Guillermo del Toro Officially Breaks Silence on Cancelled 'BioShock' Adaptation

Hollywood has spent what feels like two decades trying to take audiences into Andrew Ryan's underwater utopia, but the lost city of Rapture is as difficult as ever to bring to life. So difficult, in fact, that even the king of the bizarre, the lord of the macabre and the master of epic set designs couldn't find a way to crack it, finally confirming a long-standing rumor that he once attempted to adapt one of gaming's most cinematic worlds.

Guillermo Del Toro has officially confirmed that he held discussions about making a BioShock movie. Del Toro told IGN that things very quickly went to hell in a handbasket as he realized that he was by far one of the worst people imaginable to try and adapt one medium into another.

“You know, I tried. We had a very contentious call about a couple of games. I find that the dynamics of a video game are very different than a movie. They may be cinematically similar in terms of the camera moving and this and that, but the storytelling is very different, because you're not solving puzzles. You're not assembling. So adapting it, BioShock, we had a couple of calls. They are probably one of the most disastrous calls I've ever had. So no, f*ck no.”

Del Toro didn't spill who was on the other end of those conversations or precisely what made them so disastrous. His comments do, however, finally confirm rumors dating back almost two decades that he had been involved with an attempt to bring BioShock to theaters.

The game sees the unnamed player explore the undersea city of Rapture, a haven for society's greatest minds that has devolved into a dystopian nightmare wrought by one man's hubris. Amidst the waterlogged ruins, a new ecosystem has emerged, where deranged Splicers hunt down the Little Sisters who would be helpless without their hulking Big Daddy guardians. Your only hopes for survival are quick thinking, reclaimed weaponry, and superhuman powers granted by DNA-altering Plasmids. To defeat Rapture's mutated monsters, you must become one.

What Happened to the BioShock Movie?

Netflix announced a completely separate live-action adaptation in 2022, with Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) attached to direct and Michael Green (Blade Runner 2049) writing the screenplay. That project remains alive, although it's taking the scenic route to Rapture.

Producer Roy Lee confirmed earlier this year that Lawrence's other commitments have been the primary reason for the lengthy wait.

Netflix's BioShock movie does not currently have a release date. Del Toro, meanwhile, appears perfectly happy to leave Rapture to somebody else.