The BioShock movie adaptation has been in discussion for a long time. Less than a year after the original game’s debut, publisher Take-Two Interactive announced that it had signed a deal with Universal Studios for a film that would have been directed by Gore Verbinski (The Ring, the first three Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Lone Ranger) and written by John Logan (Gladiator, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Skyfall, and Spectre).
The tentative theatrical release window was 2010, but the project kept being put on hold for various concerns, including budget and the director’s insistence on making it R-rated. Eventually, it was cancelled, and Verbinski would reveal years later that it only happened a few weeks before filming was supposed to begin.
Fast-forward to August 2022, and Take-Two found new partners for the BioShock movie adaptation: Netflix and Vertigo Entertainment. This new project has been assigned to Francis Lawrence, the director of Constantine, I Am Legend, The Hunger Games, and most recently, The Long Walk. Michael Green (Logan, Alien: Covenant, Blade Runner 2049) was originally supposed to write. The BioShock movie is also supposed to have franchise creator Ken Levine involved in some capacity, or at least that’s what we were told in late 2022.
However, there were delays this time as well. In July 2024, at San Diego Comic-Con, producer Rory Lee revealed the project was still alive, but Netflix had reduced the budget, making it a more personal experience rather than a sprawling epic. Last year, the film director himself, Francis Lawrence, said progress was finally being made, based on a new screenplay penned by Justin Rhodes (Terminator: Dark Fate, Secret Level).
Now, Collider has received an update from producer Rory Lee, who shared that the project should finally be made once Lawrence is done with the latest The Hunger Games film. Perhaps even more interestingly for gamers, he claims that Take-Two and Netflix are planning to have the BioShock movie launch coincide with the release of the new game.
We would have gotten it made a few years back, but then other movies got in the way, with one being The Long Walk and the other being The Hunger Games prequel, which comes out this December. We’re just waiting for him to finish post-production, because he’s going to be working on it through at least September, and then jump back into it. I know that Netflix and Take-Two are very anxious to see the movie come out because they want to have the release coincide with some of the potential new incarnations of the game.
The next BioShock game also ran into major trouble throughout its development. First confirmed in December 2019 to be in the works at Cloud Chamber, it was reportedly rebooted several times. In August 2025, it was announced that Rod Fergusson (Gears of War, Diablo) had been brought in as the new studio head to help hone the focus ahead of the game’s final stages.
Fergusson has a proven track record of doing exactly that, and indeed the same happened with the last BioShock game released, 2013’s Infinite, with Fergusson hired in 2012 ahead of the game’s March 2013 launch. It looks like he’ll have more time with the next BioShock, which is now rumored to be targeting a late 2027 debut. That’s two solid years of working on polishing and refining the game.
Of course, the game could always slip. Still, after a long wait on both fronts, it looks like we can expect both the BioShock movie and the BioShock game in 2027-2028, as Take-Two and Netflix hope they’ll feed on each other’s hype. By the way, old rumors suggested the game could take place in Antarctica, but who knows if that changed in all these years.
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