Guillermo del Toro and the Unmade BioShock Movie

Before Netflix brought BioShock back to the table, Guillermo del Toro had also tried to turn the video game into a film. The project would have brought Rapture, the city built in the ocean depths by billionaire Andrew Ryan, which became the stage for a society plunged into madness, to the big screen.

What complicated the transition from video game to big screen, however, was not the setting, but rather how BioShock tells its story. In the video game adventure, it is the player who progressively uncovers Rapture's secrets, while a film must entrust that discovery to a character and the screenplay.

Where the project stalled

Speaking with IGN, Del Toro recalled those conversations, describing them as some of the worst professional experiences he had ever had. The director did not explain with whom he had spoken nor what the precise reason for the conflict was.

The possibility of seeing Rapture through the Mexican director's eyes thus died at the hypothetical stage. His approach to the fantastic could have met a universe built precisely around a city now devoured by the consequences of its own ambitions, but the project never reached the production phase.

Meanwhile, Netflix continues to work on its own version, with the adaptation announced in 2022 that still sees Francis Lawrence attached to direct and Michael Green to write the screenplay. The film is still in development and does not have an announced release date.