Gore Verbinski helming BIOSHOCK

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

Gore Verbinski has finally let the world know what his next feature film will be, nearly a year after the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie opened in theatres. Variety say that Universal have sought after Verbinski to helm their adaptation of last year's incredibly popular Take Two video game Bioshock, the first time the video game publishers have ever struck a deal with Hollywood. Their Rockstar sub division are also the makers of Grand Theft Auto but have frequently turned down offers from various studio's for a lucrative film based on that game. The amount that Universal have paid for the rights is said to be the highest for a video game adaptation since Universal & Fox paid $5 million in 2005 for the rights to the Halo series, which as yet has not been made and has turned out to be something of a disaster for both studio's - who dropped the project in 2006. This move shows that Universal have finally won back faith in video game adapts and they are determined to get this one off the ground. Verbinski will be working from a script by one of Hollywood's top writers... John Logan (The Aviator, Sweeney Todd).

"Bioshock" takes place in an underwater city based on the free market principles of Ayn Rand, but things have gone disastrously wrong. Players control a pilot who crash-lands at a secret entrance to the city, called Rapture, and is drawn into a power struggle during which he discovers that his will is not as free as he'd thought.

I haven't played the game but from the looks of things it's already heavy on story and cinematic elements, possibly even more so than Halo.

Verbinski looked tired out with the POTC formula with the last movie in the series, even going so far as shooting parodies to other genre's which is a luxury he would have never afforded himself with the first film. I'm happy to see him move on, this looks pretty wicked.