A lot of narrative games are finding themselves getting adaptations lately with films like Uncharted and HBO’s upcoming The Last of Us series. One other property getting the adaptation treatment is BioShock, and director Francis Lawrence gives us an update.
Talking to Collider, Lawrence shares that he has been working closely with the creatives of the original game to deliver a film that’s faithful to the source material. He explains, “Basically, me and Cameron [MacConomy] who works with me, and Michael [Green] are getting to do what we want to do, which is great… A lot of it is staying really true to the game itself, and we’re talking to Take-Two [Interactive] and Ken Levine.”
Though on the surface BioShock is a game about altering your body with powers and taking on enemies in an elaborate hidden cities; there is also a very strong narrative laced in the games. The first one had tackled the idea of Objectivism from Ayn Rand (hence the villain’s name Andrew Ryan), and the third game BioShock Infinite decided to flip the tables and bring us to a city that was full on religious, radical theists.
“I think it’s one of the best games ever created,” continues Lawrence, “It’s also, I think, one of the most visually unique games ever created. The other thing, and one of the things that always appeals to me, is it is very thematic. There’s real ideas and philosophies underneath the game property, and it’s really, really, really thought out. A lot of games may have a great world of some kind, or they may have a great lead character, or they may tee you up for great set pieces, but they don’t really have the ideas, they don’t have the kind of weight and the gravitas that Bioshock does. The sort of combo of real ideas and philosophies mixed with the unbelievable aesthetic of it.”
We don’t know when we’ll get our first look at BioShock yet, but fingers crossed we get a teaser before the year ends.
