2K Games announced today that it has reached an agreement with Universal Pictures to develop a feature film based on the hit videogame BIOSHOCK. Gore Verbinski, director of the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN trilogy, is slated to direct and produce. John Logan, Academy Award-nominated writer of GLADIATOR, THE AVIATOR and SWEENEY TODD, is in talks to pen the screenplay. The expected release date and terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
2K Games, whose 2K Boston and 2K Australia studios developed BIOSHOCK, is a videogame publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., who last week released the mega-hit GRAND THEFT AUTO IV. BIOSHOCK is one of the most successful new interactive entertainment franchises to launch in recent years. A critical and consumer hit, BIOSHOCK has sold more than 2 million units worldwide since its release in August 2007. A sequel to the game, BIOSHOCK 2, is planned for a release in 2009.
"We are excited that 2K Games' vision for BIOSHOCK will be carried forward in a new medium," said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two. "BIOSHOCK has been hailed as one of the most highly cinematic and richly plotted titles in interactive entertainment, making it extremely well-suited to film. In partnering with Universal and Gore Verbinski, we have assembled a team that respects the uniqueness of BIOSHOCK and will translate it into a powerful movie experience."
Zelnick added, "Our ability to attract a major studio and unparalleled creative team speaks volumes about the strength of our BIOSHOCK franchise. It also demonstrates how Take-Two is delivering value based on our strategy of creating and owning our industry's most powerful intellectual property."
In the game, barely surviving a plane crash, the player lands in icy uncharted waters and discovers an undersea city called Rapture, a failed utopia whose citizens had embraced genetic engineering before the city descended into pure anarchy. Power and greed have run amok and the city has succumbed to civil war.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
