You may not remember it, but in early 2022, Netflix and 2K jointly announced that the BioShock movie was back from the dead and was in active development. Later that year, we learned that Francis Lawrence (of I Am Legend and The Hunger Games fame) would be directing the film. Now, that’s looking less and less likely.
Until recently, Lawrence has been open about the project and his hopes and goals for it, but given his increasingly busy schedule, we’re not sure if he’ll be the filmmaker heading to Rapture. We do hope that renowned screenwriter Michael Green (Logan, Blade Runner 2049) will remain with the company, though.
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Via Deadline, we’ve learned that the big-screen adaptation of Stephen King’s The Long Walk has finally begun filming, with Lawrence attached to direct. After that, he’s said to be staying on at Panem to film the next Hunger Games prequel, which would be his fifth installment in the long-running series. In fact, only the first Hunger Games movie was directed by someone else.
These projects alone make it far less likely that Lawrence will direct Netflix’s BioShock anytime soon, but that’s not all. He’s currently working on two sequels to past projects: I Am Legend 2, which for some odd reason will follow up on an alternate ending that wasn’t in the original film’s final cut, and Constantine 2, which would star Keanu Reeves if it moves forward. Mind you, both of these sequels could fall through at any time, but they seem more like personal projects for Lawrence than BioShock as a hired gun.
BioShock isn’t the only game-adapted movie/TV project that’s been slow to move forward at Netflix right now. While the streaming giant has a decent number of game adaptations in its slate, big hits like Gears of War and Horizon: Zero Dawn have run into trouble in one way or another. Meanwhile, HBO’s The Last of Us and Prime Video’s Fallout are leading the way, showing that big-budget shows may be the best option when it comes to adapting the vast expanses of most video game worlds and stories.
