Juan Carlos Fresnadillo To Direct Bioshock Movie
Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is in talks to direct the video game adaptation “Bioshock” for Universal Pictures.
Gore Verbinski, who dropped out of helming due to his commitment to animated movie Rango, remains the film’s producer through his Universal-based Blind Wink. Fresnadillo’s producing partner, Enrique Lopez Lavigne, is also in talks to become a producer. John Logan (Gladiator) wrote the script.
In order to keep costs lower (budget of “Bioshock” rose to $160 million) the studio has decided to move the production aboard in order to take advantage of production tax credits and try to squeeze more out of the dollar with the favorable exchange rates.
Gore Verbinski is Directing BioShock
Director of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy Gore Verbinski, will be returning to the sea, but in a different kind of way, as he has signed up to direct the game to movie adaptation of BioShock. It is believed to be the biggest game-to-movie deal since 2005, when Universal and Fox signed onto the Halo movie, which is still not moving forward.
Though no release date has been set, Verbinski said he plans to start pre-production as soon as Aviator writer John Logan’s script is finished and approved.
BioShock has sold more than 2 million units worldwide since its release in August 2007 and has been praised for its morality-based storyline, immersive environment and Ayn Rand-inspired dystopian setting. A sequel to the game, BioShock 2, is planned for a release in 2009.
