From the moment it debuted in 2007, BioShock has been celebrated as one of the greatest video games of all time, one that bolstered the medium’s claim to true artistry and spawned a wildly popular franchise. The bleak, alt-’50s art deco aesthetic of the underwater city of Rapture and the many sinister secrets hidden within have captivated fans for almost 20 years, and as an experience heavily influenced by the atmosphere and decision-making of games like System Shock and Resident Evil, it’s inspired a new generation of immersive sims. Naturally, it’s only a matter of time before something as successful as BioShock gets the big-budget Hollywood treatment, which makes it so surprising that despite multiple attempts, a film has never made it to the big screen.
After a decade of a planned film adaptation languishing in development hell, Netflix and Take-Two Games announced in 2022 that the film would premiere on the streaming service, directed by Francis Lawrence (The Long Walk, all but the first Hunger Games). But there had been three years of radio silence until last week, when producer Roy Lee let it slip to Collider that the film was still under development (and hinted at a potential new game). And while Lee specified that the only thing delaying the project is Lawrence’s other commitments, it's hard not to ask the persistent question that has been troubling fans for almost two decades now – why is BioShock so hard to adapt?
