derived from slowly putting the pieces of the puzzle together; discovering as you go along.
Movies are another breed.  They have two or, at most, three hours to reveal all information and tie up all loose ends.  Thus, information has to be very carefully selected.  You get too much and it all turns into a convoluted clusterf*ck and no one will be able to make sense of it all.  Backstory and subplots, then, need to be either quickly told (if important) or completely ignored (if not).  This creates a severe rift between the two mediums.  Go from a game to a movie and you have to cut out the vast majority of story and lore to make way for the main plot.  Movie video games also suffer for the same reason - you can't make a ten hour game from 2 hours of plot information, so you have to stuff the game with (usually either very bad or simply irrelevant) additions.
So, Bioshock specifically (warning: going into AP English thought mode): my favorite element in the game was the deep, engaging story of rapture.  Not the story of Jack, but the slow revelation of exactly how and how far Rapture had fallen, as well as the implications of human nature that revelation contained.  Every character from Atlas/Fontaine and Ryan to Steinman and Diane McClintock was fleshed out and believably human, or at the least their inhumanness believably conveyed the mental damage that ADAM wrought upon them.  The game never comes out and tells you "this happened then that happened blah blah," but shows small snapshots of different people's perspectives.  Only through those perspectives do you get a clear sense of what occured.  The movie simply isn't capable of this.

So, in conclusion: I'll probably see the bioshock movie, but I fear that it can't live up to the game simply because it's plot was never intended to be a movie.  To make it fit the medium, too many compromises must be made.

[Zazoo]

"Gore is an avid video gamer and true fan of 'BioShock.' That was extremely important to us in deciding to move forward with this project" - Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K.

He says that, but what he probably means is: "The only thing that was important to us in deciding to move forward was the giant assload of cash Universal gave us." :p
I'm skeptical. I have yet to see a good movie based on a video game.

But, maybe this will be the one. *crosses fingers*
~Mike

[Ronin]

Aw c'mon Mike, didn't the DooM movie keep you on the edge of your seat the whole time? ;o)

[Swedish_Seb]

LOL

[MONOLITH]

They'll ruin it with hollywoodization.

It will become more happy hero focused, they'll be a love story, and the dark macabre feel of the game will be replaced with 'an action/monster flick'.


The game story and style is designed for gamers, a much smaller audience than a movie audience. A hollywood film, has to appeal to a much wider global demographic and draw in all kinds of people, particularly and mostly non gamers. Therefore, the movie will be something markedly more different than the game.

Just like the Resident Evil movies, the entire feel of the game will be lost; replaced with hollywood 'widely marketable' crap.

[Ronin]

I agree.  Just look at the movies made in the 60s like Tora Tora Tora or
In Harm's Way or Midway then look at the garbage that is Pearl Harbor
with Ben Aflack.  All of those movies are about the same war.  But
the style and substance of the first three is far above that of Pearl
Harbor.

Hollyweird is all about pandering to the lowest common denominator
in search of the almighty dollar rather than making the best film you
can make and hoping it will do well at the box office.

I expected much more from the Doom movie since Dwayne (The Rock)
is a fan of the Doom games and the fact that id software was involved
somewhat at the beginning.

But they changed even the most basic part of the story which is that
they broke through into Hell and all the demonic creatures came pouring
out and even reanimated the dead as zombies/demons.  They got some
of the transformation.  But the flying flaming skulls and the sheer fear
evoked by having to battle actual demons was completely lost.

Now, it's just some experiment gone wrong (as if _that_ hasn't already
been done to death) and they can't let the infection spread back to
Earth.  It's a story we've all already seen.  But I guess it was "safe"
since it wouldn't offend the atheists.

Back to BioShock (GREAT game!).  I guess we can hope that it will
be done well, but if past performance is any indicator, it will be a
turkey.

Of course, you know I bought the Doom movie special edition anyway.
I'm an id Software fan boy and anything based on their stuff, I buy... 

[Swedish_Seb]

Speaking for myself, atheist are rarely offended by religion.

[Zazoo]

But they changed even the most basic part of the story which is that
they broke through into Hell and all the demonic creatures came pouring
out and even reanimated the dead as zombies/demons.  They got some
of the transformation.  But the flying flaming skulls and the sheer fear
evoked by having to battle actual demons was completely lost.

Now, it's just some experiment gone wrong (as if _that_ hasn't already
been done to death) and they can't let the infection spread back to
Earth.  It's a story we've all already seen.  But I guess it was "safe"
since it wouldn't offend the atheists.

IMHO, the change was almost certainly made for the opposite reason (to keep the movie from being offensive to Christians).
I don't think many athiests care about the use of religion and religious themes in movies (assuming of course the point of the movie isn't to denigrate athiests... :p).

~Mike

[Lazerblade]

The only time I'm offended by religion in a movie is when "God" is coined as the only hope and salvation. Personally, I think bigger guns work better.

But I'm just one atheist among billions.