Universal Hits Pause On Bioshock

Variety is reporting that Universal studios is halting production on Gore Verbinski’s adaptation of the hit video game, Bioshock from Take-Two interactive.

Why would they pull the breaks on such a big potential hit? Bioshock is one of the biggest games of all times, and Verbinski is still riding high on his trilogy of hits with Pirates of the Caribbean. The answer in a word is money. They stopped pre-production on the film because they had to let some crew members go and figure out how to make the movie on a smaller budget.

As the budget for the film shot above $160 million, Universal canceled plans to shoot in LA and are now looking at other locations like London to cut some fat from the budget.

“We were asked by Universal to move the film outside the U.S. to take advantage of a tax credit,” Verbinski said. “We are evaluating whether this is something we want to do. In the meantime, the film is in a holding pattern.”

Everyone involved says that they are still committed to making the film. Verbinski even bowed out of the Pirates #4 so that he could see it happen. That said, we are all just hoping that the film will not become another Halo.