Universal Halts Verbinski's Bioshock Movie

Universal Pictures has put the brakes on "Bioshock," the Gore Verbinski-directed live action adaptation of the bestselling Take-Two Interactive video game. The picture was in pre-production, but the studio has halted that effort--and let some production staff go--as Universal and Verbinski figure out a way to make the film at a more reasonable budget.

Sources said that the John Logan-scripted picture was gearing up to shoot in Los Angeles, but that changed when the budget rose to the vicinity of $160 million. Universal and Verbinski are looking at alternatives like shooting in London as a way to pare costs. The plotline takes place in the underwater city Rapture, where a pilot crash-lands near a secret entrance and becomes involved in a power struggle.

Verbinski and sources at the studio say they are determined to make the pic. Indeed, Verbinski (who has also been directing the Paramount animated film "Rango" with Johnny Depp) bowed out of directing a fourth installment of "Pirates of the Caribbean" so that he could direct "Bioshock" and produce under his Blind Wink banner.

All parties vow that "Bioshock" will not become another "Halo," the live action adaptation of the Microsoft game that was going to be turned into a film by Universal and Fox until both studios got cold feet and cancelled the deal over budget fears.

Universal acquired "Bioshock" in a multi-million dollar deal from Take-Two.

Thoughts:

Dang, I was hoping this film wouldn't run into any snags during production. While one might assume that this is horrible news and seals their fate in terms of it ever coming out, but I'm alittle more optimistic than that. All this means is that their looking for other locations to shoot the film since its obviously somewhat expensive to shoot in LA. This kind of thing happens all the time in Hollywood and shouldn't come off as a surprise considering the state of economy where in. It happened with Ridley Scott's upcoming Robin Hood and that movie is still on track for release sometime next year. The determination is their with both the studio and the director still willing to make the movie. It all depends on how fast they find where they want to shoot and for cheap. Here's hoping the process goes much faster than I'm expecting because I really want this movie to happen. Bioshock is a wonderful video game with a mesmerizing story that's waiting to be seen on the big screen. With the right talent and people, the film could potentially break the curse that's plagued films based on video game properties.