After nearly two decades of rumors, Guillermo del Toro has finally revealed that he was indeed in discussions to direct a BioShock movie.
“You know, I tried, Del Toro,” Del Toro tells IGN. “We had a very contentious call about a couple of games. I find that the dynamics of a video game are very different than a movie. They may be cinematically similar in terms of the camera moving, and this and that, but the storytelling is very different, because you’re not solving puzzles. You’re not assembling.”
The rumors first hit the internet forums back in 2008, just a year after the first BioShock game was released. The filmmaker has never confirmed his attachment to the project, aside from calling it one of his favorite video games. Now that we know the rumors are true, we can simply only mourn what could have been. Plus, we don’t have any other details.
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“When we made the structure for Insane, we created what I call a mandala,” he continued. “You have to give the illusion of an infinite sandbox, and you lead audiences to the right or to the left through their ‘own decisions,’ but you sort of have to corner them. So it’s a very different thing.”
Adds del Toro: “So adapting it, BioShock, we had a couple of calls. They are probably one of the most disastrous calls I’ve ever had. So no, f**k no.”
A BioShock movie is on the way, but from Hunger Games franchise director Francis Lawrence. In 2025, producer Roy Lee confirmed that the movie will be based on the first game. Justin Rhodes, who penned Terminator: Dark Fate, is now working on the script with Lawrence… who is a bit busy right now with Hunger Games prequel Sunrise on the Reaping. That said, it might be a while yet before the movie finally materializes (especially given the fact that it was announced back in 2022).
BioShock does not yet have a release date. For more, check out the ever-growing list of upcoming video game movies, or, check out our list of the best Netflix movies to stream right now.
