BioShock Movie Is "Getting Close," Says Director Francis Lawrence
Would you kindly hurry?
The BioShock movie is still alive, because director Francis Lawrence says Netflix's live-action adaptation is still in development, and that the team is "getting close" to cracking it, in a new interview with The Direct (Culture Crave). He also admitted the project has been slowed down by changes at the top of Netflix.
It's the first real update on the movie in months, and it comes from the person who is most likely to know where things actually stand.
What did Francis Lawrence say about BioShock?
Lawrence called the game's world and story "a tough nut to crack." The big problem, he said, is that "you are the character when you play the game," so the movie has to build a lead character from scratch and drop them into Rapture. "It's tricky," he said, but "we're getting close."
He was also honest about the holdup. "Netflix right now has had regime changes and just all of that kind of nonsense that I don't like to have to deal with," Lawrence said. "So we'll see. Hopefully we'll figure it out" (Culture Crave).
What do we know about Netflix's BioShock movie?
Netflix announced the movie with Vertigo Entertainment and 2K back in February 2022, and Lawrence signed on to direct later that year. Michael Green, who co-wrote Logan and Blade Runner 2049, is writing the script, and Roy Lee is producing (What's on Netflix).
It's adapting the first game, the one where Jack survives a plane crash and finds Andrew Ryan's underwater city. In 2024, Lee and Lawrence said the movie had been scaled down from a giant blockbuster into something more personal and atmospheric. Filming isn't expected before early 2027, and there's no release date. Lawrence has also been busy with The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, which hits theaters next month.
Will the BioShock movie actually happen?
My read is that this is a hopeful update with a big asterisk. Lawrence still sounds excited about it, and "getting close" is the most positive thing anyone has said about the script in a while. But a director openly talking about leadership "nonsense" at the studio is not a great sign for a project that's been in development for over four years.
The good news is that a smaller, moodier BioShock is the right call. The first game works because Rapture feels lonely and creepy, and a quieter movie can lean into that. If Netflix lets Lawrence make that version, fans could finally get a great video game movie that actually feels like the game (and hopefully a Big Daddy or two).
If you want to revisit Rapture while you wait, BioShock: The Collection has all three games remastered.
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Header image is an official BioShock Remastered screenshot from 2K, via Steam.
