Bioshock idea artwork – Image: 2K Video games
Netflix formally introduced in 2022 that they had been engaged on a film adaptation of the online game franchise Bioshock with Vertigo Leisure and 2K, a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive Software program, Inc. Now, two years on, we’ve had drips of data, so right here’s all the things it’s essential find out about what you possibly can anticipate from the upcoming adaptation.
Observe: This preview was first printed on February fifteenth, 2022, however has been up to date to mirror adjustments in manufacturing or information. It was final up to date on Might nineteenth, 2025.
Rumors have been circling for fairly a while that Netflix is getting its fingers on a Bioshock adaptation, with each a sequence and film being floated. A Bioshock mission has been in growth earlier than. A mission was beforehand arrange at Sony Footage with Michael De Luca Productions and Immersive Footage producing. It’s additionally been beforehand arrange at Common and Blind Wink Productions.
Copyrights had been registered early in 2022, and on February fifteenth, 2022, Netflix formally introduced the mission.
Bioshock – Image: Netflix / 2K Video games
Who’s behind Bioshock on Netflix?
Vertigo Leisure would be the major manufacturing firm behind the film. They’ve been behind films comparable to It, The Lego Movie, and The Grudge.
For Netflix, Vertigo Leisure has labored on Dying Observe, Extinction, The Mom starring Jennifer Lopez, and The Witch Boy and Reborn, a co-production with Fortis Movies.
In August 2022, Francis Lawrence (The Starvation Video games: Catching Fireplace, I Am Legend, Netflix’s Slumberland) was introduced to direct and produce the live-action adaptation of BioShock. Michael Inexperienced (Blue Eye Samurai, Logan) would write the screenplay.
Lawrence, Doug Davison (Abduction), and Roy Lee (Barbarian) will function producers, and Cameron MacConomy will function an government producer.
CEO & Chairman of 2K, Strauss Zelnick, who may also function an government producer on the film, in an announcement following the preliminary announcement, stated:
“Netflix is among the many finest and most forward-thinking storytellers in all of leisure at the moment. We’re thrilled that they share our imaginative and prescient and dedication to the BioShock franchise, which is beloved by thousands and thousands of followers around the globe. 2K’s Cloud Chamber studio is deep in lively growth on the following iteration of the sequence, and matched with our partnership with Netflix, we stay extremely assured that BioShock will proceed to captivate and interact audiences like by no means earlier than.”
Strauss Zelnick – Chairman and CEO, Take-Two Interactive & ZelnickMedia
Andrew Norman, who has been working for Netflix since 2017, is main the cost inside Netflix. His roster of tasks he’s shepherded by means of to launch embrace The Adam Mission, Military of the Lifeless, and We Can Be Heroes. His upcoming title roster consists of Gears of Battle and Kathryn Beigelow’s subsequent yet-to-be-titled film.
What’s Bioshock?
Should you want a fast overview of Bioshock, right here’s a rundown.
First launched in 2007, Bioshock is the critically acclaimed online game sequence led by Ken Levine. The sport is ready in an underwater metropolis known as Rapture. A sequel, launched in 2010, takes place eight years after the occasions of the primary recreation.
Bioshock Infinite was then subsequently launched in 2013 and befell in a drastically totally different location in a flying metropolis.
Right here’s how the franchise is described:
“Set throughout a number of dystopian and visionary landscapes gone fallacious, the sequence blends sci-fi and horror to pose distinctive existential and societal questions that reshaped how recreation tales may very well be instructed – all amidst pulse-pounding motion gameplay that rewards sharp taking pictures, intelligent planning, and deadly improvisation.”
Bioshock Infinite – Image: 2K Video games
John Shirley wrote the 2011 e book BioShock: Rapture, a prequel that particulars the development of Rapture. We point out this as a result of the e book title is included among the many copyright registrations by Netflix and 2K.
On the time of publishing, no indication was supplied concerning which title Netflix is ready to adapt or whether or not it’d be a brand-new story.
The franchise has been dormant since 2013, however that’s nonetheless because of change in the approaching years. That’s as a result of an untitled sequel from Cloud Chamber Studios, a newly formed game studio with groups in California and Québec, is planning a fourth entry in the online game franchise. Kelley Gilmore leads the studio and continues to aggressively hire for the follow-up, which doesn’t have a launch date.
The place is Netflix’s Bioshock in Manufacturing?
Improvement
Filming Scheduled
Filming Ongoing
Put up-Manufacturing
Because the mission was first introduced, work has been quietly underway, however we’ve got gotten just a few updates courtesy of interviews. We heard that the mission was being developed below the working title Rapture.
In November 2023, Collider interviewed the then-Netflix head of movie, Scott Stuber, about the place the film was in growth, and that the Hollywood strikes of 2023 had impacted growth. Saying that they’re “ready on the script,” however Stuber added that Bioshock and Gears of Battle had been massive performs for Netflix, including that “The strike slowed us down fairly a bit” and “I’d actually wish to push on.”
Stuber spoke about his mission aspirations: “There are large audiences. As you recognize, that type of medium they don’t at all times translate, and traditionally, as an trade, we’ve screwed it up fairly a bit. However each of these have actually wealthy worlds, have actually good characters, in order that they’re very pure type of transitions to display and filmmaking.”
After all, since that was all stated, Stuber left the corporate, and Dan Lin took over.
In July 2024 (through Variety), Roy Lee and Francis Lawrence said that ambitions for the movie had been lowered and “reconfigured” with a decrease finances. Citing adjustments inside Netflix and lowered budgets throughout the board, Lee stated, “We’re doing a a lot smaller model. … It’s going to be a extra private viewpoint, versus a grander, massive mission.”
In Might 2025, we bought one other replace (courtesy of IGN) with Francis Lawrence telling the outlet, “I simply truly simply bought a draft. Now we have a gathering with the author tomorrow [May 7th], in order that’s undoubtedly a really robust chance as properly,” including “It’s a difficult adaptation, so there’s plenty of issues to determine and to get proper. There’s regime adjustments at Netflix, and so issues stall out and get re-energized and stall out and get re-energized, and I feel we’re in a reasonably good place, actually.”
Netflix isn’t the primary to deal with a Bioshock Adaptation
As talked about above, this isn’t Bioshock‘s first try at making it over to the massive display.
A script for a Bioshock film has been circulating for fairly a while. Common Footage as soon as developed a film with Gore Verbinski (Rango, Pirates of the Caribbean) directing it. It was canned in 2009, round eight weeks earlier than manufacturing began.
Again in March 2020, Scott Wampler from Beginning Motion pictures Dying managed to get to learn the script and mirrored on why it didn’t get made on the time. (This hyperlink is now not stay, sadly.)
BioShock is only one of a number of tasks Netflix is adapting from established online game franchises. Netflix can be engaged on different important diversifications, together with Murderer’s Creed, Splinter Cell, Tomb Raider, and different Pokémon tasks.
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