At a time when game adaptations were becoming increasingly common in Hollywood, the fate of the BioShock movie was uncertain. The project has been in development for so long that many people began to think the movie had been shelved. However, the director of the Netflix adaptation, Francis Lawrence, made a statement that allayed these concerns.

Netflix’s BioShock movie still in development

2K’s science fiction game BioShock received great acclaim when it was released in 2007. The series gained an important place with sequels such as BioShock 2 (2010) and BioShock Infinite (2013). The game’s impressive world also seemed ideal for adaptation to the cinema, but the BioShock movie project never came to fruition.

Although a previous attempt was made under the direction of Gore Verbinski, this attempt failed. In 2022, Netflix revived the project and signed Francis Lawrence, the director of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. It also assigned Michael Green, the screenwriter of the Logan movie, as the screenwriter.

Despite its new start on Netflix, the BioShock film has been in development for two years. Producer Roy Lee’s previous statement revealed that the film was scaled back due to budget constraints, but was still being worked on.

Finally, director Francis Lawrence confirmed in a statement that he was still involved in the project and that the film was being developed. Lawrence said, “I’m still committed to the project. Yes, we’re still working on it, and I’m very excited about it.”

The difficulties in the development process of the BioShock film are not surprising. The visual effects and production design required to transfer the game’s detailed science fiction world to the big screen significantly increase the budget.