Gore Verbinski "wanted to ****** people's brains" by combining both endings of the BioShock game in the film adaptation

The director of "Pirates of the Caribbean" spoke about plans for the unmade BioShock film.

Director Gore Verbinski shared new details about his never-realized film adaptation of the cult game BioShock. In a conversation with fans on Reddit, timed to coincide with the release of his new film "Good Luck, Fun, Don't Die," he said that he originally planned to shoot a film with an R rating and combine both endings of the original game in one story — the one where the player saves the Little Sisters, and the alternative version in which he sacrifices them.

According to Verbinski, screenwriter John Logan helped him find a way to show both outcomes in one film.

Verbinski also said that in his version of the film he wanted to delve deeper into the "Oedipal theme" of the relationship between creator and creation, preserve the visual aesthetics of the underwater city of Rapture, and transfer the image of the Big Daddies to the screen as authentically as possible.

The project was launched in 2008 under the auspices of Universal after the success of the sequel to "Pirates of the Caribbean." However, the film adaptation faced budget constraints and disputes over the format.

Verbinski insisted on a tougher tone and a large-scale production, including the construction of a full-fledged underwater railway system. The studio refused to increase the budget to $200 million, and after a few months the project was frozen.

In the 2010s, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo replaced the director, but his version never made it to filming either. Later, the film was finally canceled by former head of Irrational Games Ken Levine, who "saw no point in it."

Currently, Francis Lawrence, known for "The Hunger Games," has been appointed as the director of the new BioShock film adaptation for Netflix. At the same time, since the project was announced in 2022, no noticeable progress has been made. At the end of last year, producer Roy Lee confirmed that the script is based on the first game and is still in development.