SDCC 2024: Netflix’s Live-Action ‘BioShock’ Film Shifts Direction Following Budget Cuts: “It’s Going To Be A More Personal Point Of View, As Opposed To A Grander, More Epic Project”
In a move that bodes about as well for the project as a cracked window does for Rapture, Netflix’s live-action BioShock film will apparently now be made on a significantly reduced budget.
This update on the video game adaptation was provided by its producer, Roy Lee, during Collider’s Producers on Producers panel at the 2024 San Diego Comic-Con.
Per Deadline, recalling the project’s thus far development history, Lee explained that, at the time of BioShock‘s green lighting, Netflix was overseen by the streaming giant’s film head Scott Stuber, and as a result had received a significant production budget.
However, following Stuber’s exit in January of this year and his replacement by the far more budget conscious Dan Lim, the producer said the film was subsequently subjected to a massive budget cut.
“The new regime has lowered the budgets,” Lee detailed. “So we’re doing a much smaller version. It’s going to be a more personal point of view,as opposed to a grander, more epic project.”
To this end, the Lego Movie producer also revealed that the streaming giant would be moving to adopt a more traditional approach to its offering of financial incentives to creators.
“They’re changing it to be a metric similar to box office bonuses,” he said. “It’s a chart: It’s this amount of viewers, you get this amount of compensation in terms of increased back end. It motivates the producers to actually do a movie that gets a bigger audience.”
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Netflix’s BioShock adaptation was first announced in 2022 via a tweet shared to the official @NetflixGeeked Twitter account.
“‘We all make choices, but in the end our choices make us,'” opened the announcement with a quote from the original game’s chief antagonist Andrew Ryan. “Netflix + BioShock. Would you kindly stay tuned?”
In a follow-up tweet, the streaming giant further revealed, “Netflix, 2K and Take-Two Interactive are partnering to produce a film adaptation of the renowned video game franchise BioShock.”
It would later be revealed that the story of Andrew Ryan and his attempt at an underwater objectivist utopia would be helmed by The Hunger Games franchise director Francis Lawrence.
And despite the films various shake-ups, Lawrence is still currently set to direct.
However, outside of the film’s existence and Lawrence’s attachment, zero details regarding BioShock have been released to the public.
As such, it’s unknown whether the film – given that its announcement tweet suggests it will be adapting the entire franchise rather than just the first game – will still focus on the tale of BioShock protagonist Jack, BioShock 2‘s Subject Delta, BioShock Infinite‘s Booker DeWitt, some cobbled-together amalgamation of their characters, or someone new all together.
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